Navigating the “delicate relationship between empathy and critical distance”: Youth literacies, social justice and arts-based inquiry
Abstract
Purpose
This paper features artwork and artists’ statements by middle school students who participated in a research collaboration that involved co-authoring critical literacy curriculum for Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus: A Survivors Tale (1986) with teacher candidates from the University of Toronto.
Design/methodology/approach
Youth explored personal and social justice issues through writing and artwork produced in response to Maus. In the process, they navigated what historian Dominick LaCapra (1998) has referred to as the “delicate relationship between empathy and critical distance” (pp. 4-5), between closely identifying with the agonizing experiences Spiegelman documents and using their inquiries to cultivate more critical positionalities and assume activist stances on historical and contemporary social justice issues.
Findings
As they describe in their brief statements included alongside their artwork, creating these projects allowed youth to bear witness to a terrible moment in human history and to envision how they can make a difference in their own communities.
Originality/value
This work suggests how the arts can be mobilized in critical literacy as a vehicle to interrogate difficult historical moments and multifaceted identity issues.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the families of students who participated in this project for their support and encouragement. The authors also thank the students of Delta Senior Alternative School, those who co-authored this article and their classmates: their thoughtfulness, courage and creativity inspired the authors' teaching and research. The authors also appreciate teacher candidates from the Master of Teaching Program at OISE for their support of Delta students. Recognition is due to the helpful staff, faculty, and administrators at Delta Alternative Senior School and University of Toronto. The authors also wish to acknowledge the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation for funding this research. Finally, the authors express gratitude and appreciation to Art Spiegelman for a book that moved and inspired them.
Citation
Simon, R., Evis, S., Walkland, T., Kalan, A. and Baer, P. (2016), "Navigating the “delicate relationship between empathy and critical distance”: Youth literacies, social justice and arts-based inquiry", English Teaching: Practice & Critique, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 430-449. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-09-2016-0108
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited