The Pedagogy of Waiting: Rethinking Art Education with Disability
Open Access
- Author:
- Gu, Min
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 28, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Kimberly Anne Powell, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kimberly Anne Powell, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Michelle S Bae-Dimitriadis, Committee Member
Janet Wynne Lyon, Committee Member
Janet Wynne Lyon, Outside Member
Charles Richard Garoian, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Karen Treat Keifer-Boyd, Program Head/Chair
Charles Richard Garoian, Committee Chair/Co-Chair - Keywords:
- art education
disability studies
artists with disabilities
Creative Growth Art Center
pedagogy
pedagogy of waiting - Abstract:
- Although disability legislation in the United States has provided increased opportunities for students with disabilities to learn art in classrooms and art centers since the 1970s, these students’ experiences have often been overlooked, dismissed, and/or stigmatized by normative understandings of art making and art learning. To challenge such disenfranchisement, this study advocates for the nuanced and differentiated experiences of people with disabilities that would otherwise go unrecognized by ableist art curriculum and pedagogy. By investigating the artistic processes and practices of artists who have disabilities through field observations, I argue for reconceptualizing pedagogical practices and educational content for all learners. Particularly, based on my data analysis of the artists’ everyday practices, I develop the concept of a pedagogy of waiting, which allows for a consideration of embodied differences. A pedagogy of waiting is attuned to non-symbolic and heterogeneous movements in bodies. It allows time and space for the recurring rhythms in artists’ and students’ experiences to emerge and encourages their differentiated ways of learning and being in the world.