“There Was Something Missing”: Using the Critical Response Protocol as Antiracist Practice in Arts Education

Abstract

This article addresses antiracist arts education by examining key aspects of the critical response protocol (CRP) to disrupt notions of neutrality when responding to works of art. Building on a large urban district’s professional development work to support arts educators’ awareness of their racial identity, we examine how the CRP perpetuates whiteness in K–12 arts classrooms, ultimately maintaining racial inequality. Our research addresses the following question: How do markers of identity, like race, intersect with CRP in K–12 arts classrooms? Our findings contribute to literature on antiracist arts education.

Notes

1 We write the terms “white” and “whiteness” with a lowercase “w” intentionally. In using lowercase “w,” we acknowledge that “the use of upper case and lower case in reference to racial identity has a particular political history” where the term “White” with a capital “W” “incorporate[s] Black subordination” (Harris, 1993, p. 1710). We will not participate in such forms of subordination. Capitalizing “African American” and “Black” while decapitalizing “white” functions as a “counterhegemonic practice” against white supremacy. Thus, our use of lowercase “w” is not merely a preference, but an extension of our antiracist scholarship.

2 We selected Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey’s music video “The Middle” (Zedd et al., 2018). Toward the end of the CRP conversation, we asked participants to critically reflect on our selection of the exemplar: What might this exemplar reveal about our own beliefs and values as facilitators? Why did we choose this work of art and not a different one?