Abstract

The challenges of teaching include classroom management issues, lack of time, stress, and the constraints of core standards. In response to these challenges, I determined to change my attitude about being a teacher, become more reflective about my teaching practice and curriculum, and try to connect my artistic self to my teaching self. This thesis is an autoethnographic research of my own teaching practice designed to counter the challenges I was facing as a teacher. I wanted to become less reactive and more reflective about the challenges and rewards of being an artist teacher. This thesis is a reflection on my journey to find my own path toward professional growth and satisfaction through a careful study of my experiences teaching in a junior high school art room. In the end, this self-study has helped me become more flexible, understanding, and forgiving of myself as an artist and a teacher. I learned to allow myself to be flexible enough to let the research lead me in unforeseen directions and not fall into the trap of best practices. My attempt to apply some of my own artistic practices, such as in the use of materials, artists, and time constraints, to student projects was successful. I began by attempting to turn my teaching into my art practice; what I ended up doing was becoming a more reflective teacher.

Degree

College and Department

Fine Arts and Communications; Art

Rights

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