In this lively and groundbreaking book, arts educator Marit Dewhurst examines why art is an effective way to engage students in thinking about the role they might play in addressing social injustice. Based on interviews and observations of sixteen high schoolers participating in an activist arts class at a New York City museum, Dewhurst identifies three learning processes common to the act of creating art that have an impact on social justice: connecting, questioning, and translating. Noting that “one of the challenges of social justice art education has been the difficulty of naming effective strategies that can be used across multiple contexts,” Dewhurst outlines core strategies for an “activist arts pedagogy” and offers concrete suggestions for educators seeking to incorporate activist art projects inside or outside formal school settings. Social Justice Art seeks to give common language to educators and others who are looking to expand and refine their practices in an emerging field, whether they work in art education, social justice programming, or youth development.

Expanding on a groundbreaking framework, this revised edition connects activist art education with current campaigns for social justice. Nearly a decade after Social Justice Art, innovative arts educator Marit Dewhurst returns with a new edition offering further guidance for developing meaningful, justice-centered art programming. Reflecting on a growing interest in the field and its place within larger movements that uses creative strategies to drive social change, Dewhurst brings new research to bear on her interviews with educators, artists, and students to suggest clear, actionable approaches to facilitating the collaborative process of creating art for social change. In Social Justice Art Education, Dewhurst examines how to teach art-making to address systems of injustice, how to talk about the process, and the role of activist art projects not only in school classrooms but also within museum education, afterschool education, and other youth programming. In a new chapter, she introduces essential steps that prepare educators to engage in this work: recognizing power differentials, identifying community strengths, and nurturing relationships. Through real-world examples, Dewhurst highlights three key learning processes--connecting, questioning, and transforming--and frames a critical arts pedagogy that incorporates collaboration, inquiry-based discussion, and changemaking into arts curricula. This invigorating work provides common language and concrete support for educators and others who want to expand and refine their practices, empowering students through liberatory education that aims to inspire social change.

This imaginative, practical, and engaging sourcebook offers inspiration and tools to craft critical, meaningful, transformative arts education curriculum and arts integration grounded within a clear social justice framework and linked to ideas about culture as commons.

A groundswell of interest has led to significant advances in understanding and using Culturally Responsive Arts Education to promote social justice and education. This landmark volume provides a theoretical orientation to these endeavors. Examining a range of efforts across different forms of art, various educational settings, and diverse contexts, it foregrounds the assets of imagination, creativity, resilience, critique and cultural knowledge, working against prevailing understandings of marginalized groups as having deficits of knowledge, skills, or culture. Emphasizing the arts as a way to make something possible, it explores and illustrates the elements of social justice arts education as "a way out of no way" imposed by dominance and ideology. A set of powerful demonstrations shows how this work looks in action. Introductions to the book as a whole and to each section focus on how to use the chapters pedagogically. The conclusion pulls back the chapters into theoretical and pedagogical context and suggests what needs done to be done practically, empirically, and theoretically, for the field to continue to develop.

Arts educators have adopted social justice themes as part of a larger vision of transforming society. Social justice arts education confronts oppression and inequality arising from factors related to race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class, ability, gender, and sexuality. This edition of Common Threads investigates the intersection of social justice work with education in the visual arts, music, theatre, dance, and literature. Weaving together resources from a range of University of Illinois Press journals, the editors offer articles on the scholarly inquiry, theory, and practice of social justice arts education. Selections from the past three decades reflect the synergy of the diverse scholars, educators, and artists actively engaged in such projects. Together, the contributors bring awareness to the importance of critically reflective and inclusive pedagogy in arts educational contexts. They also provide pedagogical theory and practical tools for building a social justice orientation through the arts. Contributors: Joni Boyd Acuff, Seema Bahl, Elizabeth Delacruz, Elizabeth Garber, Elizabeth Gould, Kirstin Hotelling, Tuulikki Laes, Monica Prendergast, Elizabeth Saccá, Alexandra Schulteis, Amritjit Singh, and Stephanie Springgay

This incisive and wholly practical book offers a hands-on guide to developing and assessing social justice art education for K–12 art educators by providing theoretically grounded, social justice art education assessment strategies. Recognizing the increased need to base the K–12 curriculum in social justice education, the authors ground the book in six social justice principles–conceptualized through art education–to help teachers assess and develop curriculum, design pedagogy, and foster social justice learning environments. From encouraging teachers to be upstanders to injustice to engaging in decolonial action, this book provides a thorough guide to facilitating and critiquing social justice art education and engaging in reflexive praxis as educators. Rich in examples and practical application, this book provides a clear pathway for art educators to connect social justice art education with real-life educational assessment expectations: 21st-century learning, literacy, social skills, teacher performance-based assessment, and National Core Art Standards, making this text an invaluable companion to art educators and facilitators alike