Culture-Based Arts Integration: An examination of carefully developed space where art and culture exist from a place of new student voice, knowledge, and discourse.

Abstract

This dissertation looks at how White teachers of Native students learn to implement a culturally based art curriculum. I focus on two teachers over the course of 1 school year who have differing degrees of success in using this type of art curriculum to determine the factors important for teaching in this way and how they can be supported and promoted though the process. My study looks at the following questions: 1. How do teachers implement culturally based art curriculum in the classroom? a. What art practices and processes are used to engage students? b. What culture-based resources are included? 2. What impact does the curriculum have on the dynamics of the classroom in terms of patterns of discourse and student learning? a. Is there a thirdspace operating in the classroom? b. What are the characteristics of this space? How is it functioning? 3. What enables or constrains the teachers’ ability to achieve her pedagogical goals in teaching this curriculum? The work of culture-based arts integration is the act of bridging native art and culture with the traditional constructs of the k–12 schooling system. This work of integrating two constructs usually does not result in one changed classroom, but a “thirdspace” of hybrid knowledge and experience. Following the lead of many scholars, (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, Tejeda, & Rivera, 1999; Moje, Ciechanowski, Kramer, Ellis, Carrillo, & Collazo, 2004) I call this observed classroom space, a place of cultural bricolage. To examine these questions, I developed two case studies and a cross case analysis. I explored the development of what theorists term a “thirdspace” (Cook, 2005; Dunlop, 1999; Lipka, Brenner, &Sharp, 2005; Moje et al., 2004), along with the critical and social theories of American Indian education to develop a model of professional development that promotes the creation of cultural bricolage in classrooms as a productive approach to integrating culturally based curricula, as well as arts based curricula. Although this study looks at the use of culturally based art curricula for American Indian students, I believe there will be implications for teachers in diverse situations, who work in classrooms with students who are culturally and racially different from themselves.