Using Artistic Expression as a Teaching Strategy for Social Justice: Examining Music From the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter Movements

Abstract

The Problem Members of organizations often struggle to grasp the importance of social movements and to understand the affective dimensions of the injustices that inspire them to be organized. The Solution We argued that combining artistic expression with social movement learning (SML) in human resource development (HRD) can help members of the dominant culture to better empathize with those who experience marginalization. This will help organizations to better relate to social movements and to more effectively address related injustices. The Stakeholders HRD scholars and practitioners as well as those engaged in social movements.

Using music and animations for COVID‐19 prevention: The case of a scientific program

“…Integrative function . As in other social movement songs, kinship terms are used to produce feelings of integration, community, and solidarity (Bohonos et al., 2019b ; Darden, 2014 ). Invocations of “Brother, mother, sister” and “father” emphasize that the human family needs to find solidarity in its fight against COVID‐19 while also communicating that the disease threatens life regardless of gender or life‐stage.…”

“…Recent adult education and human resource development (HRD) literature has explored how music associated with social movements can have powerful educative functions related to social organizing and public pedagogy for discussions and debates on issues of the day (Bohonos et al., 2019b ; Giroux, 2004 ; Habermas, 1962 ; Haycock, 2015 ). Emerging reports indicate that music is also being used in the fight against COVID‐19 by some US hospitals to celebrate milestones in the process of patient's recovery (Coleman, 2020 ).…”

“…This paper draws on a framework for analyzing music education in terms of communicative, symbolic, and integrative functions (Bohonos et al., 2019b ; Merriam, 1964 ; Rose, 2007 ). The communicative aspect of music education refers to the ability to communicate facts and concepts between concerned community members; the integrative part refers to music's ability to bring people together around a common cause.…”

Including Critical Whiteness Studies in the Critical Human Resource Development Family: A Proposed Theoretical Framework

“…Existing approaches to antiracist education that may be useful in diversity training settings include storytelling, journaling, creating brave spaces, problem posing, developing empathy, intergroup dialogue, arts education, historical study, and critical reflection (Bohonos, Otchere, & Pak, 2019;Brookfield, 2018;Brookfield & Holst, 2010;Byrd & Scott, 2010;Ingram & Walters, 2007;Kasl & Yorks, 2016)…”

Observing whiteness and Black resistance in a Midwestern municipal government: An interracial ethnography

“…Emergent scholarship is calling for a greater emphasis on social justice in HRD research (Bohonos et al, 2019; Byrd, 2018; Collins, 2019), which requires more attention be paid to the effect of racism on organizational practice. Additionally, Sparkman (2019) suggests that there is an imbalance in the HRD diversity literature in which theoretical research is much more prevalent than empirical studies and calls for an additional empirical work to aid in the development and refinement of HRD diversity theory.…”