The Personal as Professional: Mentorship, Artmaking, Teaching and Research

Abstract

. Mentorship, artmaking, and arts-based research and teaching assist pre-service and in-service art educators in viewing their personal art practice as an asset to the art teaching profession. Descriptions of qualitative research conducted through narrative inquiry and art-based methods are discussed through ethnographies collected from career artist-educator-researchers. Their stories describe the opportunities and challenges involved in sustaining multiple identities over time and through various stages of an art teaching career. Artworks are also presented as research artifacts and exemplars of living a holistic and artful professional life.