Multiculturalism in Art Education

Multiculturalism as term:

One of the tricky aspects that arises when trying to write about multiculturalism is the broad number of facets of life that the term encompasses. What I used to just think of as being about ethnicity, I see now has to do with socioeconomic status, physical/mental/emotional disabilities, alternative romantic/sexual/gender identities, and others. Some of these categories bleed into aspects of society that I wouldn’t even really classify as culture, culture here being defined as visible and invisible values and practices passed down between generations. I see now that culture here is more in reference to how we as a society respond to disparity and inequality of any kind.

Multiculturalism in Schools:

It’s certainly important for students to feel safe and accepted, as well as having their ideas represented in the curriculum. Art education can help as one piece of the puzzle, showing visual art history from a wide range of sources, as well as showcasing art movements that are alive and breathing today. It’s important for students to see where ideas come from, and how they change over the centuries, in order to show them how culture changes. Things never stay the same, and because of this constant change, students should understand that we can all work together to be part of that change. We should be able to carefully critique ourselves, as well as others, to identify the best path forward. This kind of transformational education can only be accomplished after a student has learned not just how they fit into the world, but how others fit into the world as well. This of course requires measured respect.

Respect as a term:

I seem to get hung up on words. Respect seems to have lost some meaning, as most seem to define it as a sense of admiration or formal acceptance, a passive declaration. Going back to it’s oldest definitions, we can see that the word literally means to ‘look back’, or to take another look. To me, it means to have taken the time to try to actively understand the perspective of another person. Rather than being a blanket statement, true respect takes work - you have to hear people out and listen to their side of the story. (To clarify, I of course respect everyone from every walk of life, but I think that respect is something that can grow and become stronger the more you listen and learn from the people around you.)

Coming back to education:

This relates to multicultural education in how we approach exploring work that comes from those outside the dominant culture. As said in Stuhr’s article – ‘This often means seeking out artists who are members of the groups being studied and consulting them about how they feel their visual cultural production should be represented in the classroom (Stuhr, Petrovich-Mwaniki, Wasson, 1992).” While this can be difficult to do, especially for a rural school, modern technology has shown more than capable of bringing in guest speakers from anywhere on the globe to conference remotely. Allowing the artist to frame the narrative helps to prevent us from accidentally displaying the artwork through the lens of the dominant culture. In this way we can celebrate not just art that comes from a variety of philosophies and sources, but the people that make them.