Using Art to Reveal Democracy (Hint: It’s A Little Punk Rock)

Abstract

What is democracy? We asked this of our pre-service teachers but, instead of soliciting a response via more traditional methods, we assigned them a collage and artist’s statement. The overarching goal was to model curricular applications of art that they may carry into their own p-6 classrooms to enable engagement with complex concepts. In exploring their work, however, we uncovered compelling ideas about the efficacy (and appropriateness) of the use of art to interrogate cultural ideals. If we started the project seeking to model classroom activities, we ended by uncovering many of the themes troubling contemporary democracy. We found in our pre-service teacher’s artistic conceptions clues to the origins of current social discourse. Through assessing their artwork, thematically coding the statements, and follow up interviews, our examination of their experience of working within art and with democracy revealed perspectives about both. In this paper we address ways we as teacher educators may aid in both expanding the curricular choices pre-service teachers make in future classrooms and in creating the informational and reflective space to prepare them for civic engagement.