Autumn 2022 Reflections

This past Autumn Semester at OSU I took 2 courses; the 6998 Research Course, and the Multicultural Art Education Course. The purpose of the Multicultural Art Education Course was to teach graduate students about the history and practices of multiculturalism as well as racism in America, and the evolution of multicultural education theory. Art education often finds itself within the conversation and has direct impacts on the development of multiculturalism. Through the course I learned some things that I, as a straight White male from rural Ohio, was not aware of in my upbringing and earlier education. This would include the specifics of barriers faced by African-American through the “three-legged stool” metaphor in which economic and employment exploitation, housing inequality, and educational inequality hold up overall racial inequality. I was aware of some of the barriers like housing inequity and educational inequality from past education and experiences with my peers, but I did not fully understand just how large a web connects these things together. Much of the history of racism in America is a single domino in a long line of falling dominos (more specifically one of those decorative challenge domino rings that spirals off in many directions).

I’ve learned through the course that there is and will most likely continue to be an ongoing struggle for equity and reform. As Bettina Love states in her book, We Want to Do More Than Survive, I have learned to welcome the struggle (10). As stated earlier, I grew up in a rural area of Ohio that was not exactly what you would consider a racially tolerant area. Since moving away (though not far) for my undergrad I have come to understand more of different cultures and the challenges they have faced living in America. I’ve looked back to some of the thought processes and misunderstandings from my youth that were culturally prevalent since taking this course. I understand that I had been isolated from diverse experiences which had in turn caused those thought processes. I have grown in my understanding and can only work to grow further. I currently teach in a school district similar to the one I grew up in. I see some of the same problems and misunderstandings that I recognize from my youth. I know that the struggle will continue, though I am now positioned in a way that I can provide some diverse experiences to the students I teach to help broaden their own understandings. As a teacher I am not here to act as any type of “savior;” it isn’t about me. I can only continue to help broaden the horizons of students that I teacher and hope that they continue the process for those they deal with in their future.

I experienced some challenges to my practices in this course that I think will improve how I teach and interact with students. One such issue was the prevalence of the “tyranny” of the elements and principles of art & design (Spillane). Often, I find that they are an easy fallback when teaching courses become more difficult because they are more easily managed and taught. There are clear “right” and “wrong” answers, and it isn’t a contentious topic that would cause any hurt feelings. As I wrote about my “favorite” lesson plan from the fall semester for the 6998 course, I noticed that I was falling back more on those tried and true elements & principles to drive the content. It’s been a difficult year so far and the student’s have been having a lot of difficulties with their interpersonal skills, and my favorite lesson plan was a designed color wheel because it was simple enough to avoid any additional conflict while teaching students how to create something they could enjoy. I find myself thinking about the lessons in which I ask students to think outside of their own experiences, and to hear from the voices of someone outside of the classroom. For some students this is when they get to see their experience spoken aloud from an artist, and for others it is a time to experience something they have never dealt with before. I would like to include more of this type of lesson into my classroom. The E’s and P’s are still welcome, but they can’t be the only focus of the content. I have to encourage students during those uncomfortable moments when they are challenged by new ideas or have difficult conversations. I think the quote from Melissa Crum explains it well: “I don’t believe in safe space because safe space implies that I’m not going to say something that’s harmful, or you’re not going to say anything that offends me. I can’t ensure that no one is going to be harmed in this space. What I can do is say that we work and operate in a ‘brave space,’ which means that harm may happen but repair and forgiveness is required” (Crum, 44:10) I’ve been wanting my space to be safe because there’s been far too many struggles already this year. I need to embrace the challenge, and help guide students through the challenges they are facing and provide more experiences in the classroom that will help broaden understandings to help them create a more equitable future for themselves and their peers.

I’ve also compiled a list of a few media and readings that were explored during this course so far:

Annotated Bibliography:

Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists. Color-blind racism & racial inequality in contemporary America. 3rd Ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Chapters 1&2.

