Personal Reflection from an Educator: My Journey to a Lesson Plan

by Jasmine Krueger

Keywords: Lesson planning, Media arts, Social-emotional learning

Introduction

Navigating an uneasy landscape full of ever-changing educational policies has become a normalized part of being an art educator. In numerous states around the country, it is becoming illegal to talk about race in the classroom. Two of the states I have worked in as an educator (Missouri and Wyoming) have been under threat of numerous bills to ban critical race theory and give parents the right to veto and monitor the curriculum as they see fit.

This article aims to provide encouragement to fellow art educators, in both classroom and museum settings, on why it is imperative we continue to integrate diverse social, cultural, and historical narratives into existing pedagogical practices in order to achieve the best outcomes for our students.

I will detail my experience creating a high school-level art lesson that allowed students to engage deeply with the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion through the historical context of Nelson Mandela. During this experience, I shifted my priorities as an art educator to focus less on the result of the art-making process or technical skill set I was hoping to teach. Instead, I worked to prioritize students’ social-emotional growth and the benefits of exploring diversity, equity, and inclusion through the life of Nelson Mandela and students’ own personal lives.

As a white educator, I must acknowledge the unearned privilege I have solely based on the color of my skin. Through my work in education, and through my reflections in this article, I have been continuously striving to become the educator I aspire to be: an educator that speaks out and advocates for students’ rights, someone that my diverse students can feel seen by and proud of.

I feel like it is not only my duty to create a safe space for my students to learn art skills, but it is imperative for me to create a space where difficult conversations can be held. I want to use the privilege of my voice to speak out and advocate for a need to continue discussing race, diversity, equity and inclusion with students, even though the conversations may be both uncomfortable and, in some states, legally precarious.

Career Journey

My journey as an art educator began in 2015 when I transitioned away from teaching preschool full time to pursue a degree in art education. This decision stemmed from a deep desire to explore art in more depth, both personally and professionally. Attending the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD) empowered me as an artist and educator to delve into politically charged topics in my work and create an inclusive space that allowed my students to do the same. I was particularly influenced by a course on social justice in art education. It was in this course that I was introduced to multiple contemporary artists whose work still influences me to this day. One of those artists, Ai Wei Wei, has not only influenced my art style, but my overall artistic philosophy. His work as an artist and activist has inspired me to create social justice art and to encourage others to do the same. I believe as artists we are in unique positions of power, and we can use our power and privilege to initiate social change.

The philosophy surrounding the idea of artists as activists deeply resonates and aligns with both my personal and professional views. I want to encourage students to speak their truth and learn how to communicate complex and challenging views within their artwork. However, once I entered the classroom as a high school art teacher in a small mountain town in Wyoming, I realized implementation was going to be difficult because of the overwhelming Republican presence and consistently right-leaning policies that shaped school culture.

The school I taught at had roughly 1,400 students and was considered one of the larger schools in the state in spite of its isolated location. There was an overwhelming lack of diversity among the student body, which was predominantly white and had a combined minority enrollment of less than 3% Black, Asian, American Indian, and Pacific Islander identifying students. The teachers even further lacked diversity, with the majority of the staff identifying as white.

The school was trying to get a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Club off the ground because many students who identified as being LGBTQ+ experienced bullying. I saw firsthand in my own classroom the side glances and whispers that would happen when I featured a gay or non-binary artist in a slideshow. To make matters worse, there was also a lack of any easily accessible gender neutral restrooms, forcing students to walk across the entire campus to use the nurse’s bathroom anytime they had to go. Bathroom bullying became such an issue at our school that at times bathrooms were shut down entirely, which only made matters worse. It was not unheard of for students who lived nearby to run home to use the bathroom during the day to avoid the school bathrooms altogether.

In addition to the overall lack of racial diversity and policies in place to protect the student groups that existed like the GSA, I also found the art standards to be restrictive. The curriculum maps that we were required to use contained specific projects, instead of focusing on big ideas or general creative skillbuilding. Some examples of highly specific standards included:

Students will create an original color pencil drawing using realism style, Students will Use pastel for backgrounds, and Students will create a landscape in watercolor using washes, resist, dry brush, and glazing.

None of these are necessarily bad projects or bad skills for students to learn, but I found them very confining. I felt that these standards did not allow me as an instructor to exercise as much creativity with my curriculum as I wished. I wanted my students to explore, have discussions, dig deep into social, political, historical and personal issues, and learn how they can communicate their thoughts and feelings. I did not want to spend weeks teaching students colored pencil techniques on hyperrealism, or spend all my mental energy figuring out ways to make traditional landscape painting more exciting. I tried my best to include artists from diverse backgrounds in my lessons and encourage students to go deeper. However, the constraints made this exceptionally difficult, and I often lacked the time and resources to accomplish what I’d hoped. Instead of pushing back against the standards I disliked, I went along with them for fear of getting in trouble with administration or losing my job.

