5 Impactful Articles

Below are the 5 most impactful articles or videos we have read over the course of this semester.

Annotated Bibliography

Barrett, T. (2009). Stories. The International Journal of Arts Education, 41-54.

In this article based on experience and personal observations, Barret suggests that sharing personal narratives allows individuals and groups to strengthen the individual sharing, and create stronger communities. Barret helps convey his ideas through examples of personal significance with medical difficulties, along with a student with medical difficulties. Throughout the article, it is apparent that though sharing can be difficult and sometimes painful, the story tellers often times feel better, along with feeling a stronger connection to the group they shared with. Through art, Barret is able to share his tough stories which in turn allows others to share their struggles through interpretation and analysis of famous works. What really resonated with me throughout this whole article was the last sentence: “Narratives expand our knowledge of life, but only when they are shared” (p. 53). This reminds me as an educator, and a human in general, we cannot make connections with our students, or anyone, if we do not let anyone in. This inspires me to be more open with my students and to share my stories to create lasting relationships which will ultimately build student rapport.

Cliatt-Wayman, L. (2015, May). How to fix a broken school? Lead fearlessly, love hard [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/linda_cliatt_wayman_how_to_fix_a_broken_school_lead_fearlessly_love_hard

During this Ted Talk, Cliatt-Wayman discusses how she overcame the challenges of being the principal at a low income and low performance high school in the Philadelphia public school district. She gives some background of her experience and how she came to Strawberry Mansion High School. Cliatt-Wayman structures her talk around three key points: If you’re going to Lead, LEAD; So what, now what?; and If no one told you they love you today, remember I do. I appreciated all of her points because through them I could see issues found within my own district. All of these implemented correctly together seem to be the “secret recipe” to success within a school district. To be a strong leader, you need to enforce a school wide standard so students know where the boundaries are and what is expected of them. It is important for the teachers to drop their excuses at the door. They are employed to teach these students, regardless of what is happening. It may become more challenging, but it is possible. Finally, Cliatt-Wayman made it a point to announce and tell her students daily that she loves them. She created personal relationships that showed she truly cared about each and every one of her students. This video has inspired me to become a better educator this upcoming school year. High expectations for my students combined with a strong rapport will allow them to succeed. I could almost feel Cliatt-Wayman’s passion as she spoke during this talk. It was moving and makes me want to bring it up and show to my principals and fellow teachers.

Hynes, W. (2012). The value of community. Teaching Tolerance. Spring 2012.

Though short, this article was inspiring. Written in Teaching Tolerance magazine, this article is addressing educators as the audience. Starting the article off, Hynes poses the audience with the question “How can we carve out a deeper sense of community in an inexpensive way?” (p.44). Hynes then goes to explain examples used by other educators who have included community (school wide), innovation in lessons, and creativity to create an engaging and active learning for students. The feats explained were not simple or easy to accomplish; they required organization, planning, and collaboration between teachers, administration, and parents. This article was personally significant as my school is adopting a positive behavior plan. Reading examples such as the adapted tough mudder made me want to reach out to my principal as a way to give ideas on incentives for a similar positive behavior plan we are adopting. I think through this, our school can build community in student teacher relationships, and stronger relationships through work peers. Hopefully with teamwork, creativity and thoughtful structure modeled by this article, other teachers can implement an engaging and meaningful experience for their students. I am excited to try and introduce ideas similar to what this article suggests, however I do fear that if I show this to my principal, she will put the whole task on me rather than delegating and have us work as a team.

Morris, C. B. & Carpenter, S. (2014). On being invisible and passing through walls: Toward a pedagogy of seeing and being seen. In (S. Goncalves & M.A. Carpenter, Eds.) Diversity, Intercultural Encounters, and Education. NY: Routledge.

I believe this is a scholarly journal written to again, share autobiographic and autoehtnographic narratives to the audience as a way of showing a different perspective. Morris and Carpenter address that this exploration of their own and shared experiences can be used to empower others and be used as a form of social justice. Both authors realize and accept that their form of methodology is questioned because it is subjective, but they rationalize that through this methodology, they can “describe and deconstruct their own invisibility” to change how individual realities are viewed (p. 196). Morris and Carpenter explore what it is like to have an invisible identity - where they feel a part of their true self is denied due to social constructs such as race. These authors explore personal narratives of times when they felt invisible or unaccepted due to being multiracial. They discuss experiences where others thought they were not visually fitting the mold for who they are. Morris and Carpenter referenced Ballengee-Morris & Stuhr, (2000) saying that when we understand our own individual sociocultural identities and biases, it helps us understand how and why others respond (210). To me, this means we must first understand ourselves if we want to try and understand others. As educators, we need to help our students “make sense of their own places and spaces” (p. 211). They reiterate that we are not isolated beings, but complicated narratives intertwined and connected with others. This article also reminds me that we can not always tell what is going on at surface level. Especially as an educator, it can be difficult to read peers and students. There is always something deeper that is affecting our actions or thoughts.

Savage, S. (2015). The Visual rhetoric of innocence: Lolitas in popular culture. Visual Arts Research 37_2(1), 101- 112

This article, published in the NAEA journal, reminded me of Lather’s article in the sense that Savage is also questioning why something “is” (156). She questions why myth is believed to the point that it perpetuates stereotypes of blameworthiness in young girls, specifically the character of Nabokov’s novel, Lolita. She wonders why and how the author requested not to have a girl depicted on the cover, and yet publishers advertised with images of a provocative young girl when in reality this character is a victim of child molestation. Savage used genealogy research and discourse analysis to analyze covers of Lolita (p. 158). Savage also argues that as art educators, it is our responsibility to teach our students to question how meaning from images is made, and to bring awareness as to how these images (Rose 2001, p. 140) “construct thoughts and ideas about the social world” (p. 158). With this research, it is apparent that images create myths that are easily projected into real life, where young girls are eroticized and then become “blameworthy” (p. 159). Though this topic is sensitive and may not be deemed “safe” for the classroom, I think it is important to teach students to be active consumers who question the meaning of what they are seeing and how it is affecting their lives.

This specific topic may not be appropriate to use as a way of teaching about visual literacy, but this article is a wonderful example of the importance of being visually literate and being an independent thinker. Media is such a strong force in our life that often times twists the truth.

Because of this, the art classroom can be one of the greatest tools in introducing the tools to look at, analyze, and critically questions what we are visually being fed.