Temple University

Jessica Kirker is a visual arts educator that has been teaching artist-scholars ranging from preschool to higher education over her 25+ year career. She has facilitated arts-based learning in a diverse range of formal and informal settings throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding areas.

Though highly experienced in varied community arts settings, Dr. Kirker’s primary focus is advocacy for excellence in public school visual art programs and promoting quality teaching through professional development and pre-service teacher training. As a full-time high school art teacher, she has been a leader in her school, district, community, and state through leadership and participation in professional education and art education organizations such as Pennsylvania Art Education Association and Pennsylvania State Education Association.

Dr. Kirker’s scholarship has always been informed by the dynamic state of art education as it manifests in the classroom and the ways educational systems meet (or do not meet) the needs of her students. Striving for supportive learning spaces for all artists, her work emphasizes culturally responsive pedagogy, critical social theory, and intersectionality to create better daily classroom environments. With the continued goal of making theory relevant to practice, Dr. Kirker highlights the power and importance of informed, reflective teaching as a way of maintaining success and longevity in the field of art education.

PhD, Art Education, The Pennsylvania State University

MS, Educational Leadership, Gwynedd Mercy University

MEd, Art Education, Tyler School of Art, Temple University

BSEd, Art Education, The Pennsylvania State University