Educating for cultural citizenship: Reframing the goals of arts education

Abstract

Arts education does more than transfer the skills and knowledge needed to create artistic works. It also helps to shape young people's orientations towards participation in the cultural life of their communities. In this article, Paul Kuttner argues for reframing arts education as a process of developing cultural citizenship. Cultural citizenship, a concept from political theory and cultural studies, is concerned with the development of diverse cultural practices and identities alongside full participation in cultural and political life. Using this lens, we can look at different forms of arts education and ask, “What types of cultural citizens are these programs developing?” Building on the work of civic education scholars Westheimer and Kahne (2004), Kuttner suggests a few initial types before delving into a fuller description of what he calls the “justice-oriented cultural citizen.” This concept is illustrated with data from an ethnographic case study of one arts organization that is developing such citizens: Project HIP-HOP, a Boston-based youth organization that trains young artists as cultural organizers who can use their art to catalyze change in their communities. This reframing of arts education as a form of civic education helps to situate artistic practices in their larger socio-political contexts, while contributing to an ongoing dialogue about the role of arts education in supporting participatory democracy and social change.

Keywords:

• civic engagement
• civic education
• cultural organizing
• cultural citizenship
• hip-hop
• arts education

Notes

1. The boundaries of what is and is not art have long been debated, with no agreement in sight. Nelson Goodman (1978) has argued compellingly that the question “what is art” is not even the right question. We should be asking, “when is art?”—a pebble in the street is not art, but when we place it in a museum in such a way that it comes to symbolize hardness, or simplicity, or steadfastness, it can function as art. Art, then, is a social process of meaning making carried out in relation to a cultural product. I do not offer a solution to these debates. Instead I use a pragmatic definition based on what has been popularly recognized as art. The very fact that we carve out particular cultural practices and label them as art makes the category meaningful. At the same time, I am purposefully blurring the lines between the arts and other forms of symbolic creativity.

2. I refer to the settlement house art classes because I believe that they embody the best of the participatory approach to arts education as laid out here, and have inspired many others in this mold. It must be mentioned, however, that these art classes were embedded in a larger vision of social justice and activism. Some of the courses, and certainly many of those teaching the courses, would likely fall under the third type of cultural citizen described here. This is another sign that the real world is always a bit more complicated than any typology can capture.

3. For social justice arts education, see Quinn, Ploof, and Hochtritt, (2012); and Hanley, Sheppard, Noblit, and Barone, 2013. For community-based arts, see Knight and Schwarzman (2005). For the participatory action research, see Cahill et al. (2008); and Lykes (2006). For youth media, see Soep and Chávez (2010). For the use of arts in youth organizing, see Clay, 2012; and Flores-Gonzáles, Rodríguez, and Rodríguez-Muñiz (2006). For critical media literacy, see Kellner and Share (2005). For hip-hop education, see Akom (2009). For community cultural development, see Goldbard (2006). For cultural organizing, see Benavente & Richardson, (2011).

4. All names of participants in this article are real. While youth had the opportunity to use a pseudonym, most (and all those quoted here) chose to use their actual names, in line with the public role they were playing as cultural organizers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul J. Kuttner

Paul Kuttner is an educational scholar whose work focuses on community-based, culturally-rooted approaches to education and civic engagement in urban low-income communities and Communities of Color. Currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Critical Communications Pedagogy at the University of Utah, Paul earned his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Paul is a qualitative researcher and ethnographer, committed to rigorous, critical scholarship that is conducted in partnership with youth and communities. Prior to his doctoral studies, Paul worked as an educator, teaching theater, creative writing, and civic engagement in schools and community organizations across Chicago. Paul is a co-author of A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform (Oxford, 2011), and a co-editor of Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline (HER, 2012). He is a former co-chair of the Harvard Educational Review (HER) Editorial Board, and a contributing editor to Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution. Paul blogs at culturalorganizing.org