Community-Based Art Groups During COVID: Time, Space, and Technology Support People With Intellectual Disability

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Freirean Perspectives on the Struggles for Social Justice

Abstract

Freire’s liberating educational philosophy has been used to understand and deconstruct the systemic oppressions that prevent individuals in marginalized groups from pursuing the human vocation of growth and development (which Freire refers to as humanization) across the lifespan. One population this lens has not yet been applied to is people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In this study, we introduce the liberating work of community-based art programs that help people with IDD gain voice and agency through creative expression. In this study, we focus particularly on the influence the Covid-19 pandemic had on their creative activities, human connections, and sense of belonging with the implementation of new technologies.

Authors

• Tamara H. Shetron, Austin Community College

• Yumi Shirai, University of Arizona College of Medicine

• Michelle Boulanger Thompson, Virginia Commonwealth University