'For Us Poetry is Not a Luxury': A Case Study of Six Black Women Artist-Educator-Activists Open Access
Ali, Khalilah Odessa (2012)
Published
Abstract
Abstract
'For Us Poetry is Not a Luxury': A Case Study of Six Black Women
Artist-Educator-Activists
Scholars have contributed to a growing body of inquiry into the use
of performance,
visual art, spoken word, and hip-hop to improve student literacy
and promote student activism.
Additional scholarship evaluates the effectiveness of Saturday and
after-school programs that
incorporate hip-hop and spoken word into their curricula (Denzin,
2003; Dimitriadis, 2001;
Fisher, 2007; Goldfarb, 1998; Stovall, 2006). However, further
attention should continue to shift
towards the educators who create and work in these programs
and who teach in those non-school
spaces, what Fisher calls Participatory Literacy Communities
(PLCs)--such as black bookstores,
coffee-shops and performance venues (Fisher, 2007, 2009). My work
complements and extends
such scholarship by drawing attention to alternative forms of
education and by highlighting the
ways in which selected African American women artist-activists'
cultural performances function
as educative texts in a range of learning settings. This study
explored the ways six Black women
construct artist, educator, and activist identities and how these
multiple identities converge in and
through works in a range of educational spaces. Using interviews,
observations, and analyses of
artifacts, I focused on the following research questions:
1.) What is the relationship between the politicized art Black
women teachers produce
and their beliefs about education?
2.) How do artists/activists function as teachers in various
spaces--the schoolhouse, after-
school program, art group, coffee shop, or performance venue?
3.) How do the artists' race and gender influence how they produce
art, engage in activism,
and educate in these various spaces?
Findings indicate that participants believe their works behave
as educative texts and are their
primary means for promoting social justice agendas. Across cases,
artist-activist-educators shared
that they function as teachers in various spaces--both traditional
and subaltern, yet often find
themselves 'betwixt and between' (Bhabha, 1994; Turner, 1987; Winn,
2010) these seemingly
antagonistic spaces. The study suggests that educators involved in
the discourse surrounding teacher
identity development should continue to interrogate how teachers
conceive of the ways in which
identity shapes their educational philosophies and teaching.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter I. Statement of the Problem 5
Introduction 5
Purpose of the Study 7
Research Questions 7
Significance 8
Theoretical Framework:
Womanist Performance Pedagogy 10
Definition of Terms 15
Chapter II. Review of the Literature 19
Chapter III. Methodology 46
Research Design 47
Participants 48
Site Selection 50
Data Sources and Analysis 53
Data Management 55
Validity and Reliability 56
Researcher Positionality 57
Chapter IV. Findings 60
Teacher Vignettes: Artists, Educators,
and Activists 62
Cross Case Analysis 152
Chapter V. Discussion 186
References 204
Appendix A: Letter of Participation Request 215
Appendix B: Consent to be a Research
Subject 217
Appendix C: Interview Protocols 219
Appendix D: Contact Summary Form 223
Appendix E: Table 1 Summary of
Research Questions 225
Appendix F: Aesthetic Artifact Analysis Form 226
Appendix G: Aesthetic Artifact List 227
Appendix H: Code Summary 228
Appendix I: Data Sources for Case Analysis 231
About this Dissertation
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