The Becoming Art Teacher: A Reconciliation of Teacher Identity and the Dance of Teaching Art

The purpose of this research was to investigate themes of personal and professional development in the becoming art teacher. Through interpretive biographical methodology and a series model of phenomenological interviews of one first-year professional, we sought to illuminate the identity challenges unique to teachers of art. Of particular interest to us were the emergent art teacher’s formation and reconciliation of an artist-teacher identity and how she grew through reflective analysis. By means of sequenced narrative, she expressed her metacognitive awareness of multifaceted teaching practice within the metaphor of dance. We concluded that our informant’s insights could resonate with emergent teachers across all disciplines.