Abstract

“We teach who we are,” says Parker Palmer. Building on his statement and guided by a social constructivist perspective, Becoming an Artist/Teacher is a semi-autobiography that tells my story with art education. In parallel, it tells the stories of two other art educators in Lebanon by looking at the context and the relational and institutional experiences that molded our lives. By weaving together two biographical narratives and one autobiography that share similar sociopolitical, economic, and educational experiences, this research looks at how each participant built their unique professional identity. How did life events and relationships influence their teaching philosophies and art practices? And how did their different understandings of a teacher’s identity influence their relationships with spaces and people as well as their own personal experiences? Based on interviews and analysis that followed the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) and by comparing participants’ life stories, the research has shown that despite not receiving any formal teacher training, the participants were authentic educators. Their dedication, artistic practices, and closeness to the subject of teaching permeated their style, allowing for an authentic teaching approach to emerge. The presentation of the impact of the teachers’ personal understanding of their professional identity and personality on their educational approach, makes the case for the importance of specialization and highlights the need to include self-study as a fundamental part in the formation of teachers in general and art educators in particular.