NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL

VOLUME 35, NUMBERS 1, 2, & 3, 2017-2018

THE VITAL ROLE OF THE ARTS AS A

SOCIAL JUSTICE PEDAGOGY:
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Christa Boske
Kent State University

Azadeh F. Osanloo
New Mexico State University

Whitney Sherman Newcomb

Virginia Commonwealth University
Controversies among relationships surrounding school
leadership and social justice-oriented work has become more and more
prevalent within the last twenty years. In this special issue, authors
focus on attempts to document diverse ways in which the arts are
understood and implemented into school leadership preparation. First,
Jennifer Friend, Jennifer Waddell, Bradley Poos, Loyce Caruthers, and
Tricia DeGraff provided a rich narrative regarding arts-based inquiry
for mentoring teachers to engage in social justice work in schools.
Next, Hollie J. Mackey explored the experiences of Native American
students and their experiences with injustice to improve the ways in
which school leaders are prepared to address inequitable schools.
Afterwards, Kyle Reyes discussed the need to honor and recognize
historically disenfranchised students as authors and creators of their
own narratives. Finally, the intergenerational collaboration of high
school students Shannon Vickers, Lenard Jackson, Josiah Tate,
Babatunde Motoni, Hunter Smith, advisor Leshun Collins, and artist
mentor Christa Boske explored the extent sense-making played in
understanding and promoting equity-oriented social justice work
through performance art.

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Together, authors addressed the intersections of artmaking,

sensemaking, and social justice as an innovative pedagogy as well as a
curricular foundation to prepare educational leaders to engage in this
significant work in schools. The underlying theme of these four
articles suggests the arts play a significant role in raising awareness of
the disparities facing vulnerable school community populations and
the role school leaders play in deepening their understandings and
responding to their new ways of knowing in authentic, context-specific
ways. However, as these authors concluded, artmaking as a means of
addressing social justice remains an under-researched area in
academia, especially in school leadership preparation.

This special issue responded to addressing social justice and

equity-oriented work through artmaking, which authors have
demonstrated, has the capacity to transform school leaders everyday
lives personally and professionally. Authors provided excellent
opportunities for further examination and evaluation of approaches
towards social justice-oriented policies, practices, equality and
diversity, and other aspects of social justice within school leadership.
Authors also attended to this call by contemplating issues of social
justice through artmaking as authoethnographic testimonies, embodied
knowledge, performance, and agency. Authors presented their
understandings through the arts, curriculum, and visual studies, which
is constantly emerging through scholarly processes of scholarly
debate, disagreement, and doubt that has the capacity to enliven
research possibilities and transformations.

We imagined this special issue as a forum to contribute to

reflections on and interdisciplinary conversations about artmaking as
social justice oriented school leadership work that builds on limited
extant literature and emphasizes relationships among embodied
knowledge, artmaking, and social justice work in schools. Authors
provide opportunities for readers to span a myriad of areas focused on
arts-based practices (i.e., policy and curriculum), draw upon
interdisciplinary literatures, and consider pedagogies to deepen
146 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL

understanding of these intersections as well as possible implications.

They raise concerns and awareness and invite us to reconsider the
extent artmaking as social justice-oriented work incorporates universal
ideals. Together, they provide an arts-based pedagogical framework
for understanding complex processes and the need to construct
multilayered narratives to engage school leaders in becoming socially
responsible for serving vulnerable populations in meaningful ways.

The arts have the capacity to transform understanding,

responses, and provide meaningful collective and cumulative
experiences for school leaders. By the very nature of the arts,
transformative moments are imbued with meaning and significance.
The objective of this special issue was not to negate whether or not
arts-based pedagogies should be implemented in school leadership
programs. This special issue is an attempt to further the dialogue about
the capacity of utilizing the arts to promote this significant work; a
chance to raise awareness and understanding; a platform for promoting
a myriad of arts-based pedagogies; and perhaps, a call for more critical
work in this area of study. These discussions and analyses have the
potential to help shape the future research agenda for social justice-
oriented work by bridging conceptual as well as practical work.
Further evidence-based research is needed to interpret the extent arts-
based approaches can provide a fuller understanding or the depth and
breadth of social justice work in school leadership preparation
programs. Authors in this special issue raise questions regarding the
role the arts play in promoting, transmitting, and translating a myriad
of understandings about social justice work. They question the purpose
of this work, and ultimately, who benefits from these arts-based
practices. Their hope: Arts-based pedagogies to deepen awareness and
responses toward social justice have the capacity to be instrumental in
transforming school community members lives, renew their learning
communities, and promote authentic inclusive spaces for all.