This reading covers the fact that racism is often ignored by whites and seems “invisible” if it isn’t overt like Jim Crow era racism, which leads to the idea of white people “not seeing color.” The belief that one should just pull yourself up by the bootstraps which is inherent in the symbolic racist idea from American moral values and the Protestant Ethic is one that puts the work to be done on the victim, asking them to simply meet the white requirements to live in the world built for whites, by whites. If any non-overtly racist whites are asked in public about racism they provide the “correct” answer because it has been taught, which has in a way voided the value of whites being able to speak publicly about being non-racist because their actions and core beliefs would decry otherwise. This reading expanded on what I know about how “racism light” can continue to fester when Bonilla-Silva explained that explanations of effects of racism become justifications of racism itself (the old “I’m not racist, but…” problem). In post Jim Crow era America, racism is perceived differently by whites (prejudice) and minorities (institutional racism) and has created the need for the change in language from non-racist to anti-racist, which has the requirement of understanding institutional racism has affected all actors materially (pp 15).

The 4 frames mentioned in chapter 1 & 2 (abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, and minimization of racism) brought up points I had not previously considered about issues I had known about previously, such as one goal of anyone in power to perpetuate that power. A common practice with racism is the act of rationalizing racial unfairness in the name of equal opportunity. The decision to base current and future progress through a meritocracy without also acknowledging the fallout from past racist practices and working to correct those is a pathway to protecting institutional racism.

Crum, M. (2020). Teaching Whiteness, Art and Social Justice with Dr. Marit Dewhurst [video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/429365447.

At the very beginning when Dr. Dewhurst and Crum were discussing the pandemic as it relates to the topic of Whiteness, they mentioned that being able to keep the pace of what you are doing (covid, or achieving racial equity) is important and it must be sustainable. This is so incredibly relatable to me this year, and it was a good analogy for the process of teaching Whiteness. Another point from Crum was that the stories that we tell ourselves internally are what make us either sustain, critique, or break down the systems that are currently in place. If the internal stories maintain the status quo, there will be no progress towards racial equity. “If you can name it, you can disrupt it” (Crum 38:37). This point is similar to how I discuss visual art with my students; if you have a name for something, you have a better understanding of it and you are more likely to recognize it in the future. Crum also explains that being White does have some guilt that comes with it, and it’s hard to admit that you may have done something wrong. Calling something out as racist names it, which can lead to feelings of guilt. If you are coming to this with an open mind, then you are able to have more agency over how you can change behaviors in the future. Just feeling guilty when you mess something up doesn’t provide agency. A large part of our progress is done internally, and not externally. Starting with people where they are at is a way to give them agency over their choices.

“How do you do the internal work so that your external work is focused on this liberation process for all of us” (Crum 32:50). This quote struck me because we are often wanting to jump straight to the end product, but a lot of what is important is how we work with our internal struggles before we take those out into the world. If you don’t know something in your heart, it’s harder to enact it outside of yourself. I hadn’t fully thought about the idea that educators often see education as something that is “done” to others, but not always something that we may choose to do internally before presenting it to others. I know that education is a two-way street, but I hadn’t thought too much about how this works culturally. Teaching about Frida Kahlo is not enough, and instead we must change how we talk about topics and individuals and how we interact with each other in the classroom to make meaningful change.

Kohli, R. & Solórzano, D. (2012). Teachers please learn our names! Racial microaggressions and the K-12 classroom. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 441-462.

