Naomi Pillai

As an art teacher, my philosophy of education is grounded in fostering creativity, agency, and empathy in students through accessible and culturally reflective lessons, safe learning environments, and an expansive and experimental approach to visual communication. 

The arts remain foundational to contextualizing and honoring cultural heritage and identity and I aim to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for art and culture among my students to introduce art history through perspectives that allow students to critically analyze and interpret artwork within its political, social, and historical contexts, while at the same time incorporating Visual Thinking Strategies that allow students of all levels to develop personal connections. I encourage my students to question and challenge traditional art narratives, fostering a more nuanced understanding of art and its impact on society.

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I propose to develop lessons that scaffold art processes to equip all students with meaningful life skills, and develop an experimental approach to media, similar to that of contemporary artists. By encouraging students to experiment with different materials, techniques, and style with a sustained conceptual investigation allows them to develop an artistic voice and express themselves sincerely. Education is a means to navigate the world as well as the self. Unlike other subjects within a standard education, the arts address the knowledge and perception unique to a student and use it to build meaningful expressions that embolden critical thinking and provide agency to a student as they undergo a constructivist process of self-determination. 

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In accord with this understanding of knowledge as a human process generated by creativity, the arts is the only pedagogy that explicitly nurtures creativity– a skill highly valued in the fields of STEM and business studies that seek to awaken brilliant engineers and entrepreneurs. It is crucial to understand that the abstract nature of creativity does not mean that it cannot be cultivated, but simply that it requires a different modality to be taught. I believe that knowledge is organically constructed through a system of play, discovery, and investigation where a student independently facilitates an inquiry through experimentation and problem-solving; this reflects a more efficient method of teaching critical and higher order thinking skills that equip a student to not only be able to apply the knowledge to novel situations, but also break past fixed mindsets and potentially imagine new futures and ways of being.  

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In line with the agency granted to the student, their unique perspectives and positionalities are regarded as a valuable source of knowledge in the arts classroom which is why I believe that creating a culturally responsive classroom environment is crucial to the building of a sense of inclusivity and diversity among students. The intentional sharing of perspectives is a crucial tenet of the art-making process as it forms the subjectivity that embraces difference and contradiction in perspective, opinion, and experiences, making space for understanding and tolerance. To make art about what we value and how we experience our world allows us to reflect on why we are who we are, and subsequently we come to recognize each other as members of an interconnected community. Visual art, performance, and music are universal languages that transcend linguistic and cultural barriers and are capable of communicating the most abstract of concepts where even words would fail.

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Overall, my goal as an art teacher is to embolden students to think critically, experiment creatively, and engage with art in a way that empowers them as individuals and as members of a community that are informed and enthusiastic advocates of the arts.