Like Us, It Was Exceptional: A Study of Disabled Women of Color’s Experiences in Art Class

• In Event: Constructing Educational Possibilities: What Disability Art and Art Education Offer in Teaching Disabled Youth

Abstract

Writing through the lens of lived experience, this article reports on an empirical survey study with women of color with disabilities who were past or currently identified as art students and teachers. The survey was conducted as part of an ethnographic study of one former art student and teacher focused on their experiences learning and teaching from one another in their art class. The case study interview examined their identities and their recollection of art education experiences through the creation of a co-authored comic book. This comic book led into a survey study where the book was read by a group of women of color art students and teachers with disabilities, who reflected on their years in the U.S. education system, and shared experiences of art making, identity, and community. After reading the narrative put forth by the case study, the participants also answered questions that examined their beliefs on identity, community, and art collaborations. This study on women of color art students and teachers with disabilities brought to light a perspective on a multiple minority group that is deserving of robust research. The methods used to survey the study participants, such as counter-storytelling (Ladson-Billings, 1999) to gain insight into marginalized narratives, unpacked the layers of identities of people in the U.S. education system who have had their narratives historically silenced, erased, or censored.


The sociocultural theoretical frameworks shaping the study were critical race theory and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989). These frameworks, along with the concepts found in DisCrit (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013) and Black Disability studies, center human liberation from oppressions, such as racism, sexism, and ableism. Therefore, such theories and concepts amount to acknowledging that women of color art students and teachers with disabilities face stigma and oppression in art class as well as the simultaneous experience of a sense of community and joy. Study participants consider their own identities and experiences when sharing their narratives of school, art class, and art education. As a result, the framework in use for this study of women of color art students and teachers with disabilities could not be constructed without examining the oppression present in the U.S. education system by documenting the experiences of the participants.


The attention on this study and its yielded results indicate the need for critical research for this particular art student and teacher population. The participants, their relationship to the activities and conversations that take place within an art classroom were reimagined by participants as to extract the teaching and learning taking place. From a pedagogical standpoint, both the case study and survey from this research examine the power structures of racism, sexism, ableism and other oppressive biases at play in U.S art education for women of color with disabilities. This divide in equity is why the study held relevance to the participants; using singular memory to tell a story orients the readers around one relationship as a source of comparison to their own experiences.

Author

• Veronica Hicks, Virginia Commonwealth University