Examining whiteness in elementary art education

Elementary art curriculum requires educators to teach about cultures they are not a part of and places they have never been, yet there is little research examining how art teachers enact this multicultural curriculum. This critical ethnographic case study asks how two white elementary art educators enact curriculum addressing cultures other than their own and how race and whiteness operate in their curriculum work. Data from this qualitative research was collected through observations, interviews, questionnaires, and artifacts. The research design involves three phases where the researcher moved from observing teachers’ multicultural curriculum work, to guiding critical reflection, and finally to collaborating on writing critical multicultural curriculum that teachers then enacted. Findings from this research suggest that teachers’ sociocultural knowledge shapes and animates their teaching philosophies often in dysconscious ways. Guiding teachers to critically reflect on how their biography, biases, and positionality influence their teaching was often uncomfortable, but necessary for deepening their multicultural curriculum work. Findings also suggest that the habitus of art education reinforced the notion of the arts as white property. This ideology was embedded in both the formal and informal curriculum and maintained by the teachers’ pre-service programs, their colleagues, and district leaders. This study also found that enacting critical multiculturalism requires intentional and flexible scaffolding to guide students to engage in sociocultural dialogue while remaining open to teachable moments. This involves organizing lessons that intentionally disrupt whiteness to forge meaningful relationships across difference. This research also found that white defenses were diffused by building relationships with the teachers, working in solidarity, and providing critical and ongoing support. These findings indicate the need for art teacher education and mentorship that prepares new teachers to engage in sociocultural dialogue and critically reflect on how their positionality and biography impact their curriculum work. This research also suggests that traditional notions of multiculturalism are harmful and proposes pathways to rethink how art teachers design and enact multicultural curriculum. The researcher suggests a framework for art teachers’ multicultural curriculum work which moves beyond including diverse artists towards decentering whiteness as the normative frame of reference.