Honoring Culture, Language, and Heritage in an Elementary Visual Arts Studio

• In Event: 72.064 - Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 72.064-6 - Qualitative Studies on Justice, Teaching, and Research in the Elementary School

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to craft a socially just visual arts curriculum for English language learners in order to understand how they construct meaning of art in an elementary visual arts studio. Honoring the culture, language, and heritage of fourth and fifth grade children occurred using culturally responsive modes of inquiry and culturally responsible curriculum in this participatory action research study. An interpretivist theoretical perspective provided a framework for this phenomenological study. Positioning myself as an artist, researcher, and teacher (a/r/tographer), arts-based qualitative research methods facilitated an extensive data collection. Findings supported the transformative aspect of authentic art experiences that enabled students to acquire knowledge in deeper, broader, more personally relevant ways.

Author

• Debora Joy Nodelman, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District