Preparing Teachers of Art for Diverse LearnersA Policy Brief for the University of Maryland’s Art Education Program

Teacher education departments across America face a difficult challenge: preparing teachers to effectively educate the diverse student population in U.S. schools. The majority of teacher candidates entering programs have had little exposure to diversity (Van Hook, 2002). The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that teachers in the United States are 90% white and approximately 80% female. The cultures of the students they will teach are increasingly diverse. Figure 1 illustrates the gap between the racial diversity of teachers and students.

The diversity in U.S. schools must be defined more broadly than race and culture.

According to data from the U.S. Census in the year 2000, 25% of Americans speak a language other than English at home. Teachers face challenges in providing instruction for students who are English language learners (ELL) or who speak English as a second language (ESL). Students in the United States also come from varying socio-economic backgrounds and have a wide variety of abilities. United States classrooms also include students with special needs and exceptionalities. Ninety-five percent of all general education teachers currently teach or have taught students with disabilities (SPeNSE, 2000).

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Teacher education departments must prepare teachers to be

effective in U.S. classrooms that

are becoming increasingly diverse. Departments of art

education who seek to better equip their teacher candidates

for the reality of American

classrooms can benefit from art’s intimate relationship with

culture. Ideas of art and culture coincide. Conceptual themes

such as identity, experience, and

story-telling have been represented in art across the

world and throughout time. I advocate for art education

curriculum that utilizes themes

such as these to prepare art educators to be effective

teachers of diverse students. Using artwork as the agent to

expose, challenge, and

transform teachers’ beliefs may eliminate some of the

traditional barriers to multicultural teacher education.

The Art Education Department

at the University of Maryland must make better use of the

ways in which our content naturally lends itself to the task

of creating culturally responsive

and confident art teachers.

Leslie Gates May 12, 2008

American Indian/Alaska Native

Asian/Pacific Islander

Hispanic

Black

White

0 18 36 54 72 90

Teachers Students

Figure 1 Source: NCES, 2003

The Issue

Percentage

Racial Demographics of Students and Teachers in U.S. Schools

The research reporting teachers’ ability to provide effective instruction to diverse groups of students consistently points to the significance of teacher attitudes and beliefs. The teacher education programs that have attempted to challenge candidate’s attitudes and beliefs about issues of diversity have done so with mixed results.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has developed a standard for diversity that must be met by schools seeking NCATE accreditation. In addition to the racial mismatch between teachers and students, NCATE provides the following rationale for its diversity standard: too many candidates do not seek jobs in high needs areas, and new teachers leave high needs schools as soon as possible (NCATE, 2006). Teacher education programs are making attempts to better prepare teachers for high needs and urban areas. Efforts such as the diversifying the student body and faculty, revising course curricula, and assigning candidates to field placements to diverse areas have been some of the common ways teacher education programs have attempted to comply with the NCATE diversity standard. While NCATE requires attempts to diversify the faculty within teacher education, it is not apparent that they are giving equal attention to whether or not the instructors are modeling the knowledge, dispositions, and performances related to diversity that are expected in the assessment of candidates. It is possible for institutions to comply with the NCATE diversity

standard and yet fail to create the type of teachers needed for the nation’s most disadvantaged children. According to Donna Gollnick (NCATE’s Senior VP), very few institutions have not passed this standard since its implementation in 2001.

Just as NCATE is the agent of accountability for teacher education programs, the public schools are being held responsible for improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. The historic achievement gap between whites and many minority groups continues despite these policies and unprecedented federal funding (Doherty & Boehner, 2005).

The enforcement of NCATE’s diversity standard has not ensured that everyone graduating from an accredited institution is able to provide effective instruction to a diverse group of students. The NCLB act has not decreased the achievement gap. Despite the smoking pens of scholars attempting to draw attention to the issue and demand results “with more deliberate speed,” progress is slow. This has spurred people like Huerta (1999) and Van Hook (2002) to study the barriers that exist in teacher education and in teachers’ abilities to teach diverse students.

Teacher candidates from the culture of power are privileged. This privilege will likely affect the teacher’s ability or disability to teach underserved student populations. This potential difference between a teacher and students cannot be ignored. Recognizing, examining, and discussing issues of power and privilege must be part of teacher education programs that seek to prepare teachers for diverse classrooms. This type of learning requires conversations that can be difficult to structure and to facilitate. Many students and faculty members worry that discussing their feelings and ideas about difficult issues such as power and privilege may have negative consequences (e.g. students’ grades, course evaluations). In addition, many students enter teacher education programs without experience in diverse settings. Many have never been the “other” and are uncomfortable in diverse situations.

