ED&I Commission Column: Summer 2023

Art Educators Who Teach the Truth Are Not Radical or Wrong

As we close out the school year, we reflect on the impact on students’ experiences in the wake of the anniversary of the Uvalde shootings, as well as the aftermath of 27 states’ proposed legislation affecting art educators’ ability to engage in liberatory teaching that makes our students seen, valued, and heard. Policies that erase Black, queer, trans, and female-identifying peoples and their stories from our curricular materials and practices robs our youth from finding themselves and being themselves in pursuit of an art education. Bans and threats that censor instructional materials and the defunding of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts can leave educators deflated and helpless. However, no legislative pursuit can abolish the relationships that educators build in elevating the voices and opinions of our minoritized students in the art room. Relationships with our students are far too important to get wrong amid cultural wars. Our North Star is to withstand oppressive legislation and oppressive practices by centering the most marginalized and underresourced in art experiences that self-discover all that makes up their humanity.

One way for creating the space for safe dialogue is what activist and organizer George Lakey (2018) terms creating a “container” within groups, where participants can explore ideas and take risks. Strong containers have norms that can be named and understood by all group members to facilitate artmaking and dialogues that include deep listening and openness to their peers. Brave containers enable students to bring their authentic selves to their learning. NAEA Commissioner and elementary art educator Emily Saleh has created a safe container that allows her students to unravel the complexities of their identities through their artmaking to help students learn about themselves and others. Her call is to connect content to those in the margins. As long as oppressive systems are present, students will need these spaces to name, disrupt, agitate, resist, and work toward social change in our learning spaces. Teaching criticality in the visual arts, Emily often allows students to be the drivers for speaking truth to power on difficult topics. Cultivating an inclusive culture welcomes multiple perspectives and encourages openness for expression.

The NAEA ED&I Commission is composed of varying roles and lived experiences from across Regions and Divisions that are unified in our declaration of solidarity with art educators and the students we serve in eradicating all forms of racism, bias, and prejudice in spaces of art teaching and learning. In promoting cultural diversity and expansive forms of knowledge, we are moved to support the uplifting work of art educators who are making teaching an act of resistance, an act that through artmaking teaches students to remember joy, to activate their muscles of creativity, kindness, laughter, playfulness, and solidarity. You have championed the making of art classrooms that have replicated the kind of society we all want to live in. Your teaching has encouraged students to ask critical questions of our world. As we are winding down the year, we hope you have time to heal and restore.

Reference

Lakey, G. (2018). How we win: A guide to nonviolent direct action campaigning. Melville House. https://civilresistance.info/biblio-item/2018/how-we-win-guide-nonviolent-direct-action-campaigning

Column by:

Mary Soylu, Supervision and Administration, NAEA ED&I Commission

Emily Saleh, Elementary, NAEA ED&I Commission

Anna Pilhoefer, Chair, NAEA ED&I Commission