Dissertation

African caribbean pupils in art and design education

Dash, Paul Samuel

2008

Overview

This work looks at the implications for teaching art and design to children of African-Caribbean heritage in the British educational system. It is organised in three sections. The first provides the broad rationale for the thesis and includes an analysis of viewpoints on the diasporic state, this instead of a literature review, It asserts that children of African Caribbean and wider diasporic backgrounds are disadvantaged by not being made familiar with material from their cultural heritages. This has come about, I argue, by the enduring effects of the rupture that was the slave trade and the lack of acknowledgement of the significance of the black presence in the West. Consequently, the paper contends, diasporic peoples are rendered invisible. The thesis asserts that culture as a context for teaching is fundamental to art and design education. Therefore African Caribbean learners, whose cultural heritages are not seen, are disadvantaged and appear culturally impoverished relative to others. To substantiate this critical viewpoint, key, texts, by theorists on diasporic studies are referenced and analysed. These include David Dabydeen, CLR Jarnes, Stuart Hall and Kamau Brathwaite. My intention in this first section, therefore, is to throw light on the tensions surrounding the black subject, their lack of a positive presence in the critical and contextual material that children are exposed to and how this tension impacts on the teaching of art. The values disseminated in such pedagogies are central to the enquiry.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Art education