Cindy’s Story of Returning to Learning in Art Education

• In Event: Researching Aesthetics, Empathy, and Education

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
We explore notions of empathy, caring and aesthetics in a visually rich presentation about Cindy’s lived experiences as a mature woman returning to learning in art education. As arts researchers, we collaborate to assess Cindy’s visual journal and self-reflections on the role of identity construction from two core perspectives: 1) the personal challenges manifest in returning to learning that requires a redefinition of self, and 2) how Cindy’s story represents a growing trend in post-secondary institutions to a more diverse student body, shifting assumptions about life-long learning and the capacity of existing programs to provide support, in particular to mature women wishing to initiate a career path in teacher education which has historically targeted younger female populations.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Our research story is rendered as an intertextual expression with an intentional aesthetic effect from which our theoretical consequences follow (Genette, 1997). We share a ‘caring relation’ of intellectual passions for ideas, and interpersonal well-being, dialoging together with “total receptivity, reflection, invitation and assessment” (Noddings, 2005; 2012, p. 238). We explore the nature of empathetic relationships between mature learners and educators by employing “life writing as a mode of educational inquiry, one where educators and learners may get a ‘heart of wisdom’” (Chambers, Hasebe-Ludt, Leggo, & Sinner, 2012, p. xi).

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
As a case study, we adopt life writing and arts research methods (Leavy, 2013) to construct our research story, centered on Cindy’s lived experiences. We invite others to share this deeply personal story, written with vulnerability, and “rooted in emotion, passion, imagination, sympathy and vicarious identification” (Chambers et. al., 2012, p. xxvi).

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Key sources of information included Cindy’s visual journal (textual and visual elements), and comments from her transcript. Sources were analyzed with Cindy’s guidance; we entered a process of writing, reflecting, re-telling and re-storying (Leavy, 2009, p. 27) to reveal multi-dimensional meanings and various levels of interpretation. Sources provide an artful formation around which we present our research story.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions
Cindy’s visual journey is a heartfelt, authentic account of “truth telling and empathetic inquiry,” and as Chambers et. al. (2012) suggest, such a reflective narrative reveals what matters most, what sustains, what places are inhabited, and “what the heart is given to” (p. xxi). This story facilitates an examination of knowledge about student-teachers, and considers more deeply a growing trend in society to a more diverse student body and questions the capacity of post-secondary institutions to provide needed support.

Scholarly significance of the study or work
This study is significant because it draws attention to the aesthetic experiences of a mature learner and how Cindy’s understandings, rooted in caring and empathy, were shaped in relation to her private life, program delivery, as well as younger peers. We begin to derive insights to the structural changes underway in higher education and we advocate for more complex educational practices and programming in art education.

Authors

• Anita Sinner, Concordia University

• Pauline Sameshima, Lakehead University

• Cindy Walker, Concordia University - Montreal