IPTS 2: The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.
By researching and engaging with current social issues that affect the classroom I am preparing and engaging with student needs and forming pedagogical knowledge from these needs.
IPTS 1: The competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses those experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.
These issues are very prevalent in student's lives. By learning and engage these issues of multiculturalism, LGBTQ populations, and feminist pedagogy. These issues are further expanded in the tab labeled "Social Reconstructivism".
Multiculturalism
White Privilege:
To understand
how racism isn’t just about someone of color being disadvantaged, but how white
privilege is an advantage that is upheld. Peggy McIntosh observes that white privilege
functions much like the ways male privilege does (1998, p. 138). She argues
that in order to break down racism in society, not only do we need to improve
the status of colored people in all areas of life, but also reveal the
mechanisms and privileges that Caucasian individuals have, often unknowingly
(McIntosh, 1998, p. 138-139). She then observes that her schooling has not made
this privilege clear to her and that “whites are taught to think of their lives
as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we
work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more
like ‘us’” (McIntosh, 1998, p. 139). McIntosh identifies 26 life scenarios in which
she unknowingly uses her white privilege and comments on the difficulties in
facing this subject (1998, p. 140-41). She proposes that we critique and learn
about the ways white dominance is established in our daily lives as well as
other forms of dominance, and to be open about addressing these systems of
dominance rather than just focusing on the mechanisms of oppression (McIntosh
p. 143-44).
McIntosh, P.
(1998). White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to
See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies (pp. 138-144).
Wellesley, MA.
Feminist Pedagogy
The Guerrilla Girls:
Throughout much
of our history on this planet, women have been thought of as inferior beings to
men. Social constructs such as class, religion, and domestic dynamics perpetuated
the idea that women were incompetent and passive. The Guerrilla Girls reveals the few
women artists that “stuck it to the man”. The Guerrilla
Girls reviewed a brief history of the Renaissance artists. Generally artists,
or artisans as they were known, were part of a workshop lead by a more established
master. Most of these workshops and guilds were closed to women. A few women were allowed to be artists
because they worked in their family’s workshop.
It is important
to consider how women were treated historically and how that carries on today.
The idea that women are passive objects to be possessed is still prevalent
today. In many ways our society has moved forward in the way women are treated.
The Guerilla Girls (1998) point out, “When we think of a ‘Renaissance man,’ we
imagine a guy who could do anything and was way ahead of his time in knowledge
and abilities. In fact, a real ‘Renaissance man’ would not get to first base
with most 20th-century women” (p. 31). Women today have a much
stronger presence in the art world today than they have in the past.
For
students, learning about women such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Maria Robusti
shows how even in the face of strong social barriers, women artists can persevere
and push beyond the limits they were presented with. This concept is important
to illustrate how social change happens. It happens often times starting with a
few strong willed individuals. Many students may have concerns about society,
but feel like they have no power or are too insignificant to do anything about
it. These examples of how women pushed against the social injustice, even if
they did not change the way society had treated women as a whole; they became
one of many pieces that built up to eventual social change.
Additionally
it is important to take a critical look at how history is being presented to
us. Many courses show history from a primarily white, Western or European male
point of view. A lot of important historical points are lost when one does not
consider non-white and female points of view. The Renaissance is often praised
as a time of intellectual expansion and creation of great works of art. It is made
clear through this chapter that the Renaissance art was not just created by
men, but women also had a significant, yet often quiet influence in the artwork
of the time (Guerrilla Girls 1998, p. 29). Looking closer at what really
happened historically can be educational about how societies transformed over
time. Learning about these lesser known women artists or otherwise hidden bits
of history can also really peak interest in classroom and motivate students to
want to learn more about the history of the world.
Guerrilla Girls (Group of artists).
(1998). The Guerrilla Girls' bedside companion to the history of Western art.
New York: Penguin Books.
BREAKING THE BANK: The Crossovers of Critical Pedagogy, Teaching Visual Culture and Feminist Pedagogy
Meaningful Education Through Community Learning and the Arts
Getting a good education
is the first step to being functional in the adult in society. This means that
one should be able to think for oneself, make good judgments and be able to
solve complex problems. To attain this kind of higher level thinking, education
should be a community activity of discussion and reflection.
Much of the
education today is modeled around what Paulo Freire (1970) describes as “the
banking concept of education” (p. 72). He argues that this type of education
treats the student as a passive recipient of information and become nothing but
storage for facts with little room for critical thinking. In this model the
teacher becomes the source of knowledge, which controls the flow of information.
Freire claims that, “Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about
reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in
communication” (p. 77). This means that students should be able to, as a
community, be able to attain knowledge together without the filters of a
teacher.
