Cartoons and Conquest

(Cs in the classroom by bw_inc)

So, I'm asking you readers (is anyone reading this?) to read below and let me know your overall thoughts. I've been living vicariously through the homies who are in their grad school and thesis process. I can't help but be totally engaged as the subject matters they're exploring are just too darn interesting and necessary! Below, the holmes Aims is exploring art-integrated curriculum and I just love hearing her process as she approaches the tail end of her thesis study. Word to her words...foreal.

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Cartoons and Conquest: The Impact of an Art-integrated History Curriculum on Student Acquisition of Multiple Historical Perspectives Using Their Authentic Voice

Introduction
Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, the United States has become a more ethnically, culturally, and racially diverse nation. Prior to 1965, most immigrants to the United States came from Europe while today most immigrants come from Latin America and Asia (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). The minority population of the United States is increasing at a faster rate than the White population. According to the U.S. Census (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), Asians constitute about 4.2 percent (12 million) of the total U.S. population of 281 million people. Between 1990 and 2000 the Asian population in the United States increased by 48 percent. In terms of proportion to the total U.S. population, Latinos and Asian Americans are experiencing the highest growth whereas African American population has stayed and will remain relatively stable. Conversely, the proportion of the U.S. population who are White is expected to decrease each decade and in 2050, no racial/ethnic group will have be a majority, including Whites for the first time in U.S. history (Kanduri, 2002, Growth of Asian Americans in relation to other groups in the country section, para. 4). The changing demographics of U.S. institutions have contributed to the increasingly multicultural nature of classrooms. Suleiman (1998) states how imperative it is that teachers become cultural brokers and social engineers who have the ability to lead and empower their students. Caruso (2005) has similar sentiments and states that due to the changing demographics in America, it is a necessary challenge for cultural workers such as educators to understand, appreciate, teach about, and work with cultural diverse groups. I agree with Caruso’s statement, changing ethnic demographics require educators to promote a better understanding of others (Caruso, 2005).

With that said, each classroom consists of different students who each bring their own unique personalities, cultures and life experiences into the classroom. Due to the limited intersections of students’ cultural backgrounds within the mandatory requirements in the current history curriculum, our classrooms are still not embracing their ever-evolving cultural diversity to the fullest. A common example of this problem is the primarily European perspective presented in our social studies textbooks. This perspective often takes center stage to other voices in history. Social studies textbooks are typically written from the perspective of the “winners” of history, and so they rarely let the “losers” of history – native peoples, the poor and working poor, women, minority cultures, gays and lesbians, the planet and its ecosystems – speak for themselves (Loewen 1994; Zinn 1995).

As important as it is to push for a history curriculum that better represents the reality of heterogeneous classrooms, it is also fundamental to create teaching and assessment models that support teachers and their culturally diverse students. In this process, critical multicultural and art education can play a vital role in social transformation (Caruso, 2005). Whether it is the lens we choose when looking at art, or the lens educators use to view their students, all of this affects how we convey information to those we teach. Our particular lenses impact how students perceive the content of the curriculum. I would like to examine and provide examples that support this fact. Wolk (2003) states that critical literacy is about how we see and interact with the world; it is about having, as a regular part of one’s life, the skills and desire to evaluate society and the world. Essentially, teaching for critical literacy is to teach an antiracist and anti-oppressive curriculum (Lee 1994; Kumashiro 2001). In my practice as a teacher, I have found that a multicultural and art education approach is an effective way to develop a transformative interdisciplinary history curriculum.

The Statement of the Problem

Art can provide depth and meaning to historical, political, and social events giving greater meaning to individual contributions. Art educators can help students to grow artistically and intellectually so they can fully participate as citizens in society (Cahan & Kocur, 1996). Thus, combining practices of art education within social science curriculum can enhance a student’s ability to view and understand their own place in society. Therefore, in my study, I hope to emphasize to educators the need to recognize the significant roles art can play in the history classroom to achieve critical literacy and social transformation.

