Teaching is a social practice, one that engages students through collective experiences in various learning environments (e.g. schools, community centers, museums, neighborhoods, etc.). As an art educator, my focus is to ensure that students of art make personal and social meaning and explore new ideas through contact with visual art’s many subjects, theories, histories, and materials. My goal as educator, writer, and artist is to expand a person’s notion of what art is and can be while empowering that individual to construct self-knowledge in multiple contexts.
My practice(s) are informed by social justice education philosophies, Freirean, and Foucauldian inspired critical pedagogical models. In the classroom, I investigate how students of art, make meaning and re-imagine their worlds via the tools and ideas provided by concepts in art. Today, visual art itself has expanded beyond traditional media to new ways of creating meaning, thinking, and responding to art. For me, it is the job of art educators to respond to contemporary cultural shifts in order to enhance student art experiences. I firmly believe in teaching to empowerment through cultural production. I see everyone as a producer. As art educators, we should be trying to teach a critical understanding of how to contribute and cultivate cultural production to service the greater good of society. A focus on making and thinking opportunities provides others with agency, from agency comes a positive change. I teach because I want to inspire critical citizens—a culture who feel empowered by making things and contributing to their visual world.
My practice(s) are informed by social justice education philosophies, Freirean, and Foucauldian inspired critical pedagogical models. In the classroom, I investigate how students of art, make meaning and re-imagine their worlds via the tools and ideas provided by concepts in art. Today, visual art itself has expanded beyond traditional media to new ways of creating meaning, thinking, and responding to art. For me, it is the job of art educators to respond to contemporary cultural shifts in order to enhance student art experiences. I firmly believe in teaching to empowerment through cultural production. I see everyone as a producer. As art educators, we should be trying to teach a critical understanding of how to contribute and cultivate cultural production to service the greater good of society. A focus on making and thinking opportunities provides others with agency, from agency comes a positive change. I teach because I want to inspire critical citizens—a culture who feel empowered by making things and contributing to their visual world.
