Uncovering a Missing Narrative: Black* Teaching Artists

*For purposes of this research,“Black teaching artists” are to be understood as any teaching artist who identified as Black, African American, and/or whose heritage is connected to the African Diaspora.

In the Spring of 2020, Black Teaching Artist Lab (BTAL) and Creative Generation collaborated in order to examine the prevalence of Black voices in the dialogues about teaching artists and collect ethnographic data - specifically the demographics, attitudes, and perceptions of Black identity in teaching artistry - with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the role of Black teaching artists in the field.. 

Before starting this journey, BTAL founder, Melissa Parke, worked as a community manager for the Brooklyn Creative League (BCL), a co-working space in Brooklyn, New York. By being surrounded by highly successful entrepreneurs and social change markers, Parke was inspired to turn my ideas into a reality. Thus, BTAL was formed in response to the social and racial unrest during the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. 

As a professional development organization, BTAL provides Black teaching artists with the resources and tools to gain a deeper understanding of their Black identity using their art as medium for exploration. Navigating the arts education field, they soon realized, and not surprised, that a major data gap existed upon both Black experience and Black arts-based teaching artistry.


Black Teaching Artists Within Our Current Context

The year 2020, and beyond, had many students living through at-home instruction, whether synchronous and asynchronous, which led to feelings of isolation. Parents were furloughed, struggling to keep up with their families, many were induced with fears of family members - or even themselves  - being diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus.Many students, especially those of color, were nativaging heavy discussions about police bruailty, discrimination, uncomfortablity in white dominated spaces, fear of authority figures, and overall confusion; we even witnessed the eruption of dialogues around feeling insecure about the color of one’s skin. 

While these forces have proven to deeply affect the lives of our youth it has also triggered a response - How can we make this world more equitable for marginalized voices?

As educators, we understand the importance of having a Black educator in the lives of our Black students. For example, Black students’ likelihood of enrolling in college increases by 32% with the presence of a Black educator, but what about when a Black student has additional Black teaching artists in their lives? 


Starting an Exploration

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) ‚ the project’s namesake - whose work in anthropology focused on examining Black folklore, inspired the research approach. Before collecting the stories, attitudes, and perceptions of Black teaching artists, however, our team needed to scope our inquiry. We did this through a systematic review of available traditional and non-traditional literature and other documentation.

In the first phase of research, the teams at BTAL and Creative Generation collaborated to conduct an evaluation and compilation of research by, for, and about Black teaching artists. Unsurprisingly, there were very few scholarly articles, reports, or peer-reviewed documentation with this niche focus. So, upon archiving these specific studies, we broadened our scope to explore materials (what we referred to broadly as “documented knowledge”), which related to teaching artists and Black teaching and learning.

We continually refer to “documented knowledge,” in recognition of the deeply-rooted oral histories, cultural practices, and social knowledge passed between generations of Black teaching artists, educators, and culture bearers. We identified early on in this project, that these histories and traditions are often unrecognized in Western European academic traditions of “literature reviews” which rely on the publication of the written word; so, we rejected this notion and broadly accepted myriad media of ‘documentation’ and ‘knowledge’ within this field of practice.

As we learned about the current status of understanding - through the ‘documented knowledge’ - we wondered a lot of things: Would Black students gain a deeper understanding of themselves using art practices by having Black teaching artists? Will they have the ability to explore their Black culture using art? Black teaching artists are the cultural and social responders in the classroom. These educators provide our students with a critical lens of understanding how to best communicate self and Black identity to the world. 

So, we set forward some questions that our organizations wanted to explore. 


Why is This Important?

BTAL and Creative Generation’s goal and inspiration for this ethnographic research initiative was to allow for deeper conversation about the needs and resources for Black teaching artists creating more opportunities and insight for the field and sector, including all Black artists and educators. 

BTAL seeks to better understand and serve Black teaching artists across the United States as the racial pandemic of 2020 (and beyond) continues to reveal the deep-rooted nature of supremacist systems pervading American culture. Gaps of documented knowledge have been revealed within BIPOC communities—namely within the field of Black teaching artistry.

Our process uncovered that there has not yet been any formalized study conducted on Black teaching artists before, asking these particular questions, so we, at BTAL, decided to do it ourselves with the support of Creative Generation. 

By collecting demographic data and learning the needs and resourcefulness of Black teaching artists currently serving these communities, BTAL has an opportunity to not only support Black teaching artists but also gain a deeper and authentic perspective of these communities at large. As André Solomon, Community Knowledge Manager for Creative Generation, says….

Data is the perfect way for storytelling, and everyone has an important story to be told. As this is one of the first of its kind, these moments set an example for the future. Going through this racial reckoning, I hope it inspires many to acquire authentic, meaningful and actionable data to uplift the communities they are a part of.

The process of creating, developing, sharing and analyzing the survey was more difficult than what we were expecting. Because there were no prior surveys that occurred before this one, there was a great amount of importance to ensure that the questions we asked could facilitate action. BTAL co-worker, Abby Faires, knew that this information was critual to furthering the conversation about equality…

Being a part of this initiative meant that I got to be a part of something that was not only imperative for the healing and growth of our society, but it also meant that I got to be a part of a movement that was trailblazing and transformative—a movement that was in fact much, much bigger than me.

One of the beauties in the African Diaspora is resilience. Though there were obstacles and limitations, which required creating things from scratch, the drive never faltered because this work, as Abby mentioned, “is bigger than all of us.” Even if we do not reap direct benefits, it ensures that the next generations does.    

 

A Scope of Work

After our first stage of research, BTAL has authored a Scope of Work, which outlines the approach to identifying the gaps mentioned before and names the three areas, which we will explore through field research.

Give it a read, and learn more about how we intend to explore the following topics:

  • The Importance of Community 

  • The Cultivation of Black-Centered Spaces 

  • The U.S. Education System's Discrimination 

There is a lot to learn about our field and ourselves; more to come soon.