This reading struck home with me because of the significance of names in youth, and how culturally Americans are often taught to taunt and ridicule what is different. A name may come with a cultural or familial significance important to the individual, and renaming has its roots with whites in power historically being slave owners giving their names to their slaves. A simple act of joking around with a name to avoid the chagrin of a teacher’s blundered speech is a very commonplace act, though could be a microaggression towards minority students whether it is knowing or unknowing. Understanding that microaggressions are often subtle verbal or nonverbal, layered, or cumulative or some combination thereof is a newer understanding I am coming to understand. The very common human habit of teasing about the unfamiliar as a method of othering a perceived enemy group, but it can also affect the youth in a classroom being taught by a teacher trying not to fumble words. Changing a student’s name to suit the needs of the teacher may have long lasting effects on the sense of self in a child and create a climate of racial hostility (pp 453). This reading provided a large challenge for me, as I have been both on the receiving end of having a constantly misunderstood and mispronounced name (both first and last), and as someone who is bad with learning names and will often play with names of students as a means of connecting with them. I begin classes by explaining I will probably mispronounce all names incorrectly, and I’m not great with that so please correct me as needed until I get it right (I’d rather make it clear that this is no fault of the student or their culture and take the blame up front). The challenge for me feels like it would be to learn the names correctly, and to find different ways to interact with students for the purpose of connecting.

Rothstein, R. (2017, May 11). Author, “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” [Video]. C-Span. https://www.c-span.org/video/?428341-1/the-color-law

The C-Span interview with Rothstein covered some things that I am already aware of, mainly relating to the poor health and related issues in African American communities. One point covered explained that African Americans are often in poorer health due to the lower income that often comes with being a minority in America. The lower income is due to the long-lasting racism inherent in American society that has kept African Americans from buying healthier foods, free time to pursue personal health, income to afford quality housing in safer neighborhoods, among other things. The lower income is caused by the past de jure racism that was present in America, which is now illegal but still has put seeds into many current de facto racist practices. This interview also touched on something that I have personally experienced in the classroom; overabundance of lower income minority students in a school or classroom makes it harder to serve their needs. When there are just a few students with issues with income, health, or housing, it is easier for the teacher and district to focus on solving their problems. The interview continues to explain that the push for public housing was originally to care for the white families who were affected by the great depression, which led to what is known as “White Flight.” When public housing needs were lessening, many white families could now afford to move out of the cities where the jobs were into the suburbs. These suburbs were a space that was accommodating to whites to move, and they were permitted to purchase these homes while African Americans were not.

While I had previously read books in school like The Grapes of Wrath, I did not fully understand the public housing was meant for the white families hurt during the depression. The recurring topic of myths in the interview was challenging because we have all been taught something related to these myths in our own public education. On the one hand, we know that things have been desegregated because we’ve been told they are.

Spillane, S. (n.d.). Untitled interview with Dr. Spillane. Posted to OSU Carmen. Ohio State University. Retrieved September 10, 2022. https://osu.instructure.com/courses/125520/pages/week-3-reading?module_item_id=8395506#.

This interview expanded my understanding of white privilege by explaining that white privilege is the privilege to pick and choose what battles you fight. The “tyranny of the Elements and Principle” that was cited in the interview that I have also been guilty of teaching to (it’s easier, and less “messy” unpredictable content) has left little space in the curriculum for learning about important cultural content like race and how diverse lived experiences can be experienced through art classes. Dr. Spillane’s reference to the professional development book study of Ruby Payne’s Framework for Understanding Poverty was familiar to me in the respect that I’ve experienced similar conferences or professional development days, but since I have not taught often in settings with diverse races of teachers I did not know previously that this can cause offense to minority teachers while simultaneously creating the “white savior” mentality in the white teachers.

This interview also covered the phrase “proper channels,” which I had heard a lot (typically from the news, police, politicians, and other white figures of authority) and had assumed that there were in fact proper channels to be followed for most things bureaucracy would require. I had assumed from past learning that it would be more difficult for minorities to access these channels, but Dr. Spillane’s statement that sometimes those channels didn’t exist outside of some kind of amorphous social understanding that allowed whites privileges and ignored the existence of minority needs has made me think about what structures are in place and what just happens as a matter of fact. A question this brings up for teaching would include examining the so-called proper channels in one’s own school district to determine if they are equitable, or if they perpetuate barriers to some students in favor of others.

#annotatedbibliography #classreflections