Statement Of Problem
After examining the YNI seminars—specifically Resistance from Aristotle to Star Wars led by Feisal Mohamed, Professor of English—I was challenged to consider how my interests in the seminar and its contents would result in developing original curriculum in art education. While the seminar provides an interdisciplinary approach to engaging with the historical, institutional, and societal (HIS) implications of resistance, there remained an opportunity for me to expand the pedagogical discourse by including a visual arts protocol centered on ways of seeing, knowing and being (3). The emergent unit—soon manifested— would draw upon a visual literacy, critical pedagogy, arts-informed inquiry, and culturally responsive teaching practice to help students analyze how resistance is communicated through imagery, symbols, artistic interventions, site- specifical installation, and visual culture.
“Anti-Inclusivity Ain’t Beautiful: The Art of Seeing, Knowing, and Being” is inspired by some of the powerful lessons I’ve designed and facilitated with my students in the past. During the 2025-2026 school year, I recognized that my students were living through a uniquely charged moment in Washington, D.C. with heightened immigration enforcement, National Guard presence, and youth curfew policies. In response to their lived experiences, I introduced a protest art assignment that created space for them to reflect on the realities of daily lives, identities, and sense of belonging, using art as a tool for inquiry, dialogue, and expression. The unit culminated in a mock protest where students adorned protest posters designed using Adobe Express that illustrated topics such as (a) racial injustice and police brutality, (b) gun violence and school safety, and (c) body image and beauty standards, to name a few. The unit was limited to creating protest posters, but what if students were able to use similar topics to create site-specific installations that illuminated their lived experiences through choice-based medium and multimodalities—while inviting others to interact with the work? Visual works of art can function as sites of resistance that offer counter- narratives that challenge HIS implications and curate pathways to alternative perspectives that may be traditionally minoritized in k-12 educational spaces and beyond. Therefore, by embedding structured protocols within the teaching strategies and classroom activities— this unit will engage students in close looking, writing exercises and multimodal making protocols guided by the visual works of contemporary visual agents of resistance—with an end game of conjuring a new social contract—such an approach could broaden traditional conceptions of resistance by recognizing artistic production as a form of civic engagement, social critique, and cultural transformation.
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