Interview #1- Karl Kitching

Karl Kitching

1. Background
1. Taught in Dublin as a Language Support Teacher
2. Noticed the immigration increase
3. "The infrastructure to understand minority groups in the education system is very poor"
4. Masters of Literacy
5. "Racism. The fact that these kids were being skewed based on the fact that they were other or being others based on having parents of migrant backgrounds"
6. "As a white guy who has been very privileged and part of the norm and all that kind of stuff, it wasn't something I really reflected on"
7. Ph.D on Racism
8. David Gillborn
9. "The discourse about race and racism wasn't as developed and didn't have the same history"
2. Using Arts and Education
1. "Say what is unsayable or unthinkable"
2. "Provide a medium on which on the one hand people can give counter stories... "
3. "arts is about how you feel"
4. "racism has a lot to do about feelings and emotions"
5. "the arts is one of the key ways to building relationship"
6. "it provides the voice for marginalized people"
7. "Arts are a form of respected cultures so all cultures get a seat at the table because of that"
3. Activism
1. Practices of Learners Citizenship- things students do that are anti racist in the everyday
1. Ex: Reporting racism
2. Acts of Learners Citizenship- creative things that confound you and make you wonder what you are going to do next
1. Ex: Anti Racist intervention
3. "who lives here belongs here" -> "who learns here belongs here"
4. "media is the key way to get the message across"
5. Public Pedagogy
6. "As a white person who has got so much privilege, how can you talk about dismantling white privilege without making yourself the center of attention?"
7. "Use your privilege to enable and support other people to speak"
8. "You can't actually quantify the history that is giving you the privileges that you have, it has come long before your life"
9. Ex: First Holy Communion --> someone doesn't partake in it --> Not Catholic = Not Irish = Where are you from?
10. "It might surprise people around here.. but I wasn't born an immigrant and it is not a disease. I wasn't Black until I came to Ireland"

Blog 2: Reading Rites and Artist Process

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral
Taken by Esther Woo

Reading Rites

Out of all the required materials, the most striking one in my opinion was Sex in a Cold Climate. This documentary included interviews of women who spent time in Magdalene Laundries. To prevent the sin of premarital sex, these women were sent off to these asylums. The women were oppressed and essentially confined for being a pretty woman. By hearing these narratives about how these women were treated in the asylums by the nuns was shocking. While in Cork, we identified the location of one of the Magdalene laundries which really brought the documentary to life. The fact that the site closed around 1980 made it more relatable because it happened recently.

Upon critical reflection, I was able to think about the women placed in the asylums. Throughout history, women were and continue to be oppressed by the patriarchal society. No matter how hard women try in the world from earning voting rights to working executive positions, women often times try to hide their gender. This shame associated with women continues to progress as women are shamed for breast feeding in public of having a menstrual cycle. These simple biological processes are beautiful and should be embraced since that is how procreation occurs. However, the world demeans the concept of womanhood.

Today, I was grabbing a cup of coffee after brainstorming with Ó Bhéal at the Village Hall. A man walked in and began talking to the barista. He asks the barista who the owner of the business is and demanded to talk to him. He then proceeds to "mansplain" football to her. He repeatedly explains football since he believes the barista doesn’t understand sports because she is a woman. After this man leaves, we had a discussion about how the culture of women in Ireland is. The barista continued to talk about how women continue to struggle to gain basic rights including the right to control what happens to their body. 

How do you feel about the 8th amendment in Ireland? How will we continue to fight for equality? Will there ever be a day where men and women are truly equal?

Artist Process

1. The required materials, in particular Kathy D’Arcy’s works, related to her workshop. The idea of writing poetry and including social political issues such as women’s rights in Ireland was interest.

2. This class has informed my artistic process by teaching me about other ways to express myself artistically through writing.

3. My vulnerabilities include not feeling comfortable to share.

4. I am addressing my vulnerabilities by attempting to be more open and share my work with others.

5. My project is going to be a showcase of photographs that include commentary. It will show the discrepancies displayed in the education system worldwide.

6. My goals for this project include texts and images to evoke a discussion globally. I want people to question the idea of everyone being able to receive an education as a human right.

7. I will accomplish these goals by interviewing and talking to many people throughout Cork. I need support in finding a way to display it in the final showcase.

8. I will get help from my peers.

Blog 1: Artist Statement and Statement of Resistance

Cork, Ireland
Taken by Esther Woo

Artist Statement

I found myself in a classroom full of 3^rd graders recently. As I worked with the students at this charter school, there was a specific student that caught my attention. The image of a happy little boy was what was presented before us every day at school. As time progressed, I learned about his difficult upbringings. From having a single parent to being the youngest in the family of four, I was heartbroken. Every week, I would go home wondering why a little boy like him would have a glass of milk as for only meal for the day, or how there was no one at home that could teach him how to read. Where was the support he needed to survive in school?

Quality education is a constitutional right in the United States. However, the current system has been corrupted to continue to oppress people of color and immigrants specifically. As a future educator, I am drawn to this topic. As an aspiring photographer, I hope to capture the disparities in the education system through photographs. I attempt to capture a narrative. By focusing on students primarily, a picture often times shows an innocent, happy, and energetic young child but as you dig deeper, you learn about their background.

A project I would like to work on would include capturing the education system in Ireland through the eyes of the products, college students and adults primarily. I hope that my audience would reflect on their experiences in the school system and compare it with the experiences presented before them. I would like to be able to provide insight into the narrative that isn’t commonly voiced.

Statement of Resistance

I believe that everyone should be able to receive an education regardless of their race, gender, social economic status, or citizenship. I hope to showcase the products of the education system since it will evoke a conversation regarding the disparities between the numerous school systems. I want to focus primarily on the voices less heard, often people of color. The diversity displayed in schools are to be celebrated and reflected in the curriculum so that we as mankind can all be educated.