POINT OF VIEW

Dianne Lynn, painting inspired by Art Based Research.

Dianne Lynn, MFA, PhD

I believed that having a personal art practice was as important to other art teachers as it was to me. I knew what it meant for me to make art and how it informed my teaching. When I was working on my dissertation, I sent a survey to New York State art teachers through our state professional organization, NYSATA (New York State Art Teachers Association). Nearly two hundred responses confirmed my belief.

The responses showed that art teachers believe that their creative practice fortifies, consolidates, expands, and deepens their pedagogical content knowledge.
Following are some key takeaways from the survey:

Making art is professional development for art teachers.
According to art teachers, their creative practice kindles (or rekindles) the joy in art-making as artists, a joy that extends to their classrooms.

Teachers make art to learn.
Both personal and professional development support art teachers through the experience of satisfaction and a feeling of being authentic. Making art supports our passion for teaching art and develops pedagogical capacities.

Making art supports our passion for teaching art and develops pedagogical capacities.

Classrooms are affected when art teachers make personal art.
When art teachers experience fulfillment, they are inspired to share the knowledge they gained from their creative practices. In sharing the acquisition of knowledge with their students, art teachers are fulfilled on both personal and professional levels, which encourages everyone’s learning.

Creativity as a concept is at the heart of teaching and our creative practices.
Collaborative creative experiences modeled and shared in learning relationships spark enthusiasm for learning and provide valuable problem-solving experience. When art teachers know the creative process firsthand, with their hands, they can more easily support their students’ learning.

Art teachers engage in critical inquiry when they intentionally practice their creative processes to learn.
While this notion wasnʼt universal, a dynamic understanding was expressed by some of the teachers. The awareness of missed opportunities for inquiry-based learning in the classroom can lead teachers to learning about art that is transformational.

Survey participants perceive the relationship between making art and teaching as an integration of who they are and what they do.
The relationship between their practices provokes an integration of their creative selves corresponding to the inherent creativity in and between both practices.

Making Art to Learn
My dissertation, “Art Teachers’ Perceptions of the Relationship between Personal Artistic Creative Work and the Practice of Teaching,” is published on ProQuest. You might find it useful in promoting and supporting your own professional development in your work as art teachers. My research primarily explored the phenomenon of art teachers who continue a creative practice while teaching, and to learn how to do the research, I needed to make art. The painting in this article is an example of another method of research I used called Art Based Research, because I know that when I make art, I learn.

Dianne Lynn, MFA, PhD, is a retired studio teacher from Candor Central School in Candor, New York. diannelynn0@gmail.com