An Analysis of a Proposed Definition for Artist-Teachers in Adult Community Learning

Abstract

In 2022 a proposed definition for artist-teachers in adult community learning (ACL) was put forward, on the grounds that the most notable published definition of the artist-teacher role, by Alan Thornton (2013; Artist, researcher, teacher: a study of professional identity in art and education), Jaffe et al. (2013; Teaching artist handbook), and Ulvund (2015; Information 4, 19–36) were not applicable to artist-teachers in ACL. In this paper this claim to analysed with artist-teacher participant data. Across two rounds of mini online focus groups (Sage 2021; Are we too limited on group size? what about 2 or 3 person “mini-groups”?), artist-teachers interrogate the proposed definition and offer perspective on what does and does not apply to them from the three published definitions. The research makes use of diagramming to make these findings clear. The article starts with an in-depth review of the qualities of ACL which helps to contextualise the need for the new definition. Within the results and discussion participant extracts are used to unpack participants' thoughts and meanings on the three published definitions and the proposed 2022 definition of artist-teacher in ACL. The article ends by presenting a new co-constructed definition of the artist-teacher in ACL, drawing on what participants felt worked well in the published definition, and changes they suggested to the proposed definition (Cairns 2022).