Victoria L.

Outerbridge
January 26, 2010
Contemporary Life/Considerations for Organization of Middle & High School Art Programs

Community & World Connections Through Service-Learning

(Taylor, Carpenter, Ballengee-Morris, & Sessions, 2006)

“Artists create works of art to understand, explain, provoke, examine, explore, and
expand the meaning of what it is to be human” (p. 90). The authors define service
learning as students and educators using formal learning to help others and make a
difference in the world. Service learning is seen as having a natural extension of the
practices of contemporary visual artists in attempts to connect to their own humanness
and that of others. Dewey’s ideas about experience and learning are also considered
foundational to concepts related to service learning. Several models are identified as
examples of the ways in which service learning can be identified, planned, and carried
out. Service learning projects are meaningful in interdisciplinary ways; provide students
with opportunities and vehicles for reflection; address and commit to real and existing
community need; and develop a sense of civic responsibility in students. Art programs
can be organized around service learning opportunities that involve the local or school
community. As I read this article, I thought about middle school communities and the
social and academic needs of students within these settings. Students might identify and
research bullying (for example) as an important area for change and actively work across
disciplines on a service-learning project around this issue. Once middle school students
have completed the project at their own school, they might seek out opportunities in area
elementary schools and work collaboratively to address bullying in the school
communities of younger students.

What Asian American Artists Teach Us about the Complicated Nature of 21st
Century Americans’ Multilayered, Transcultural, and Hybridized Identities and
Art Practices: Implications for an Intercultural and Social Justice Oriented
Approach to Teaching Art
(Delacruz, in press)

Delacruz examines multicultural art education in light of changes in family makeup in the
US and in particular the increasing numbers of adoptive and transracial families with
children born in Asian countries. Many current approaches to multicultural education
focus on cultural heritage and are structured in ways that do not take into account more
contemporary family configurations. These approaches are designed to be effective for a
limited view of family and do not take into account the experience of students who are
adopted, adopted and living in multi-racial families, recent immigrants, or living in
blended, foster, or single parent families. More inclusive approaches to multicultural art
education and classroom practice that take into account the complex and varied racial,
ethnic, and cultural identities of children are possible by making use of the works of
contemporary Asian American artists that explore issues related to these experiences.
Delacruz provides a list of such artists and examines the biographical information and
artwork of a select few that offer possibilities for studio activities aimed at more complex
and in depth student exploration of “multilayered, transcultural, and hybridized cultural
identities and art practices” (p. 8). Recent immigrant and transnational Asian students are
in need of contemporary narratives that address questions related to “individual and
cultural identity, neocolonial power imbalances, human rights, reproductive justice, and
globalization” (p. 8). Three practices employed by parents of transnational Asian
children can inform classroom practice: cultural socialization, enculturation, and
racialization. Classroom activities based on artworks of contemporary Asian American
artists detailed by Delacruz provide examples of engaging these practices through
opportunities for ‘explorations of place, immigration, and belonging, and raise difficult
questions about issues of identity, citizenship, power, race, gender, war, and social justice
in America and in the world” (p. 16).