There are other barriers. In order to provide diversity-based instruction and experience, a knowledgeable and committed faculty is needed. Faculty members who have not reflected on their own identities/privilege and who have had little experience in diverse settings are unlikely to have transformative effects on their students. Curricular resources are also necessary. Content-specific texts and materials that include the contributions of those from traditionally underrepresented groups are not abundant in most fields. Faculty members who are working to prepare their students for diverse classrooms may lack the time to research, review and/or create sufficient resources. Because of these (and other) barriers, many teacher educators play down the issue’s importance by adding one “diversity” project to their course. Others ignore diversity issues altogether. Neither of these responses will adequately prepare future teachers to work in diverse classrooms.

Barriers

The Issue, cont’d.

“It has been hard trying to relate to the students when I have not come from their urban culture; growing up in a suburban town I could not relate to them as much as I would like. Yes, I was once in high school not so long ago, but that is not enough to understand where they are coming from all the time.” UMCP Art Education Student Intern, Spring 2008

Art education programs in higher education are often housed within the school of the arts and sciences or within the school of education. The “art education” courses are small in number; often credits in studio art and education courses more than double the required credits in art education. At many universities, the art education coursework consists of an introductory art education course, an elementary methods course, a secondary methods course,

and a senior seminar during the student teaching placement. Future art teachers are often expected to synthesize much of what they learn in their studio and education classes on their own. According to the UMD College of Education’s “Art Education Program Sheet,” no specific diversity course is required of art education majors. Therefore, any diversity-related instruction they receive is embedded in other coursework.

Preparing Future Art Teachers

The Art Education Department at the University of Maryland can take steps towards improving the cultural responsiveness and confidence of our graduates. There are many important features that are already in place that will allow us to better prepare our teachers for diverse classrooms.

First, our content area has an intimate relationship with issues of identity, culture and race. Discussing issues of identity and culture are inherent in the discussion of certain artworks. When deciding on which works to include in our courses, we should seek out works that can serve as the centerpiece for difficult yet necessary conversations. By choosing artwork(s) to act as the centerpiece, the artwork becomes the agent. Discussions that expose, challenge, and examine pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs are centered around the artwork, not an opinion of another classmate or the professor. The following page provides examples of artworks that could be used for this purpose.

Second, we work in a field that acknowledges and cherishes the contributions of marginalized people in ways some other fields have not. We do not have to work as hard to find artwork made by artists who are from minority groups, or who are disabled, or who are gay. Today’s prominent artists represent a wide variety of races, sexual orientations, abilities, religions, and cultures. Students in the teacher education program and their future K-12 students who are not from the culture of power are able to find themselves represented in fine art. By choosing to use diverse artworks for instruction, we esteem it. The enormous diversity within fine art is to our advantage.

Third, our students are developing critical lenses with which to view their own artwork and the art of others. Many of the critical thinking skills that we desire our students to have in relationship to issues of diversity are already in place. We must help them transfer these skills to social issues that relate to their future classrooms.

Fourth, we can model effective art instruction by teaching in culturally responsive ways. The strategies, techniques, and resources we use to teach our courses should reflect our commitment to ensuring the success of all students. Diversity-related content should be embedded throughout the art education coursework rather than attached to our existing courses in the form of an extra project.

We must make better use of the ways in which our content naturally lends itself to the task of creating culturally responsive and confident art teachers. These recommendations are a needed first step. Other necessary steps will include facilitating intentional discussions about power, race, and identity; increased instruction and modeling of culturally-responsive pedagogy, and structuring experiences in diverse settings prior to the student teaching experience.

Current Status of Teaching for Diversity at UMDArt is traditionally taught by acknowledging its historical and cultural significance, so references to a variety of cultures in UMD art

education courses are frequent. Whether or not these references ever transfer into conversations about students’ cultures or issues related to diversity seems dependent on the professor’s interest and student responsiveness. Current members of the department have a great deal of autonomy, often revising courses based on their personal interests and areas of expertise.

My current role supervising student teachers within this department has provided me opportunities to informally assess how well the department is preparing its graduates to be effective in diverse classrooms. Generally, the student teachers are very uncomfortable in situations where there are demographic, socio-economic, and language differences between themselves and their students.

Recently, one of my student teachers had a very difficult day. She recorded some of what she was feeling as a young white woman in a predominately African American high school. She wrote the following regarding this issue:

! "Many of the students would stereotype themselves, screaming at each other instead of talking like adults and when asked to calm down and talk it out, I have received the response ‘we are talking, this is how black people talk.’ I couldn't believe it and I didn't know what else to say besides how inappropriate of an excuse that was. During their lunch hour I was hesitant to even go to the bathroom because I knew that meant I had to walk down the hall where they would be screaming and running around. I have learned a lot in the experience, but going into it I felt like I was "thrown into the frying pan" as their principal said to me. There were many isolated incidents that I wish I had known how to handle and would have been prepared to handle. The whole cultural slang confused me, I couldn't understand some of the things they said, which in a way helped us bond because they felt they were teaching me, when I would ask for the definition. I would have liked to learn more strategies on how to relate to students of this background better, since it is completely different from my own. I didn't feel prepared for my high school teaching experience at all."

