The stories woven in Sadu: Culturally relevant pedagogy in a kindergarten in Kuwait

My educational experiences, starting from my childhood through higher education, have allowed me to gradually discern the lack of the presence of certain cultures and experiences in educational institutions. As a Kuwaiti raised in Kuwait, I acknowledge how my own curricular experiences were based on Eurocentric and Western ideals and knowledge. In my education, Western narratives replaced the history of the desert, its maritime village, and its people, complicating the dissemination of our people’s art, values, traditions, stories, and histories. The art of the Sadu weave is an example of an art that speaks of the stories and experiences of our land of Kuwait. While information pertaining to the Sadu art form is marginally included in some advanced classes for older students in Kuwait, it is not implemented in early childhood or kindergarten institutions. Being heavily present in different areas throughout Kuwait City, kindergartens can facilitate Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) to incorporate the Bedouin weaving practice of Sadu into the learning space by enabling the propositions of a CRP as defined by Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995): conceptions of self and others, social relations, and conceptions of knowledge. Through CRP, aspects of personal, national, and global cultural knowledge on the rhetoric of Sadu will be more thoroughly represented in within the kindergarten as well as in the overall community in Kuwait. Art education can create a space that facilitates creative and pedagogical practices that help continue cultural practices such as Sadu weaving. By applying the framework of a CRP both for the pedagogical practice as well as theoretical framework to the study methodology, I use the three propositions from Ladson-Billings (1995) to identify the implications for a CRP on Sadu in a kindergarten class in Kuwait.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Al-Adwani, Raneem Jasem

Contributors dc:contributor

• Travis, Sarah
• Hetrick, Laura
• Lucero, Jorge
• Dominguez-Hultgren, Kira

• Art Education
• Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (crp)
• Sadu Weaving
• Kuwait
• Kindergarten

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Raneem Al-Adwani

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127177

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127177