Preservice Teachers Learn from Jacob Lawrence: Pedagogical Potential in Teaching Black Migration History through Art

• In Event: Rooted in Culture: Teaching Practices Leveraging Black History and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies in Art, Music, and Dance

Abstract

In this study, social studies preservice teachers encountered Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series, an artistic interpretation of the Great Migration. We aimed to analyze student responses to this seminal work of art, focusing on how they conceptualized Black migration in this racialized context. Using the black historical consciousness framework and aspirations-capabilities migration framework, we analyzed data from 88 social studies methods students over six semesters. Overall, students responded to the Migration Series by highlighting four patterns of migration and displacement of Black migrants from the U.S. South and four patterns of arrival and acculturation in migrants’ new urban spaces. This research highlights the pedagogical potential of art to teach Black histories, especially Black migration.

Authors

• Jeremy Hilburn, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Donyell L. Roseboro, University of North Carolina - Wilmington