Diversity and Your Department

Resources for addressing diversity and inclusion

Art

Amburgy, P. M. (2011). Diversity, Pedagogy, and Visual Culture. Art Education, 64, 6-11. (PDF)

Amburgy discusses how she attempts to move towards an understanding of "representation, ideology, and social privilege" in the construction of her Art Education course. She details numerous assignments that she assigns her students that make them confront the ways that their social position prefigures their understanding of visual representations of different demographics. Many interesting critical resources are cited in the article.

Buck-Coleman, A. (2010). Navigating Cross-Cultures, Curriculum and Confrontation: Addressing Ethics and Stereotypes in Design Education. Visible Language, 44, 187-206. (PDF)

This article examines an experimental teaching program for graphic design students that forced them to directly confront the ways in which they stereotype others on a daily basis. Buck-Coleman advocates for a heightened sense of ethical awareness for students and practitioners in the visual arts field, as profiling and stereotyping is often propagated through images.

The College Art Association. Diversity: Images and Documents of Art and Culture from https://www.collegeart.org/diversity/images

This is a database that collects links to numerous different websites that highlight the art and culture of many different underrepresented groups. This is a helpful resource to both students and professors who want to learn more about specific groups and bring that knowledge back to the classroom.

Kraehe, A. (2010). Multicultural Art Education in an Era of Standardized Testing: Changes in Knowledge and Skill for Art Teacher Certification in Texas. Studies in Art Education, 51(2), 162-175. (PDF)

Kraehe argues that it is vital for an arts educator to emphasize a multicultural approach in their classroom, as the arts educator most directly builds the students' conception of a cultural narrative; Kraehe's findings show that certification for art educators reflect a movement towards multiculturalism and contextualization of art within social and historical conditions. This article verifies the notion that systemic processes have begun to recognize multicultural and postcolonial pedagogies and encourages the art educator to continually question the narratives they teach in the classroom.

Lee, N. (2012). Culturally Responsive Teaching for 21st-Century Art Education: Examining Race in a Studio Art Experience. Art Education, 65, 48-53. (PDF

The first half of this article contains a basic discussion of what race is and how it can affect a classroom environment. The second half then moves on to portray how a teacher can establish both a dialogue and a visual art assignment that helps students articulate their conceptions on race. This article would help professors introduce primary discussions of race into the classroom.

Shin, R. (2011). Social Justice and Informal Learning: Breaking the Social Comfort Zone and Facilitating Positive Ethnic Interaction. Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education, 53, 71-87. (PDF)

This article proposes "informal learning" as a way to break students of culturally insensitive practices, such as stereotyping. Shin's methods also employ community involvement as a primary tool. This article would be mainly helpful to professors who are looking for new class projects and assignments.