Projecting Silent Voices: Public Art and Critical Pedagogy, Post-English Language Certification in South Central Los Angeles

• In Event: The Arts as a Public Pedagogy by, for, and About Bilingual, Bicultural Youth

Abstract

With a growing number of immigrant students coming into the U.S. and incorporating a new culture and language, it is important to continue developing student literacy post English language acquisition. In a post-civil rights era of political actions against undocumented students and workers, students with English learning backgrounds are likely affected by laws such as SB 1070. It is important to recognize that many students are likely first generation students of migrant parents or migrants themselves. This paper reflects on how art-based critical pedagogy can be used with ESL students, post- English language certification to address social policies affecting their lives (McLaren, 1997).

This study is an art–based project that incorporates historical and cultural experiences of socio-economically challenged students through participatory action research engaging history, language, culture, politics and visual literacy (Doss, 1992; LAUSD Website; Taylor, 2002). It asks how students build social awareness about oppressive structures through art, and how this process can redefine student achievement in inner city schools.

This study works from Freire’s (1993) concept of the student/teacher relationship, which flattens the hierarchy of knowledge recipient and provider. Teachers learn from students and their issues at home, allowing them to work strategically and collaboratively in search of solutions to oppressive issues. Chavez (2010) and Duncan- Andrade (2006) suggest the use of “Cariño” (affection/love) in developing a research methodology among poor, working class people. Traditional data driven research does not give the subjects (students) the capability of developing or contributing to their own means of social change, social mobility, or social freedom. A teacher must have the best interest of the students and be willing to work alongside them as co-investigators.

This study utilizes an art-based participatory action research process focusing on empowering individuals as agents of meaningful sustainable change (Duncan-Andrade 2006a and b; Duncan- Andrade & Morell, 2007). The researchers/participants integrated public art in a service learning project, collaboratively analyzing issues affecting their everyday lives: identifing and discussing the issues and possible solutions, then actively and critically expressing these issues through aesthetic engagement both inside and out of the classroom.

Since 2005, the researcher has engaged this methodology in a high school art classroom in South Central Los Angeles. This project offers a transformative approach toward urban education for teachers and students as artists. Through service learning projects, art-based participatory action research enables students to make connections to current policies, political actions, state legislation, societal structures, and education issues that directly affect their well-being. This research shows how student concerns with language, culture and identity can be started in the classroom through the use of art and taken out of the classroom in the form of civic participation as public art projects.

Author

• Luis Genaro Garcia, Claremont Graduate University