The Possibilities of Art/ifact Journals as a Reflective Tool for Preservice Teachers

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Arts Education in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper explores how elementary pre-service teachers (PST) make sense of their teacher preparation coursework and fieldwork practices through the use of arts-based reflective practices through a tool called the “Art/ifact Journal”. Theoretically rooted in the work of cartoonist and arts professor Lynda Barry (2015), the Art/ifact journal evokes imaginative responses of PST’s experiences. Rooted in multiliteracies theory and using a qualitative, artifact-based approach the paper elucidates themes and provides visual examples that emerge from multiple sources of data, including observations, interviews, and the Art/ifact Journal. Findings fill gaps in the literature by suggesting how reflection through arts-based practices broadens PST’s capacity to fluidly negotiate the development of their teacher identity and how this negotiation plays out over time.

Authors

• Kristin Papoi, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Heather H Aiken, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Mary Klehr, Madison Metropolitan School District/University of Wisconsin - Madison