In a previous publication, I explained the importance of finding my intersectional position(s) as a motivation to design and teach a critically oriented art curriculum. I believe this is the first step to start planning an anti-racist and climate change curriculum in multicultural education.
As an artist, I was impressed with the creativity of my young students and enjoyed talking and drawing with them. Thinking about addressing intersectional discrimination, I found that a lesson plan has a time limitation to continuing the conversations and taking action at school. This collection of drawings may not represent the final outcome of the intended art project but are evidence of an ongoing conversation.
As a teacher, I reflected on the student’s needs in multicultural schools. Their bodies are changing, their identities are in formation, influenced by the power of the media and history (Desai, 2002: 313). I also acknowledge that framed by tight school calendar deadlines with many needs including behavioral issues to attend to, teaching art thinking is challenging. This makes arts-based research at school difficult. Yet, throughout the school year, I designed and taught four different artistic explorations. I decided to present the visual thinking process –the betweens–of two projects, comic and mural painting.
As a researcher, I developed the arts curriculum implementing design research processes (Bakker, 2018), critical pedagogy (Au, 2015; Desai, 2016; Carbado et al., 2013; Ahmed, 2013; and Darder, 2016), and contemporary art. From this frame, I mediated critical and creative pedagogical approaches which unfolded the inquiry cyclically, transversally, and as a rhizome (Irwin & Springgay, 2008: 163-164). From an ethnographic perspective, I used the curriculum and the ice crack-inspired research diagram (Balzi, 2023: 4-10) to rethink the next steps in producing experiences and creating diffractions (Mazzei, & Jackson, 2012: 139).
To discuss my research questions, I incorporated the students’ drawings in the research diagram because they represent the students’ understanding of key concepts after the class discussions and inner worlds. Ontologically, they function as a cartography producing new insights for multicultural art education at school (Haseman, 2006: 98-106).