Exploring Curriculum through Street Art

Titles of Presentations in a Panel

Exploring Curriculum through Street Art (Kaitlin Popielarz)

Abstract

Curriculum should allow our students and teachers to feel aesthetically alive. Curriculum should not only nurture our learning goals but it should also push the limits as to what is deemed possible. In a beautiful way, street art carries all of the same purposes as curriculum and it is where students find space to interpret their own personal learning journey through their community of practice. By exploring curriculum through street art, students are provided the opportunity to make meaning, to liberate themselves from traditional schooling, and to engage in the process of reclaiming space. Street art becomes a tool for students to share their stories with their classmates and the local community in order to cultivate social change. In this way, street art represents how curriculum can be designed to fit the needs of the diverse and multi-faceted 21st century learner. In order to re-conceptualize learning and teaching, we will explore street art from Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan – two cities that share beauty, pain, history, culture, and unique stories through aesthetically alive works of art along city skylines and streetscapes. Through these two great Michigan cities, we will see how street art allows for reflection, rejects standardization, embraces multiculturalism, and cultivates social justice within a community.

Presentation Description

In order to re-conceptualize learning and teaching, we will explore street art from Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan – two cities that share beauty, pain, history, culture, and unique stories through aesthetically alive works of art along city skylines. Through this mindset, we will see how street art allows for reflection, rejects standardization, embraces multiculturalism, and cultivates social change within a community. By exploring curriculum through street art, we are able to rethink our educational practices to best fit the diverse and multi-faceted 21st century learner.

Keywords

Street art, Curriculum design, Culturally relevant, Place based, Civic engagement, Social movements, Youth activism

Location

Oglethorpe

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

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Jun 10th, 3:45 PM Jun 10th, 5:00 PM

Exploring Curriculum through Street Art

Oglethorpe

Curriculum should allow our students and teachers to feel aesthetically alive. Curriculum should not only nurture our learning goals but it should also push the limits as to what is deemed possible. In a beautiful way, street art carries all of the same purposes as curriculum and it is where students find space to interpret their own personal learning journey through their community of practice. By exploring curriculum through street art, students are provided the opportunity to make meaning, to liberate themselves from traditional schooling, and to engage in the process of reclaiming space. Street art becomes a tool for students to share their stories with their classmates and the local community in order to cultivate social change. In this way, street art represents how curriculum can be designed to fit the needs of the diverse and multi-faceted 21st century learner. In order to re-conceptualize learning and teaching, we will explore street art from Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan – two cities that share beauty, pain, history, culture, and unique stories through aesthetically alive works of art along city skylines and streetscapes. Through these two great Michigan cities, we will see how street art allows for reflection, rejects standardization, embraces multiculturalism, and cultivates social justice within a community.