International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Chin, C. (2016). Moving beyond a human relations approach in multicultural art education practice. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 17(4). Retrieved from http://www.ijea.org/v17n4/.

While literature on multicultural education indicates that Human Relations approaches to multicultural education are the most commonly practiced, such approaches also tend to be the most heavily critiqued by theorists. Scholars often offer speculative theoretical suggestions on how to improve upon Human Relations approaches. However, ethnographic case studies showing how such suggestions are carried out in the artroom at the elementary level are virtually non-existent in the literature. This article aims to provide readers with an illustrative case of how, in practice, an elementary art teacher is moving beyond the most heavily critiqued characteristics of Human Relations approaches. Descriptive detail is provided to paint a vivid picture of how she implements her curriculum, so that other art educators might draw from her practices and apply similar strategies within their own artrooms, as they see fit.