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A reflection on dialogic diving boards and decolonising school art: The African mask project

Grant, Will; Richards, Malcolm; Steward, Ros; Whelan, Jamie

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Authors

Will Grant Will.Grant@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Secondary Art and Design Education

Malcolm Richards

Ros Steward Ros.Steward@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Primary Initial Teacher Education

Jamie Whelan



Abstract

In this paper, four colleagues working in teacher education reflect on a conversation. The conversation in question was a tangible discussion documented through frequent and purposeful email exchange, exploring traditionalist school art curricula through reference to lived experience, academic theory, and professional anecdote. The primary objective of this dialogic self‐enquiry was informal critical analysis of the cultural diversity and positioning of art objects that populate classroom curricula in English schools, starting with the ‘African mask’. The secondary objective of our conversation was exploration of how complex talk on culture and curriculum might be modelled for schoolteachers yet to initiate similar conversations in their own professional contexts. We each provide reflections on the success of our conversation against these objectives and find that while email exchange provided some formal advantages for the structure of our discourse, this was not as we might have expected. The dialogue facilitated a rhizomatic deepening of our individual questioning of culturality in the classroom, which while nourishing was arguably unproductive in instrumental terms. Collectively, our reflections suggest that dialogue may be a critical catalyst for the latter, inherently private work of decolonising one's own critical teaching praxis.

Citation

Grant, W., Richards, M., Steward, R., & Whelan, J. (in press). A reflection on dialogic diving boards and decolonising school art: The African mask project. International Journal of Art and Design Education, https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12476

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 17, 2023
Online Publication Date Sep 7, 2023
Deposit Date Sep 14, 2023
Publicly Available Date Sep 15, 2023
Journal International Journal of Art and Design Education
Print ISSN 1476-8062
Electronic ISSN 1476-8070
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12476
Keywords culturality, dialogue, decolonisation, curriculum, self enquiry, art education
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11113557

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