To help students meet high standards as measured by performance assessments, Darling-Hammond (2002) states that teachers must use a curriculum that engages students and challenges them to understand concepts deeply, find and integrate information, assemble evidence, weigh ideas, and develop skills of analysis and expression. Therefore, it is one thing to design original art-integrated multicultural history curriculum and it is another issue to properly address how to assess student competency within this structure. Assessment is about measuring the outcomes of learning. McGury, Shallenberger, & Tolliver (2008) have asked similar questions in response to this issue. Some of their questions include, how does one create a more comprehensive system of assessment in cultural learning? How do students get from learning catalyst to product? How do educators assist students in getting there? How do educators determine that the student is moving toward appropriate learning goals? I have developed a curriculum that answers similar questions. This paper will evaluate the impact of the curriculum, detailing how it is being implemented in the classroom and how it can assess student acquisition of multiple historical perspectives through their artistic expression.

Background of the Study
Do you remember the first time you saw your reflection in what you were learning? As a first-generation Filipina, I experienced my entire K-12 education in Seattle, Washington. I distinctly remember the first time I saw my reflection in what I was learning. It wasn’t until I was in 11th grade at Roosevelt High School. In Mr. Brink’s Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History class we were learning about U.S. imperialism, how the U.S. was on the verge of surpassing Spain as the next world power by obtaining the last of Spain’s territories. Our class was split up into small groups of four to read the chapter and then complete the questions at the end. It was my turn to read aloud to the group and there it was staring back at me as I followed the paragraph in our textbooks:

The American people plunged into the war with jubilation, which seemed premature to Europeans. The American army numbered 2,100 officers and 28,000 men compared to the 200,000 Spanish troops in Cuba. The readiness of the navy (ranked 5th world-wide) owed much to the navy secretary John D. Long and his assistant secretary Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt called upon Commodore George Dewey's 6-ship fleet to descend upon Spain's Philippines in the event of war. On May 1, 1898, Dewey slipped by detection at night and attacked and destroyed the 10-ship Spanish fleet at Manila. (Bailey & Kennedy, 1994, p. 234)

There was an evident lack of reflection and perspective of myself and other students of color in my U.S. History textbooks and curriculum. With the exception of recognizing national holidays, birthdays of significant people of color in our country’s history, and multicultural assemblies, we never truly saw ourselves. Although few and far between, it was in those instances that we knew we were visible in our education. Fine (1987) writes, “Silencing [in school] constitutes the process by which contradictory evidence, ideologies, and experiences find themselves, camouflaged, and discredited.” I strive to be an educator that Wolk speaks of when he argues that teachers need to seek out those silenced voices and perspectives and bring them into the classroom (Wolk, 2003).

Because I did not “see” or engage with a tangible reflection of myself within my education until the 11th grade, I was inspired to base my final unit project in my secondary curriculum development class on that moment. I designed a unit to guide 11th grade U.S. history students in understanding alternative perspectives on U.S. expansion during the beginning of the 20th century. I developed a detailed curriculum on the following topics:

1. Spanish-American and Philippine-American War
2. Expansionists vs. Anti-expansionists

My hope in creating the unit was to teach students the skills to think critically when examining the reasons and outcomes of America becoming the world power it is today. These skills were presented through artistic expression and experiential learning. The focus of my thesis is the evaluation of multicultural understanding of the Philippine-American War through the artistic expression of 11th grade U.S. History students.

Purpose of the Study
When words are not enough, artistic visual expression can play a significant role in representing social issues, cultural identity and diversity. In a multicultural curriculum, art educators can depict the issues of culture shock, racism, fluid identity, and intercultural tensions. An interdisciplinary history curriculum utilizing the visual arts could become a vehicle for self-development and the formation of self-identity. This type of curriculum can also enable students to critique the cultural, social, historical, and political climate. Social studies is the perfect forum for that critique to take place. At its foundation social studies is about questioning and power (Wolk, 2003). By doing critical literacy in a multicultural curriculum, we can engage our students in the process of critiquing society, the world, and ourselves (students and teachers). But more importantly, we can provide them a tool for empowerment.

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of implementing an art-integrated history curriculum to demonstrate students’ acquisition of multiple historical perspectives using their authentic voice. I believe that by pairing alternative assessments with interdisciplinary multicultural education, educators can improve the way they teach history.

written by A. Espiritu