Abstract

ABSTRACT
The Visual Journal as A/r/tographic Inquiry: The Learning Processes Among Art Education Graduate Students Through Artmaking and Discussion Workshops

Becky Yi Wen Cao

This research investigates the visual journaling experiences of four art education graduate students: Lara, Nancy, Sha, and myself. The multicultural backgrounds of this group have brought unique perspectives on living, artmaking, and art education. I intended to conduct this study in person at the university. Unfortunately, as I prepared my research proposal, the COVID-19 pandemic began to force all academic activities to the online mode. This research illustrates our lives during the pandemic, an unprecedented event, and how we adjusted our daily routines and transformed into new creative beings during this recent phenomenon. The research data consists of six weekly meetings on Zoom. Each session offered an abundance of life stories and art-making experiences based on a creative prompt that served to illustrate our lives as artists, teachers, and researchers. By making art in visual journals independently and collectively, we connected our lives' visual and textual aspects and addressed the importance of community as an active learning sphere.
In summary, my research informs how art educators have lived, created, and connected during the pandemic as a group. Two questions emerged that guided this study: How do we engage with each other virtually? What are the benefits and limitations of online learning?