This student teacher’s experience is representative of the students that I have supervised. It indicates the need for the art education department at the University of Maryland to be more intentional about better preparing its students to teach in diverse settings and in settings where the students are unlike themselves.

Preparing Future Art Teachers, cont’d.

Recommendations

Does the color black carry a derogatory connotation? Why aren’t African Americans accepted as intellectuals in the same way they are embraced as athletes? If your art makes you rich and famous, how would you handle it? Do male artists make more money than female artists?

Using google and a simple set of search terms, I was quickly able to locate artworks that could serve as the centerpiece for conversations about race, identity, and privilege. In addition to discussing questions raised in the artists’ accompanying statements, it is also important for our

students to consider the aesthetic similarities and differences across cultures.

Many of these concepts are initially difficult to discuss in tangible ways. Having students create work based on themes such as identity, experience, or cultural story-telling would provide a means through which students could reflect and respond. Allowing our students to view and create artwork will extend the discussion beyond what is able to be verbally expressed. The possibilities created by using art and artists to consider issues of race, identity, and privilege are too powerful to ignore.

“Untitled (Altgeld Gardens)” 1995Acrylic and collage on canvas, 78 1/2 x 103 inches. Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS Courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery, NY

"The initial development of that unequivocally black, emphatically black figure was so that I would use them as figures that function rhetorically in the painting...And one of the things that I had been thinking about when I started to develop that figure was the way in which the folk and folklore of blackness always seemed to carry a derogatory connotation...A part of what I was thinking to do with my image was to reclaim the images of blackness as an emblem of power, instead of an image of derision."— Kerry James Marshall

“(Liberty Brothers Permanent Daily Circus) Blue Period” 1995Acrylic latex, oil wash, stain, and copper penny on paper, 60 1/2 x 36 1/2 inchesPrivate collection, Photo by Beth Phillips Courtesy Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NY

"One could think about notions of blackness and how they're linked to entertainment, athleticism, sports (which has become another form of entertainment) but never intellectualism for the most part. And if that is the case, it's very rare. But for the most part, collectively, I would say that blackness continues to hover around this comfort zone of entertainment—providers of entertainment."— Michael Ray Charles

Quotes by Cindy Sherman, photographer:

“I was feeling guilty in the beginning; it was frustrating to be successful when a lot of my friends weren’t. Also, I was constantly being reminded of that by people in my family making jokes.”

“I was supporting myself, but nothing like the guy painters, as I refer to them. I always resented that actually.. we were all getting the same amount of press, but they were going gangbusters with sales.”

Using art and artists to consider issues of

race identity privilege

Works Cited

Carlson, E., Chen, L., Schroll, K., & Klein, S. (2003, March 23). SPeNSE (Study of Personnel Needs in Special Education): Final report of the paperwork substudy. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ferdig.coe.ufl.edu/spense/Finalpaperworkreport3-24-031.doc

Doherty, C. & Boehner, J. (2005). The future of NCLB. Education Next. 5(3). Retrieved May 9, 2008 from http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3397756.html.

Huerta, G. C. (1999). Barriers to the Implementation of Multicultural Education in a Secondary Teacher Preparation Program. High School Journal, 82(3), 150.

Van Hook, C. (2002). Preservice teachers' perceived barriers to the implementation of a multicultural curriculum. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 29(4), 254-264.

Further Reading

Chalmers, F. G. (2002). "Celebrating Pluralism" Six Years Later: Visual Transculture/s, Education, and Critical Multiculturalism. Studies in Art Education, 43(4), 293-306.

Johnson, L. (2002, July 1). Art-centered approach to diversity education in teaching and learning. . Retrieved May 3, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3935/is_200207/ai_n9128304.

Larke, P. J. (1990). Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory: Assessing the Sensitivity of Preservice Teachers. Action in Teacher Education, 12(3), 23-30.

Lovano-Kerr, J., & Zimmerman, E. (1977). Multiculture Teacher Education Program in the Arts. Art Education, 30(1), 34-38.

Milbrandt, M. K. (2002). Addressing Contemporary Social Issues in Art Education: A Survey of Public School Art Educators in Georgia. Studies in Art Education, 43(2), 141-157.