“There Was Something Missing”: Using the Critical Response Protocol as Antiracist Practice in Arts Education

Abstract

This article addresses antiracist arts education by examining key aspects of the critical response protocol (CRP) to disrupt notions of neutrality when responding to works of art. Building on a large urban district’s professional development work to support arts educators’ awareness of their racial identity, we examine how the CRP perpetuates whiteness in K–12 arts classrooms, ultimately maintaining racial inequality. Our research addresses the following question: How do markers of identity, like race, intersect with CRP in K–12 arts classrooms? Our findings contribute to literature on antiracist arts education.