Book Description

This inquiry draws parallels between artistic practices and the inherent artistry of teaching, and posits teaching as an art form. Teaching, when invested and activated with artful qualities like creativity, intuition, imagination, flexible purposing, intrinsic satisfaction, empathy, and enhanced perception, achieves connectedness between a teacher's self and their professional life because of the artistry involved with their pedagogy. Teaching as a performance and as self-presentation are other artful ways of knowing and teaching. Teachers of visual arts who project identity and integrity, allow their own subjectivity to emerge, embrace paradoxical and subject-centered ways of teaching---rather than relying on objective techniques---bring their complete, undivided selves to the service of their students, as teacher-artists. Through autobiographical and collaborative inquiry, this thesis identifies and highlights ways that teachers regard their own pedagogy as artful and performance in order to enhance the selfhood and efficacy of the teacher-artist, and contribute to educational improvement.