Fostering Capabilities Toward Social Justice in Art Education

Abstract

Social justice, in its broadest sense, is about equal rights and opportunities for all. But understanding of rights and opportunities vary widely, depending upon how we are situated socially, politically, economically, and culturally. In education, social justice is not simply absence of injustice but also the need to recognize and enact teaching and learning that promotes a deeper understanding of ourselves and our students in relation to the broader social and cultural landscape. This article argues that, given the growing diversity of embodying, implementing, and assessing social justice practices in art classrooms. The authors developed, taught, and evaluated a social justice practices in art classrooms. The authors developed, taught, and evaluated a social justice based art education course with a service learning component for undergraduate art education students. Through their experience they discovered that the capabilities students brought to the classroom directly influenced the ways in which they engaged with and put into practice the social justice course material.