Revising Feedback Protocols: Antiracist Arts Education and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

• In Event: Voice, Equity, and Critical Consciousness: Antiracist Arts Education and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper addresses the implications of anti-racist arts education by examining key aspects of the Critical Response Protocol (CRP) (Perpich Center for Arts Education, 2006) to disrupt notions of neutrality when responding to works of art. Building on inquiry of a large urban district’s professional development work to support arts educators’ awareness of their racial identity, we examine how feedback protocols in K-12 arts classrooms perpetuate racial inequality and offer a revised approach to CRP that cultivates racial consciousness. Based on our inquiry, we propose three important revisions to situate aesthetic learning in a culturally sustaining context while mitigating racial inequality in schools. Importantly, our research centers race as fundamental to learning in arts education contexts.

Authors

• Betsy Maloney Leaf, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Nora Schull, Minneapolis Public Schools

• Macarre Traynham, Minnesota Department of Education

• James W. Bequette, University of Minnesota

• Ted Hansen, Minneapolis Public Schools