Arts Integration as an Approach for Anti-Racist Pedagogy: A Case Study

In this article, the author examined how arts integration affected the design, implementation of the learning and teaching experience in a course that incorporated anti-racist pedagogy (ARP) in a two-year community college in an urban area. Using an intrinsic case study method (Creswell & Poth, 2017; Miles et al., 2014), this study triangulated the collected data that included the transcript of a focus group discussion, two polling results, and the students' reflection essays. The significance of this research will bridge the gaps in existing literature across ARP, culturally responsive pedagogy, and arts integration following two research questions: (1) how arts integration affects ARP; (2) how the classroom activities and course materials affect students' perception of the learning environment. Built on the existing literature on ARP (Kishimoto, 2018; Rubenstein, 2021; Sue, 2013), CRP (Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1998, 2014), and arts integration (Burnaford et al., 2007; Duma, 2014; Robinson, 2013; Shockley & Krakaur, 2020), the study employed coding and memoing processes (Corbin & Strauss, 2014) and reached the findings from the data that suggested: (1) group discussions are essential to establishing and maintaining an anti-racist learning environment; and (2) arts integration can be helpful in boosting a more welcoming atmosphere for a diverse group of students.