My Journey, My Identity: How do our homelands, personal experiences, and journeys define who we are?

 

Starting in 2017, Gehan Habashy, art teacher at The International High School for Health Sciences (IHSHS) and Art + Education alumni, designed and implemented a curriculum unit as part of a long-term exploration of identity with her students. IHSHS works with new immigrant students that come from 30 countries and speak 20 languages. The unit was designed to help students build a deeper understanding of their identities as individuals and to explore the value and  importance of their culture and homeland. Through this exploration, students work on building a sense of identity, in conjunction with self representation.

Throughout the unit, Gehan introduced her class to artists that explore themes of identity and self representation, such as Faith Ringgold, Shirin Neshat, and Wendy Ewald. During their exploration, students considered questions such as: Who are we? What forms our identity? What is identity? How can I be proud of who I am and celebrate others? How do our culture and homelands shape our identity? How can our identities help us dispel stereotype? Students created photograph portraits with overlaid poems of their own creation that emphasize how homelands, cultures, and  individual experiences help make our identities unique as individuals, and powerful as a community.