Rich Conversations and Meaningful Artmaking

Download or read book Rich Conversations and Meaningful Artmaking written by Diana Santay and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This capstone paper details a research study in which I infused social justice art into an elementary art classroom setting. Social justice art education focuses on recognizing inequalities and injustices in the world, bringing attention to these issues in the artroom, and helping students catalyze change through artistic interventions. This study focused on the exploration of what fifth grade students perceived as unjust in their lives and the lives of those around them, how art can function as a tool for social change, and how to best engage students in meaningful conversations about inequalities in their local and global community through art. During a series of classes, I introduced my students to the topic of social justice art, engaged in rich conversations about unjust issues, created student-directed artwork, displayed their work for an audience, and reflected about their experiences. I documented these activities through audio recordings, questionnaires, interviews, and photographs. The data collected and experiences shared in this paper offer a basic framework that can help other art educators implement a social justice based art unit within their own elementary classroom.