Texas Trends in Art Education, 2010 Page: 18

                                
plan included pointing out that many families rely on older
children to cook, babysit and clean as part of their family
duties. She stated,
This type of work cannot be termed "slavery" in
the same context as the African American slaves
to whom Walker refers, who were being forced
into servitude against their will and threatened
with their lives if they didn't comply. (J. Vahrenk-
amp, personal communication, November 14,
2008)
As a result of this feedback, Jacqueline revised her lesson
plan so that she more thoroughly addressed the horrors that
Walker is asking viewers to consider. She included questions in
her discussion of the art work that asked her classmates why
they thought the images were so violent, and how these im-
ages made them feel. She stated,
I found Mrs. Wilt's advice very helpful, and it
made me see my lesson plan in a different light. I
agree with her that I need to be very careful in
using the term slavery around students, because
they could take it in a completely different way.
(J. Vahrenkamp, personal communication, No-
vember 14, 2008).
I found that there were commonalties among the mentor
teachers' advice to the preservice teachers. Each mentor
teacher emphasized the importance of knowing your students
so that you can choose the most appropriate imagery for
them. Each mentor teacher also advised the preservice teach-
ers to be honest with students about the main ideas behind
Walker's work, but to also provide them with a counterbal-
ance, or a way to help students transform the situation. Pre-
service teacher Valerie Alvarez called this approach "mending
the wounds" in her lesson plan. Her mentor teacher suggested
that after students looked at and discussed the stereotypes in
You Do (1993-94), they could then identify one or more of the
wounds caused by slavery. Then, students could utilize one of
the seven principles of Kwanza4 to illustrate how this wound
could be healed in modern times. In her studio example, Val-
erie chose the Kwanza principle of Unity in the family and

community and illustrated a group of sisters playing outside.
Her written reflection about the piece talked about the role
that family plays in helping us through difficult situations,
training us and being a strong source of support. For Valerie,
this approach aligned with her teaching philosophy. She
states:

As an educator, I do not want my students to be
oblivious towards these horrific subjects...But I
don't want them to just focus on those negative
aspects and not do anything about it. I will pre-
sent these issues to my students and encourage
them to do something about it, and be the forces
of change that everyone encourages them to be.
(V. Alvarez, personal communication, November
14, 2008)

LESSONS LEARNED
Even with this vital link of the mentor art teacher, the
messiness of translating theory to practice is still very
present. There were several unexpected outcomes of
this curriculum that warrant further inquiry for me as an edu-
cator. I stated at the outset of the assignment that I wanted
preservice teachers to be aware of their comfort levels in dis-
cussing and viewing controversial art. In their final reflections,
many of the preservice teachers remarked that they were un-
comfortable with Kara Walker's art and talked about the nega-
tivity that they felt from the imagery. They cited reasons that
included not having seen her work before this assignment and
thinking that her art was not appropriate for the public school
classroom. During class time discussions, these beliefs were
not disclosed. I wonder at the reasons for this. Did I provide a
safe classroom environment where preservice teachers felt
the freedom to be honest? Did I effectively model strategies
for discussing and understanding controversial art? Or, did the
preservice teachers genuinely understand their comfort levels
and use these as the guidelines for the curriculum they devel-
oped? I realize now the importance of giving them the experi-
ence of viewing controversial art, because it helped some of
them overcome this discomfort. Jacqueline remarked:
When I first started this assignment, I was not
sure how I was going to do this... [before this
experience] I would have completely avoided
I RENDS        2010U