Transforming Self After the Loss of a Mother as a Young Girl: Feminist Grief Guidance Through Art
Open Access
- Author:
- Borgman, Chelsea
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 30, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Karen Treat Keifer-Boyd, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Michelle S Bae-Dimitriadis, Committee Member
Jill Wood, Committee Member
Booker Stephen Carpenter, II, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Grief
Art Education
Girlhood
parental loss
art-making
emergent curriculum
feminist pedagogy
action research - Abstract:
- Grief is a misunderstood concept in the United States. Since the advent of modern psychology, popularized grief models have pushed grief from a cultural or religious practice into a medicalized realm that characterizes certain expressions of loss as inappropriate. The designation, of what is the right and wrong way to grieve, is rooted in a hegemonic patriarchal tradition that, throughout history, has characterized women’s expressions of grief as ‘unhealthy’ and in need of medical intervention. Process-based grief models, based on a medicalized understanding, permeate popular culture and present unrealistic expectations of ‘returning to normal’ after loss. This mischaracterization of grief, as a process one goes through and then recovers from, sets people up to feel as if they have failed by not overcoming their grief. The cultural understanding of grief is particularly problematic for children, specifically girls, who have lost their mother. This study proposes an alternative to a medicalized conceptualization of grief, in which educators who work with grieving children understand loss to be a fundamentally transformative event in one’s life. The purpose of grief work, as indicated in this study, should not be to eliminate painful feelings, rather it should work to support grieving people as they explore and adjust to their new identity and reality after the loss of a loved one. In this study, I consider the potential of an emergent student-driven curriculum based in the process of art-making, as an alternative avenue for grief work with girls experiencing parental loss. This work is grounded in a feminist pedagogy, which prioritizes care, mutual learning, and non-authoritative relationships. Art-making has the unique ability to hold space for complex, nuanced, and ever-changing emotions. After loss, introducing art-making has the potential to provide grieving girls with life-long emotional strategies that morph with their feelings and support them through new and ongoing iterations of their grief. In this case study, I created art throughout five sessions with a nine-year-old girl whose mother had died. Utilizing a critical action research approach, I reflected on my teaching practice and position as a feminist grief guide, while considering the role art-making played in our discussions of loss and processing of complicated emotion. As a feminist grief guide, I grounded my practice in both feminist pedagogy and epistemology, in which grief is considered an ever-changing reflection of personal experience and positionality. Findings indicate that the structure of this art-making series of workshops created opportunities for the researcher and participant to talk about the role of grief in our lives, use the process of creating art as a vehicle for grief discussion, explore art-materials as a way to create ongoing bonds with our lost mothers, exercise reciprocal learning, and express both vulnerability and agency as a grieving girl and woman.