Crafting cultural understanding: one art teacher’s coolly transformative approach

The brief for Felicity Kingsford, was for the artwork to help the athletes feel welcome in our country – and that they certainly did.

The school’s specialist art teacher's transformative approach to enhancing her students’ learning and wellbeing is all about encouraging their creativity and reflective thinking while developing their understanding of different cultures and viewpoints, and so her students were eager and ready to fulfil their mission.

“We worked with Kevin, our school’s Chinese teacher, and our students produced some gorgeous examples of calligraphy writing on gum leaves and beautiful pictures of Australian animals,” Kingsford tells EducationHQ.

“It was fun and we received some really nice feedback from the organisers and from the team.”

Incorporating the teaching of Chinese art into her classes, Kingsford says, is a wonderful way for many students to tap into their heritage and for others to build their cultural understanding.

“At different times I focus on the artists within those cultures and then we’ll look at contemporary Australian Asian artists, like Jason Phu,” Kingsford says.

“So we shift between who is practising within that culture and how that has evolved, and, you know, just really trying to keep it fresh and change it up and get some deep, deep thinking around why we make art.”

Kingsford was last year named Outstanding Primary Teacher at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards for her excellence in integrating art with literacy, storytelling and other cross-disciplinary activities.

Always ensuring her lessons are culturally responsive, and that they resonate with her students’ diverse backgrounds, using works from artists across cultures and throughout history as inspiration, Kingsford encourages her students to explore and broaden their understanding of the many perspectives of art making.

Now in her 12th year at Brunswick South West Primary, she hosts each of the school’s 450 students for an hour a week in her well equipped and warmly welcoming art classroom.

“My approach is to give children the opportunity to experience as many techniques, materials and processes as possible,” Kingsford says.

“And then once I’ve thought about what we’ll do in that area, I’ll look at, if I can, tying it in with inquiry units in the classroom – but it doesn’t always fit.

“I don’t like to become too prescriptive with that, I want to be able to design the program around the kids’ interests, and that will vary, obviously, from cohort to cohort, year level to year level.”

Always ensuring her lessons are culturally responsive, and using works from artists across cultures and throughout history as inspiration, Kingsford encourages her students to explore and broaden their understanding of the many perspectives of art making.

Kingsford says her whole thinking around teaching art is to be continually changing things up.

“I don’t really have like a, ‘OK, this year we’ll do this and this’ – I change it according to the needs of that group and cohort, and also my interests and what exhibitions are going on.

“You can’t lock yourself in too much because then it sort of narrows your opportunity to engage in what’s happening right now…”

Always looking to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art into her programs, Kingsford says First Nations art and culture are an important priority in Brunswick South West’s program.

“At our school, every class has its own personal Acknowledgement of Country,” she says proudly.

“We start the year with this and then with the children, we’ll do printmaking or we’ll do painting or drawing and we learn all about Wurundjeri art.”

Kingsford also organises the school’s bi-annual art show, which sees the school community invited in to admire the creativity and skill of students.

“It’s a massive event and it fills the school gymnasium with individual works and collaborative pieces,” Kingsford says.

“They’re so enriching for the children and rewarding.

“The whole idea of art is the process of making it and expressing yourself through your art, and then an audience viewing your art, so that big art show is a lovely way for an understanding of the value of art making ... and expression, really.

“The children love it, absolutely love it.”

Kingsford believes it’s important to create opportunities for her students to work together to critically evaluate and celebrate their own work, to identify areas for improvement, and to set meaningful goals for their personal development.

“A big part of my lesson structure is we start with all of the students’ artwork from the previous week or an example, or something we’re aiming towards,” she explains.

“So with 25 pieces of artwork displayed on the board, we then talk about what’s working, and without focusing in on anyone’s in particular, the children can comment on a peer’s artwork, and we talk about what are the intentions in the lesson, and what are we trying to achieve here, what else could happen, what could we add.” 

It’s a really great way, Kingsford says, to motivate students to engage back in their art after a week’s passed.

“They take their artwork back to their seat and they’ll often enhance it or add to it, or think ‘I could probably add more colour’, or ‘I could probably put more detail in the foreground’. It’s just a nice way to reflect on it.

“I just find them so encouraging of each other … It’s quite an elusive thing, but I think they feel safe in that environment, and that their artwork, or their achievements, are valued, so there is a sense of success and not failure.” 

Kingsford explains it’s around promoting the idea that we all produce work differently - we all see things and express ourselves differently, and that there is value in an individual’s expression and artwork.

“I really try to encourage that as a culture in my art room, so that children feel that they can succeed at their level, whatever that level is, so they’re not comparing themselves to a child with very high skills.”