“We All Walked Through [It] Together: Reflections on the Pulse Nightclub Shooting” by Sara Scott Shields
The FSU Department of Art Education would like to congratulate Art Education Assistant Professor Dr. Sara Scott Shields for her publication of “We All Walked Through [It] Together: Reflections on the Pulse Nightclub Shooting” in a recent issue of Art Education.
In “We All Walked Through [It] Together: Reflections on the Pulse Nightclub Shooting,” Dr. Scott Shields reflects on her experiences and reactions to the Pulse Nightclub shooting, as she and ten pre-service teachers from a large Southeastern university in Florida were in the midst of teaching an art and social justice summer camp at the time of the shooting.
Dr. Scott Shields elaborates:
This article is about how the events at Pulse Nightclub and this social justice camp collided to create opportunities for campers, preservice teachers, and faculty mentors to use creative activities “to adapt, connect, relate, join forces, and pool our resources… so that we [were] all less alone, less vulnerable, and less unable” (Rolling, 2016, p. 5). Through an exploration of the role the arts classroom can play when encountering and experiencing moments of intense tragedy and loss, I hope to remind art educators of their responsibility to create opportunities for dialoging about the uncomfortable.
“We All Walked Through [It] Together: Reflections on the Pulse Nightclub Shooting” continues by examining and detailing the practical pedagogical tactics and partnering strategies essential in promoting a justice oriented culture of creativity. After discussing critical pedagogy and social justice art education, Dr. Scott Shields provides an overview of how the summer camp was developed. She then explains how the Pulse Nightclub shooting changed the course of the camp experience. Lastly, she presents recommendations for other art educators interested in creating authentic environments for pre-service students and teachers to work toward creative expression surrounding difficult and uncomfortable topics.
Congratulations, Dr. Scott Shields, for this exceptional and outstanding achievement!