Teachers as teachers and learners: Conversations about art and teacher education in museums

This research aims to reveal the inward significance of educator's perceptions and attitudes towards teacher education in art museums and an educator's dual role as personal and professional meaning maker of art. This narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelley, 2000) brings together conversations between elementary and secondary art educators and pulls threads of commonality to determine the meaningful and authentic intersections between classroom educators and experiences with art in museums.;Engaging in aesthetic experiences helps educators develop a life of meaning (Greene, 1995). Placing value in experiencing art prompts educators as people to tap into their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions about the world and, as teachers, helps guide their students in engaging in more meaningful experiences with art. This dissertation research examines educators in museum settings engaging with works of art and pinpoints moments of aesthetic experience (Dewey, 1934). Fueled by experience, this research is a conversation that seeks to determine how we define and make meaning of aesthetic experiences and position engagements with original works of art as a more integral part of art education.;This research addresses the intersection of art, teacher education, and art museums and, as such, the literature review presents pertinent work in three broad areas: art and social education, teacher education, and teaching and learning in museum settings.;Multiple tools are used to gather the field text for this narrative inquiry: one-on-one interviews, written narratives, and focus group dialogue. By combining tools, participants are offered individual, written, and group opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas and respond to the research questions. This approach allows the researcher to cross-analyze the field text and note the commonalities and subtleties. Like a multi-focal lens, this approach of analyzing both the individual and the group allows for the research to be examined at a distance and up-close (Borko, 2004). This dual focus offers the opportunity to study the individual by considering the questions, issues, and ideas brought to the community while simultaneously examining the responses, replies, and contributions of the community.