Black Women In Art Education

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the epistemology of ignorance toward Black women art educators and their experiences of teaching in a K-12 Black environment in a predominately White woman’s field from a Black feminist perspective As a former high school art teacher, I engaged in many situations where my race and gender was a factor and not my teaching ability. The #SayHerName awakens an entry point for me to think about a space to address the injustices against Black women and the non-existence of their presence (Butler, 2017). While the start of the SayHerName# was an outcry from police brutality, and how Black women are treated differently, ignored, and marginalized; this discussion of the erasure of Black women’s experiences translates to many other subject areas. Black women art educators in art education can date back to Frances …show more content…

Several scholars produced literature on feminist perspectives for art education to counter Western male-dominated art pedagogy (Keifer-Boyd, 2014; Amendt, 1998; Zimmerman, 1990). Other studies by Drs. Wanda Knight (2006) and Jessie Whitehead (2008) discuss the importance of including a Black feminist and a woman of color perspective in art education curriculum. Sheng Kuan Chung examines how to address stereotypes with children in the K-12 art classroom. In addition, there are articles on pre-service teachers concerning race in predominately White academic institutions (Najuna, 2013; Kraehe, 2015). While these studies add value and insight to the continuous need for the discussion on diversity, race, and feminism in art education, fewer studies have examined the impact of race and gender of Black woman K-12 art teacher teaching environment and how those experiences may or may not affect her teaching. The majority of literature written on women in art education is written from a White privileged perspective often lacking a Black feminist

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