Becoming a Museum Educator

After multiple years in that classroom setting, the pandemic prompted a career shift to become a museum educator. I hoped that with a less restrictive environment and significantly smaller classroom size, I would be able to have more time to focus on building more authentic and personal relationships with my students. I also hoped that the smaller class sizes would allow me to individualize lessons with more ease, and lessen the burden of managing art supplies. I was excited that I would no longer be beholden to the same standards, leaving space for more creativity within the curriculum, and I knew I was going to have more diversity among my students. With all of this in mind, I accepted the position as Media Arts Manager at the Saint Louis Science Center.

The Saint Louis Science Center, a nonprofit museum with the mission to inspire everyone to be curious and engaged in science, has been making strides in increasing educational programming to be more diverse and inclusive. This is particularly apparent in their Youth Exploring Science (YES) Program. The YES program helps prepare high school-aged students in underserved, underrepresented areas throughout Saint Louis to obtain career training in a focus area (“component”) of their choice.

As the Media Arts Manager, I led the YES program’s Media Arts Component, focusing on providing teens with 21st-century skills in Digital Art. My curriculum encompassed a variety of disciplines, including digital photography, filmography, graphic design, animation, lighting, digital editing, and social content creation. The program emphasized developing foundational and technical competencies. The overall goal of the program was to give teens the skills needed for them to go straight into the workforce and find a job working in media art areas such as digital editing, camera operation, or photography.

Though the enrollment number changed each semester, I typically had about 5–10 teens in my classroom. The teens ranged in age between 14–18, and were all identifying as Black or mixed race. Typically, I had more males than females, but this fluctuated as well. The teens were treated more like interns than actual students: they were required to wear a work uniform, clock in and out, and follow all basic employment standards for Science Center employees. For example, teens were expected to communicate in advance with their managers to request days off and complete annual performance reviews.

Throughout the Spring and Fall semesters, teens came in every Saturday for four hours, and throughout the summer they would come in Monday through Friday for six to seven hours. A typical day would begin with a journal question and sketchbook prompt, after which we would go over the agenda and set goals together as a group. The projects students completed varied, but they were always focused on hands-on experiences, giving teens the chance to use high-end production equipment. Some examples of projects teens worked on included: filming a visual podcast, editing the podcast, capturing documentary-style photos using manual camera settings, using green screen technology to operate photo booths, and using Adobe products to create and edit materials for both print and digital products.

Though there was significantly more room to explore and be creative in my lessons, I felt a lot of pressure to focus on the technical skill sets, which were viewed as the most important skills the teens needed for career readiness. This often meant there was little time to introduce the idea of an artist as an activist, or to deeply explore issues surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, a pivotal moment emerged when the Saint Louis Science Center became the host for Mandela: The Official Exhibition. The museum was struggling to sell tickets for the exhibit, so I was able to work with the internal marketing team to create an experience for my teens, with the caveat that it could be documented and used to promote the exhibit. Given my passion for socially engaged artistic practice, I seized the opportunity to develop a lesson that would allow for teens to grow their technical skill while also exploring the historical context and importance of Nelson Mandela’s work. Though it was initially the museum’s need for increased attendance that facilitated this opportunity, I was eager to take advantage of an occasion for my students to connect their artistic practice to the work of an important Black activist. It felt like an organic way to infuse the artist-as-activist role that I feel so impassioned about with an exhibit that we were lucky enough to have free and easy access to.

Developing my Lesson

I began by choosing two of the National Core Arts Standards to align my lesson with:

(10) Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding, and (11) Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Though it is not a requirement for my lessons to align with national or state standards, I do try to make sure that I check the standards frequently and make sure that my teens are meeting or exceeding the majority of those requirements. Additionally, I chose to align with the National Standards because the state of Missouri no longer has Media Arts specific standards listed on their website, and the general art standards listed are specific to traditional drawing and painting skills.

Next, I decided to implement a formative assessment to determine students’ baseline knowledge. Beginning all lessons this way helps me to understand where students are at and allows me to individualize the lesson further to help meet everyone’s needs. For this lesson, I began with a short, casual verbal formative assessment to learn the teens’ base knowledge of Nelson Mandela. We had a group conversation discussing what everyone knew about Mandela. I started by writing his name on the white board and asking teens if anyone knew who he was and what he did. Teens immediately recognized the name Mandela and knew that he was an African leader. The majority of students recalled learning about him or hearing his name in a history class or during Black History Month, but no one could remember what exactly he did or why he was an important historical figure. Many teens were not sure whether he was alive or dead, and no one was able to remember his role as President of South Africa.

Based on what I learned from our initial discussion, I brought the teens on a guided tour through the Mandela exhibit so that they could engage with museum educators and ask questions to gain a better understanding of Mandela’s historical impact. In my personal experience, focused guided tours help students stay on task more effectively than independent or self-guided tours. After completing the guided portion of the tour, teens explored the exhibit independently, revisiting areas of the exhibition where they wanted to spend more time. During this time, teens began composing and photographing, creating their own unique work inspired by the exhibit. I include here, with permission, several examples of the work students created during this portion of the lesson.