So if the teacher isn’t
the moderator between students and the world, what role is the teacher supposed
to play in student learning? Mary Belenky (1997) recognizes that many educators
are stuck in banking style education due to standards (p. 214) and she notes
that this style of education shows students that only teachers and experts are
people who can attain higher levels of thinking (p. 215). To combat this
practice, “instead of the teacher thinking about the object privately and
talking about it publicly so that the students may store it, both teachers and
students engage in the process of thinking, and they talk out what they are
thinking in a public dialogue” (p. 219). In this style of teaching, the teacher
does not limit student interaction with the subject or the problem at hand.
Here teachers instead act as guides or “midwives to draw [knowledge] out” from
the students (p. 217). Through discussion many points of view, experiences are
brought to the table and discussion is allowed to build in deeper ways than it
would in a banking style education.
How does an art education
fit into this model of teaching? Kerry Freedman (2003) recognizes that art is
the key to discussing real-world problems through discussing our visual
culture,
The visual arts are
expanding not only in their forms, but in their influence though connections to
the range of social issues … As a result, the visual arts have become
fundamental to the cultural transformation of political discourse, social
interaction, and cultural identity that characterizes the postmodern condition
(p.1).
Discussing art and visual
culture is important to a discussion and community style education. Through art
one can have a discussion about intentions, meanings and issues related to
society. Art itself is, by nature, open for communication because of the many
interpretations and its ability communicate amongst wide audiences despite
class, race, and language barriers.
Art is a great way to break the banking style education. With discussion and
community at the heart of a meaningful education, as argued by Paulo Freire and
Mary Belenky, it makes sense that art could be a major means of viewing our
world through a critical eye. Critique of artwork brings with it a critique of
the social issues and topics presented in the work. A constructive critique
allows for multiple perspectives on a particular issue and doesn’t leave much
room for the mere depositing of information that the banking style education supports.
Art is a huge step for “breaking the bank” of banking style education.
Belenky, M. F. (1997).
Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York:
Basic Books.
Freedman, K. J. (2003).
Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art.
New York: Teachers College Press.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
LBGTQ
In order to
perpetuate democratic practices in art education, it is essential that
educators include LGBTQ issues. It is not only important for LGBTQ students to
be recognized in curriculum development, but for non-LGBTQ students to be
exposed to the social issues that LGBTQ students may experience. Laurel Lampela argues that in order to
promote democratic practices in the classrooms, educators must include LGBTQ
artists into curriculums. She claims that most curriculums focus on artists
that are heterosexual, and that by limiting curriculums that way, one is
preventing LGBTQ students from exploring their own understandings about life
via artists with similar lifestyles and preventing non-LBGTQ students from
gaining understandings of how to be democratic (Lampela 2010, p. 26). Lampela
considers three artists: Harmony Hammond, Helen Cozza, and Erin Forrest. Each
artist has a different contribution to understandings of LGBTQ lifestyles and
each contributes to the LGBTQ communities through their art, education and
various support groups. Helen Cozza's work, for example, shows a struggle of
LGBTQ lifestyle. She references constructions and deconstructions in her work
because “she had no model of what it meant to be a lesbian, she was always
trying different ways to construct herself” (Lampela 2010, p. 28). Lampela then
creates a lesson plan based on the artworks of these three artists in order to
frame a possibility for including LGBTQ culture and issues within secondary
level education.
It is critical,
as educators, to include all students’ needs in curriculums as best as one can.
For many of the same reasons educators need to break away from focusing on art
and art practices from primarily white dominated Western and European cannons,
we also must stray away from primarily heterosexual views of art and art
making. If democracy is to be achieved in the classroom, multiple cultures,
classes, races and sexual orientations must be considered in the classroom. I
believe it is critical that the LGBTQ issues be addressed as soon as middle
school. Students at this age are beginning their sexual maturation and some may
begin the process of determining their own sexual preferences and orientations.
These students need role models, such as the artists mentioned, to promote a
positive experience in schools and grounds for understanding one another
amongst LGBTQ issues. Society can be harshly against LGBTQ lifestyles and
students can feel neglected, isolated or abused because other students do not
understand what it means to be queer, lesbian, transgendered, gay or bisexual.
Lampela (2010) argues that analyzing art from LGBTQ artists is essential to
creating a democracy where all groups have a strong positive role model and a
means for understanding differences (p. 26). Not
only is the investigation of LGBTQ art and artist important for building a
strong community of understanding, but understanding how one’s own life can be
integrated into art. Lampela (2010) argues that “recognizing how an artist’s
identity can be symbolically or metaphorically conveyed in his or her work can
help all students better understand how their own experience of life can inform
their art” (p. 26). By crafting lesson plans around these LGBTQ issues,
teachers are providing a model (and real life examples or role models) of how
to incorporate personal life issues in artwork, how to express these issues
effectively, and how the artwork functions as a means to create democratic
understandings how the difficulties or even joys of the culture and lifestyles
individuals have.
Lampela, L. (January 01, 2010). Expressing Lesbian and Queer Identities
in the Works of Three Contemporary Artists of New Mexico. Art Education, 63, 1,
25-32.
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