While listening to the participants’ presentations and observing their artwork, I was able to arrive at my own conclusions and understanding. Then I provided a chance for the participants to reflect on their own artwork. I gave them four questions:

1. What aspect did you enjoy the most from the new art learning experience in the “My Immigration” project?

2. What aspect did you find uncomfortable or challenging from the “My Immigration” project?

3. What does “immigration” mean to you in your artwork?

4. Did you find new feelings or discover any recognition when you presented your artwork to the class and discussed your ideas together?

I remembered how my personal reflection on my previous art practice and my background helped me to recognize the oppressiveness in my pedagogies. I was able to reimagine and rebuild my future teaching approaches. I believe the process of reflection not only empowered me but also the participants. Through reflection questions, the participants were able to define their own ideas and emotions while benefiting others with articulated intention and desire that went into the artwork. The participants discovered meaning from what felt natural and mundane during the process of art making through these reflections. An opportunity to evaluate past memories and untold, bound emotions provided a chance for the participants to self-assess and repurpose their experiences into a positive notion. Whang, one of the participants, recalled the project as a new experience that was unthinkable before. Previously, she had only copied others' work; the project allowed her to create her own work—formed from her own ideas—from the start. She shared her struggles on brainstorming for the final work that had caused her headaches for many days. Whang said she experienced the infamous “창작의 고통” which translates into English as “artist’s block.” It means “a crippling lack of inspiration” and the artist has no ideas for new work (Hayler, 2021). She also shared she recognized that the true meaning of creating is to express oneself, telling a story that no one else knows. I agree with Whang. That is an important perspective on creativity that I did not recognize before. I am grateful for her to share her valuable aspect. 

Through the “My Immigration” project, I committed myself to transform the whole art learning experience of the Chicago Moms Art constructed on deficit ideology. During the “My Immigration” project, the students shared their knowledge and experiences, which allowed them to recognize their insights as valuable and to discover new meaning through the project. The project encouraged both the students and myself to consider our lived experiences in building future learning. Asset-based approaches allowed the students and extended members of the community—including their families—to serve as intellectual resources and provide “a place to stand” (Asante, 2003, as cited in Flint & Jaggers, 2021) while achieving academic satisfaction and cultural excellence. I believe my students and I are very close to achieving the second stage of the pedagogy of the oppressed—the humanist and libertarian pedagogy that was brought by Paulo Freire. According to Freire, “we all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs” (Freire Institute, n.d.). My previous art teaching was rooted in an ideology of oppression, and was suppressing my students from having the critical awareness and thinking process for themselves. In the second stage, “the reality of oppression has already been transformed, this pedagogy ceases to belong to the oppressed and becomes a pedagogy of all people in the process of permanent liberation” (p.54). After thorough reflections on my previous art teaching practice and “My Immigration” project, I was able to identify oppressive teaching approaches that I had before. In my future art teaching practice, I will value the knowledge I accumulated to confront how the students and I perceive the world, continuing to reimagine and expel the ideas developed in the old order. Just as bell hooks said, I hope for our intellect and our imaginations to forge new and liberatory ways of knowing, thinking, and being—to work for change.