Episode 21: Anti-Racist Art Teachers: A Panel Discussion: Anti-Racist Teaching During A Pandemic

I had the pleasure of talking with 5 of the 7 amazing women who make up the Anti-Racist Art Teachers. A few months ago, Paula Liz, an art teacher based just outside of Washington DC, started compiling resources on anti-racism to aid her in sharing with fellow art teachers. This grew into a google site and now lives at antiracistartteachers.org! As the project grew in scope, Paula Liz also began collaborating with like-minded art teachers. The Anti-Racist Art Teachers are currently Paula Liz, Nylah Khan, Francesca Levy, Khadesia Latimer, Tamara Slade, Dr. Lori Santos, and Abby Birhanu. They represent an incredible range of backgrounds in terms of race and ethnicity, teaching styles, grade levels, experience, and location. Their bios as well as individual contact info can be found on their contact page

Nylah and Francesca weren’t able to join us for this conversation, but they were there in spirit. 

I am in awe and very grateful to these teachers for sharing so much actionable advice! They have created and are continuing to add to an incredible resource for art teachers and really any teachers or even parents seeking information and lesson plans around anti-racist education. Visit antiracistartteachers.org to check it out! You can find lesson plans, curated lists of resources and artists, and now artist interviews. If you have lessons to share, you can also submit them there.

Below is a statement from the Anti-Racist Art Teachers.

What does fighting racism have to do with art education? Everything. As art educators, we have the power to see COLOR, to VALUE all students, to create a safe SPACE, to FORM a more fair and just future, we recognize the TEXTURE of human life, to step beyond the LINE and learn to SHAPE new perspectives through art education. A future without racism can begin in the art classroom. We can be part of the change. Join us. We are anti-racist art teachers. 

Links:

In our discussion, Abby Birhanu referred to offloading. This is a term I actually didn’t know and we never came back to it. Here’s a brief explanation:

“Offloading denotes relying mostly on the curriculum resources for the delivery of the lesson and giving agency to the materials for guiding instruction.”

Matić, Ljerka Jukić. (2019b). The Teacher as a Lesson Designer. C e p s Journal, 9(2), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.722

On the next pages is a transcript of our conversation.

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