As the culminating experience in the NYU Art+Education program, students have a chance to dive deeper into a question or topic that they have been thinking about in their time in K-12 schools and seminars, ideally finding a way to connect theory with practice and generate new knowledge that will support their teaching and activism in the classroom. Using an Inquiry to Action (ItAG) model, students work in small groups to pursue a question they generate at the intersection of Art+Education. Looking to the work of socially engaged artist activists, we explore their topics from different creative angles – mapping, interviewing and oral history practices, making collections and connections, photovoice and other creative action research strategies. Finally students are asked to take their learning, and propose an ‘action’ or way that they can connect that learning to the world.
This year, students took on questions about:
Restorative Justice in Schools
Restorative Justice in Classroom Practice
Teacher Wellness, and
Advocacy for Art Education
To share and extend their learning, each group created different resources to connect the new knowledge they learned with others to use in classrooms and communities: A restorative justice zine, a teacher wellness podcast, a restorative classroom tool, and advocacy tools to support principals and teachers in art education advocacy. This work, and the ItAG process encourages teachers to see themselves as not only creative thinkers and researchers, but also community activists able to work collaboratively towards necessary change.
