Joni Boyd Acuff

Theoretical Considerations for Art Education Research with and about “Underserved Populations”

Though it is widely used, the concept of “underserved” is sorely undertheorized in art education. Before the field of art education can effectively address the persistent educational disparities across different sociocultural and economic groups, we need deeper understandings of entangled sociocultural and political processes that create and conceal underservedness. The term “underservedness” moves us away from conceiving of populations, and instead draws attention to cultural articulations and material conditions that prevent certain groups from fully accessing and benefiting from the resources and opportunities for effective education, including high-quality art experiences. In this article, the authors discuss four theoretical perspectives—critical race theory, intersectionality, critical multiculturalism, and social justice education—that can foster nuanced analyses and cogent explanations of art education in the context of underservedness. The discussion focuses on key tenets of these theoretical perspectives, important points of tension and synergy, and their relevance for art education research.

Conversations Extended: Art Education in Context

n Joni Primarily, embedded in this question is the task of actually identifying that there are indeed evolving traditions, cultural intersections, and entrenched inequalities that exist within the varying contexts of art education. Without this critical identification there is no awareness to respond to it. Therefore, before we can ask how art education can apprehend and respond to these things, we must ask if art educators truly know and believe that these issues are real and fixed deeply within their classrooms. Furthermore, are art educators able to identify what entrenched equalities look like in art education? This will define the ways they are addressed—either superficially or critically. Critical (racial, cultural, sociopolitical) consciousness (Freire, 1970; Gay & Kirkland, 2003) is a developed skill. Identifying and critiquing systems of oppression (specifically education) is a developed skill. Both require implicating oneself in the maintenance of said systems. This must happen before one can adequately and effectively respond with intentional action—a key component of critical consciousness, alongside reflection. n Kevin: Knowing cultural traditions change over time suggests that identities are fluid. Yet, static historical understandings have been reified and normalized by museum collections, early anthropologists, and the media. For example, many institutions across the country house American Indian peoples’ remains and material culture despite the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.1 This has continued since colonization to maintain authorship of power/knowledge discourses and inequity. Yet, static framings are refuted as traditional practices are adapted to address contemporary demands. This isn’t to say that historical knowledge of one’s cultural identity isn’t practiced in contemporary spaces, or overwritten; rather they are amalgam processes that generate ongoing presences in daily lives as a repetition of difference. So in art education, context is inherently interdisciplinary.

Black Feminist Theory in 21st-Century Art Education Research

Minority discourses rarely inhabit the intellectual space of dominant theory (masculinist, Eurocentric, White, heteropatriarchical, able-ist, bourgeois); thus, Black women’s ability to be regarded as significant contributors to knowledge creation is negatively impacted. Art education is implicated in such oppression, as seen in the underrepresentation of Black women in art education research and in the field at large. This article presents Black Feminist Theory as an epistemological perspective to inform art education research methodologies in an effort to discontinue the historical and contemporary erasure of Black women’s standpoint knowledge and presence in the field.

Smog in the Air: Passive Positions, Deracialization, and Erasure in Arts Education

Historically, white supremacy has supported capitalist Europeans’ exclusive ownership of both tangible and intangible property, such as Black and Brown bodies, land, economic resources, social and cultural practices, behaviors, and even knowledge and intellect. In many ways, arts education has also been claimed in this declaration of property ownership. “Smog in the air” refers to the contemporary implicit messages and actions that reaffirm that arts education is the property of Whites. Employing Critical Race Theory, I use narrative to illustrate what smog looks like and how it functions in seemingly mundane situations with regard to arts education and arts learning experiences. The narratives are analyzed and conclusions are made regarding the destabilization of arts education as white property.

‘Being’ a critical multicultural pedagogue in the art education classroom

ABSTRACT Art educators continuously struggle to understand what multiculturalism ‘looks like’ in the art classroom. This has resulted in multicultural art education becoming superficial, in which art teachers guide students through art projects like creating African masks, Native American dream catchers, Aboriginal totems, and sand paintings, all without communicating the context of the art. This type of multiculturalism essentializes cultures, and builds Western, myopic narratives about groups of people, specifically about their ‘Art’. Critical multiculturalism is a power-focused upgrade of multiculturalism that calls for a critique of power and demands recognition that racism and other discriminations are enmeshed in the fabric of our social order. Teaching through a critical multiculturalism framework helps teachers dismantle Western, normalized narratives and produce counter-hegemonic curriculum that contextualizes culture and reveals its fluidity. In this article, the author shares a teacher action research study in which she describes what critical multiculturalism looks like in her art education classroom. The study focuses on ‘being’ a critically multicultural educator versus ‘doing’ critical multiculturalism. Such a position counters the idea that critical multiculturalism is a thing to complete, but instead is an ongoing process that rests on specific ways of thinking and considering the classroom, curriculum, and students.