Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

artists, engineers, community workers, and educators dedicated to working with residents in Texas and
elsewhere who are in need of access to clean water (Carpenter, 2009).
In 2005, Richard Wukich curated a traveling exhibit of ceramic water filter receptacles. These receptacles,
created by contemporary ceramic artists such as Val Cushing, David MacDonald, Sharif Bey and others,
function as works of art as well as "vehicle[s] for promoting social awareness about the global water crisis"
(Carpenter, 2009, p. 339). In February 2009, Wukich initiated a second exhibition that originated in Braddock,
Pennsylvania. Placed within the museum environment, these works allow access to a broader audience who
are then offered the opportunity to view and experience how art can make a change beyond the walls of a
gallery, just as our curriculum reaches beyond the walls of a classroom into society at large. In
addition, the project has developed a one-week summer "Water Camp" designed specifically for children and
youth residing in the Colonias communities. This camp centers around an interdisciplinary curriculum that
addresses issues of inadequate access to water through the incorporation of the arts, science, language arts,
math, ecology and community through student centered, experiential learning.
As instructors of pre-service teachers and graduate students, we move our pedagogy beyond issues of water.
For example, our graduate level curriculum development students create final projects informed by a placebased
education methodology (Sobel, 2005). Many of the interdisciplinary curriculum projects designed by
these students became the foundation for an interdisciplinary curriculum that accompanied the traveling
exhibition of ceramic water filter receptacles. Similarly, our pre-service education students have developed
interdisciplinary curricula focused on health, nutrition, and diet. In one example, they integrated nutrition and
diet into a variety of subjects, such as art, science, social studies, physical education, language arts, and math.
In this one-semester curriculum, students become familiar with healthy eating habits, physical fitness,
nutritional data, and dietary issues that commonly face American youth. The semester culminates with a 5K
"fun run" that students would plan, promote, and participate within. This student-designed curriculum reflects a
social justice perspective because it responds to the issue of poverty. Generally accompanied by limited and
poor-quality food, members of economically disadvantaged households consistently find it difficult to afford an
adequate amount of high-quality food and therefore typically maintain nutritionally risky diets (Kennedy, 1995).
In direct response to such social realities, proceeds from the 5K "fun run" outlined in the preservice student
curriculum could be used to purchase healthy food and exercise equipment to donate to economically
disadvantaged families in the community. Furthermore, the produce grown during this curriculum could also be
given to local food banks.
Situating Social Justice: Pedagogical Extensions
Above, we have offered a brief representation of our collective thinking about and engagement with social
justice. As part of our work as educators and curriculum scholars, we are constantly situated within a context of
translating theoretical musings into engaged responses and embodied means of knowing into philosophical
interpretations. Such engagement is a challenging project when taken up as a form and means of education.
Keeping this work to ourselves and among ourselves does little to mobilize such work in/as social justice. As
Slattery (2006) points out, "It is thus significant that curriculum scholars promote analysis that explores the
external and internal chaos in order to create healing and compassionate environments in classrooms, which
in turn will move outward to local communities and ultimately effect global ecological transformations" (p. 223).
We envision our past, current, and future work to "move outward" initially in local communities and effect global
educational, social, cultural, and economic transformations. Such transformations echo Freire's sense of
liberation and is itself the embodiment of "the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order
to transform it” (Freire, 1998 p. 73). We believe that the curriculum of social justice enables such liberation,
transformation, and action.
Conclusion and Extensions
Inequities and disparities abound in society and affect public health and the quality of life for all concerned day
in and day out. One of the challenges of advocating for social justice is learning how to take steps to make
explicit injustices that are unseen or obscured from the view of mainstream society. We believe that when
artists, communities and curriculum coincide, unseen injustices become more clearly visible to the population
at large and positive change and action can take place.
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