THE ARTIST/TEACHER IDENTITY IN THE
CLASSROOM
By Marcia Jackson
M.Ed. Candidate
Sam Houston State University
The Art Educator Asks: Who am I?
Teacher? Artist? Mentor? Researcher? All of the above?
?
What’s the difference?
Artist Teacher vs. Teacher of Art
An artist teacher is an individual who practices making art and teaching art and who is dedicated to both activities as a practitioner.
A teacher of art is an individual dedicated to the artistic development of students who does not necessarily practice as an artist.
(Thornton 2011)
Should an Art Educator Practice What They Preach Teach?
Problem Statement
The concept of the artist-teacher has less to do with the
professional activities of an artist
And more to do with an active
thinking process applied to educational
situations.
(Daichendt 2010)
The Dual Roles of Artist & Teacher
Educating the Students Nurturing the Artist
How do these roles interact?
How Does an Educator’s Artmaking Influence the Content of Teaching?
Contemporary Art Involvement
Allows the content of the discipline to be open to renovation and reconstruction
Students become critical interpreters of art and contributors to an evolving discipline
Engaging students in art experiences outside of school: galleries, museums, community art projects, visiting artists
Students gain access to an expanding vocabulary of art
Creating Meaning
Art is a body of evolving knowledge that is about something (not just techniques to be learned)
Students learn to think broadly
Exploration of personal and/or cultural narratives
Creating conceptual contexts beyond just the visual
(Graham & Zwirn 2010)
Teachers who embrace their own
artistic aptitudes and value the connections
between studio and classroom can create
a classroom experience that utilizes
individual artmaking interests.
(Daichendt 2009)
The Artist/Teacher Models the Artistic Process and Making Mistakes
Encourages an atmosphere that
values learning by first getting it wrong
Artist/Teachers are sensitive to the
artistic challenges of their students
Learning is not always about the
product, sometimes learning occurs in the form of perseverance
Models persistence in the face of risks and
failures
Redefines curriculum as open-ended, emergent,
and fluid
(Graham & Zwirn 2010)
Mentoring in the Art Classroom
Comes form experience and confidence working with materials and ideas
Is not complacent Confidence using artistic vocabulary Ability to relay connections among
technique, materials, craft, and ideas Treating students as young artists
Play: Important for the teacher as well as the students
The artist is accustomed to working in the open spaces of creativity, ambiguity, uncertainty, opinion, and personal story.
Woven into this relationship with the discipline is a sense of play.
Some teaching artists make this kind of playful interaction within their discipline an essential component of their curriculum and teaching.
(Graham 2009)
Conversation
Key element for interaction with students about art
The practicing artist/teacher promotes student inquiry about making art
Inquiry leads to dialogue Providing additional opportunities to
utilize Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)
Nurturing the Artist
Nurturing the Artist in the Art Teachertakes a look at how some art educators are nurturing their artist identity and bringing it back into the classroom.
(Liscow 2009)
Professional Identity Management Strategies
Holding one professional art educator identity while feeling pressure to be more of an artist
Integrating multiple identities into one Balancing of multiple identities The use of naming for self identification
(Hatfield, Montana, & Deffenbaugh 2006)
The failure to interweave the two traditions – art and education – in a meaningful way has created art teachers who see the roles of artist and teacher as incompatible.
(Daichendt 2010)
In the field of art education, many art educators agree that balancing multiple identities is empowering art teachers to demonstrate their artistic processes and pedagogical strategies.
(Lim 2006)
The art educator inevitably has a professional obligation to identify the qualities conducive for effectiveness and to establish means to reach that level of effectiveness.
(Anderson 1981)
ConclusionHolding an Artist identity enhances and enriches the Teacher identity. Modeling the artistic process in the teacher self shows the students that mistakes are meant to be made in order to develop divergent thinking that allows them to persevere. Play engages experimentation for both the teacher and students. Multiple identity roles such as artist, teacher, mentor, and researcher add value to the practice of both artistry and pedagogy.
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BibliographyHatfield, C., Montana, V., & Deffenbaugh, C. (2006). Artist/Art Educator: Making Sense of Identity Issues. Art Education, 59(3), 42-47. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Jackson, M. (2009) Original Illustrations (5)
Lim, E. (2006). Influences of Studio Practice on Art Teachers' Professional Identities. Northern Illinois University, United States. Retrieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~srae/workingpapers/2006/documents/06_Lim_Eun-Hee-Paper.pdf
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