+Critical Questions

Open-ended questions guide our discussions, challenge us to think critically + creatively, + make us ponder possibilities. Though we may not have an answer to these questions, we read author's writings that make us question, practice an ongoing process of learning, unlearning, + relearning, take pause for self reflection, + formulate even more questions.

Questions*:

Accessibility, Accountability + Inclusivity

  • How do museum workers, especially curators, practice inclusivity?

  • How do we hold our leadership accountable? How do we hold ourselves accountable?

Actions/Activism/Artivism

  • What does creative resistance mean to me?

  • Is my art political?

  • What am I doing to personally improve your community (i.e. community of educators, communities of color, your neighborhood)?

  • How do I serve as agents of change in our community?

  • How can we - as voters, constituents + community members - creatively, constructively + critically communicate to our elected government officials?

Global Community

  • How is my daily life connected to the lives of others in our nation + the world?

  • What can I do to create a more just society + world through art?

Love + Memory

  • What is my relationship with teaching and love?

  • How do I teach love?

  • How do I remember our histories and ancestral histories?

Language + Privilege

  • What examples of language privilege can I think of?

  • What ideas do I have for confronting language privilege?

  • What are the definitions and differences between "underserved" and "underservedness"?

  • How do I learn about, speak to, embody, and practice otherism?

  • How do I acknowledge my privilege?

Power + Oppression

  • What is coloniality of power?

  • How do artists, community members, grass-roots organizers, and culture workers dismantel and deconstruct colonialism?

  • How have I internalized colonialism? How have I internalized the cultural history/ies engrained with colonialism?

  • How do I unintentionally + intentionally create unequal and inequitable power dynamics? What youth do I like/relate to the most? Who receives your praise and how often? Who do you send out of the room or punish?

  • How do I actively interrupt or question moments of oppression when class is in session? When oppression occurs within the administration or with parents?

  • How can art act as an agent of liberation in this particular class and in this institution?

  • Who is missing from our conversation?

  • What is the history and future of Ethnic Studies in the U.S.? How can the Ethnic Studies curriculum transcend borders?

Race, Class, + Gender

  • How does my race, class, + gender privilege impact the lives of others?

  • What is my story as it relates to race/class/gender/sexuality/culture?

Schools, Higher Learning Institutions, + Art Institutions

  • What do I know about this [art] institution? What is its history in the community?

  • How do schools and institutions receive funding? Who backs it? Who does not?

  • How does an art or cultural institution determine who has access, feels supported, has opportunity, uses power + who is ignored, punished or penalized?

Teaching Methodology

  • How do I evaluate the efficacy of my teaching through a social justice lens?

  • What teaching methods do I keep? What do I need to build? What do I need to change?

  • How do we practice love?

  • What are your reflections and revelations on failure?

What questions are you asking?

Share your critical questions about art education + social justice with us! Please email aesjbookclub@gmail.com.

*= Select questions may be directly taken from source readings.

Art Education + Social Justice Book Club Rights Reserved. 2016. Art Credit: Jane Mount.