Image 1. Photograph by Axzaverion Mathews

Image 2. Photograph by Caleb Tillis

Image 3. Photograph by/of Kayden Ramsay-Alexander, Axzaverion Mathews, Caleb Tillis

Upon completing their pieces, the teens regrouped to have a final discussion about the Mandela exhibit. I considered this discussion as the summative assessment tool to determine whether students met the standards and to better understand their depth of learning. Traditionally, the summative assessment in art is a grade on the art project that was completed. However, I wanted instead to focus on the aforementioned standards:

(10) Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding; and (11) Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

It was clear to me that students were able to relate their artwork to the historical context of Nelson Mandela from my observations as students captured photographs around the exhibit. Still, I also wanted students to thoughtfully discuss how the knowledge they gained from the exhibition would not only affect the artwork they made that day, but how the issues addressed in the exhibition related to diversity, equity, and inclusion may impact them moving forward. The discussion began with a quick check-in with students, during which they were each provided with the questions we were going to be talking about. I then gave the students about ten minutes to think about and jot down any ideas, answers or discussion points. Finally, we formed a circle and went through each question individually, allowing teens to further elaborate on their writing.

I offered the following as discussion questions:

• Who was Nelson Mandela, and how did his work impact your life?
• Why do you think the legacy of Nelson Mandela is important?
• What do you think was the most difficult part of this exhibit? (What was the most emotionally challenging, or if you didn’t find this exhibit difficult, explain why).
• What progress still needs to be made to create a more diverse and equitable society?
• Since the Saint Louis Science Center started posting advertisements about this exhibit online, there have been some hateful comments from the public. What would you say to someone upset or confused about why the Science Center has this exhibit?

Teen Written Responses:

• Kayden Ramsay Alexander — Nelson Mandela’s work impacted me by impacting friends of mine who have grown up in Africa and surrounding areas. Mandela is important because he pioneered a free society in South Africa.This exhibit may not directly correlate to science but it does directly correlate to the Science Center’s mission, ultimately to serve the community. This exhibit is providing a connection between our community and our world leaders.
• A.B. — Mandela’s work and mission has affected me by encouraging me to keep an ethic that is not hateful regardless of oppression. Nelson Mandela began his mission at a very young age and he continued his efforts no matter what happened to him or how he was treated. His determination is inspiring because he is so selfless, and because the cause was so important.
• H.C. — Mandela is the man who helped establish equality and freedom for all men, women, and children.
• Axzaverion Mathews — Nelson Mandela is important because he helped South African people be free. I thought that the most challenging part of the exhibit was seeing the bloodiest days, and the prison days of Nelson Mandela.
• Caleb Tillis — Nelson Mandela was a civil rights activist from the country of South Africa, his life is a good story about perseverance. For me the most difficult part of the exhibit was learning about the bloodiest days in South Africa, specifically the part where 69 people were murdered by the police. It made me very remorseful for the affected families, and think about how that event connects with police violence today.

Conclusion

As a leader in a jobs-focused, museum-based art education program, my primary emphasis on cultivating specific technical proficiencies shifted through my experience teaching this lesson. I was able to witness firsthand the values that the teens gained through both their artistic expressions and reflections. One of the most profound moments for me was hearing one of my students connect current day police violence and racism to the violence Nelson Mandela was fighting in Africa over thirty years prior. This experience compelled me to pivot more towards establishing an educational environment that nurtures meaningful social, cultural, and historical connection to artistic pursuits, rather than one that overly focuses on the technical. I believe that the skills teens gained from this lesson are just as, if not more important, for being able to pursue artistic careers.

In extending guidance to fellow museum educators, I advocate for a stronger emphasis on prioritizing historically and socially engaged practices, as opposed to overly specific art techniques. I believe these practices will allow for an environment that supports students in exploring what it means to be an artist activist, in addition to helping them connect artistic ideas with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen their overall understanding of the world around them.

I understand that not every educator will have the privilege of giving their students physical access to a beautiful exhibition focused on the life of an anti-apartheid activist and world leader. However, I would encourage educators to leverage online resources, providing students with the opportunity to virtually embark on museum tours. This digital access can furnish students with experiences akin to the one detailed here, thereby democratizing access to enriching educational opportunities that might otherwise remain elusive.

Additional Resources

• Museums for Digital Learning
• Free Online Tours of the Louvre
• Resources | National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Additional Online Museum Tours
• Discussing Race in the Art Room
• Anti Racist Art Teachers Instagram

Jasmine Krueger (she/her) is a Multimedia Artist working in Higher Education. She received her MH in Art and Visual Media from Tiffin University, her BFA in Art Education and Fine Art from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and her AA in Secondary Education from Saint Louis Community College. She has exhibited artwork in numerous galleries across multiple states, created three public murals, and aspires to write poetry. Jasmine is a lifelong learner and passionate creative. Learn more about Jasmine and her work online at https://www.jasminekruegerart.com/