Art Education and the Problem-Posing Methodology: A Critical Approach to Learning From and Working With Students and Their Communities

• In Event: Building Trust, Sharing Power: The Promises and Challenges of Youth-Adult Partnerships in Out-of-School Time Programs

Abstract

Objectives

Research in art education has fallen short of recognizing the lack of access to the arts that exist in marginalized schools. Art education scholarship, which often claims that the arts benefit students of all social backgrounds (Caterall, 2009; 2012), does not suggest ways to address the limiting and oppressive circumstances that exist for underrepresented students. Therefore, educators working with marginalized populations need to consider drawing on critical approaches that draw on the knowledge that students possess about their communities.

Drawing from Solorzano’s (1989) use of the problem-posing methodology in a college classroom, this paper is a self-study of a high school art teacher who draws on Freire’s (1970), problem-posing methodology and the concept of creative resistance (Darts, 2004; Garcia, 2015; 2017) in working with marginalized students of color—both in schools and in out-of-school settings––to display the ways student challenge negative representations of their community.

Theoretical Framework

A problem-posing methodology (Freire, 1970) involves the constant unveiling of the socio-political realities that exist for students, pushes for the acknowledgement of limiting factors, and co-produces a resistance to those limitations. The first part of problem-posing methodology requires communication between students and educators to identify the problem. The second part requires analyzing and understanding the problem. Lastly, the third part requires finding solutions to the problem by taking action and reflecting on the action taken. Creative resistance—developed from funds of knowledge (Gonzales, 2005; Moll, 1992), critical race theory (Delgado-Bernal, 2002; Yosso, 2005), and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970)—uses the arts to validate student knowledge and to transform their socio-political realities (Garcia, 2017).

Methods & Data Sources

Using those theories, I build upon students’ understanding of their histories, community engagement, cultural practices, and student-teacher relationships in their arts education setting. Specifically, I ask them to analyze how their community is portrayed in the media in comparison to their personal experiences and their lives.

By working collaboratively with students both inside and outside of the classroom, I draw on the experiences of students and their families to counter negative representations of their community in the form of two murals. By critically analyzing their experiences, we identified the problem of the media’s negative representation of their neighborhood, they analyzed the problem of negative representation, and found a solution to counter that problem. This approach deepened students understanding of their environments and how they can resist and change their socio-political circumstances.

Findings & Significance

By responding to their environments using a problem-posing methodology, students are able to generate a critical approach that they can use independently in their own environments, outside of the school setting. Student narratives demonstrate their experience of using the problem-posing methodology and how this experience generated their own forms of creative resistance, community advocacy, and student-teacher relationships. I consider the use of such methods in the classroom, service learning projects, and as possible teacher education in out-of-school time settings.

Author

• Luis Genaro Garcia, California State University - Sacramento