Artists and Activists: One in the Same (Part 2)

Activist: Karl Kitching

Reading Karl’s biography on the University College Cork website, it is easy to see that he has a passion for education. He has conducted his research around racism in Ireland (specifically with the school districts) and has published books relaying such information. I sat down with Karl and a classmate over video chat to talk about his work as well as how he sees the arts fitting into his activism.

What do you do in the education field? → lecturer/asst. Prof. in education at UCC for 8-9 years; before that elementary school teacher; new job: Director of Equality, Diversity, and [...]. He has spent the past 10 years researching topics like racism within the Ireland school sector and students of migrant background.

How did you become involved in this type of work? → elementary school teacher in suburban Dublin. Huge amount of inward migration. They hadn’t had such a level of migration before. There was no infrastructure to understand minority groups. “There was a lot of people really not knowing what to do… a lot of the time having good intentions but really not doing the right thing for being inclusive for different student communities.”

“I was interested in how students who were learning English as an additional language were learning to read.” He did a research project (for his masters in literacy) on how teachers were teaching English language learners → same as how they taught Irish born children. This prompted him to become a language support teacher. He taught children in small groups from ages 6-10. Particularly remembers a group of boys whose parents were Nigerian. The issue wasn’t language, they spoke English at home, so why were they in English support? → racism, they were being “othered” because they had parents of migrant background. The children weren't being seen as full, whole people. This caused him to reflect on his social position (white, privileged male, early 20s) → he got a research position at a university, decided to do his PhD while he was there. Saw Prof. David Gilbourne → everything he was looking for

How do you think arts can be used to address social issues like racism in education? → “Arts can say what is unsayable or unthinkable”, allows for counterstories and speaking truth. Art is affective; all about feeling and emotion → racism has to do with feeling and emotion, too.

“The arts is a key way of building relationships and providing a window to things that may remain silent… because it’s a creative medium, it provides that voice for marginalized people. Because the arts are a form of respected culture, all sorts of cultures get a seat at the table.”

Do you see the work that you do as activism? → definitely! Wrote a book about the difference between practices of learners citizenship and acts of citizenship. Practices: things that students do (report racist bullying, etc.) Acts: creative things that people do that confound you → make people think about what to do next

“The Anti-Deportation motto: Who lives here, belongs here. I think there is another element to that which is who learns here, belongs here.”

How do you educate the public about these issues (spread the knowledge)? → any opportunity to grab attention (media). Within the last two days the university has become a sanctuary site. Not being afraid to write and put things out there. Hold information stalls on a monthly basis in Cork City Center → form of public pedagogy.

“As a white person who’s got so much privileges, how do you talk about dismantling white privilege without making yourself the center of attention?”

What do you enjoy most about what you do? → a bit of a geek. “When a participant says something that is so insightful, when something strikes you that you’ve never thought of before… the social research part gives such an insight into a person’s world and it is really exciting.”

Any final words of advice for us? → “You gotta teach this stuff like they don’t even know they’re being taught.”

#janterm180 #cork #rebelartists #artsasactivism #education