Heaton, Rebecca

This paper presents autoethnographic strategies to manage cognitive dissonance in art teacher education. Dissonance, as a conflict in beliefs and actions, is discussed in educational research but not commonly in art education. By exposing the autoethnographic voices of three academic artist teachers based in the United Kingdom and Singapore, including that of one author, this paper identifies the constitution and location of cognitive dissonance in art education. Autoethnographic images and excerpts help reveal personal accounts of cognition whilst positioning dissonance in practice. Contributors to dissonance like belief and concept conflicts, demonstrative challenges and power relationships are also exposed. This paper recommends that educational stakeholders, such as education ministries, teacher education departments and school leadership teams collaborate to acknowledge, accept and begin to manage dissonance in art teacher education.

Whilst it is accepted that art education is a cognitive endeavour, the value and contribution of cognition to art education is often deliberated. By examining literature concerning conceptions of cognition and contextualising studies with the findings of a five-year artographic inquiry into cognition in the lived experiences of artist teachers, this paper is able to present a case for the reinstatement of cognition and cognitive study across policy, practice and research in art education. The paper shares a conceptual frame to assist engagement with cognition as a concept whilst presenting a strategy to support cognitive reinstatement in the changing climate of art education. Questions are posed and answered regarding cognition’s position in art education to bring reinstatement implications forward such as its complexity and productivity within education. Recommendations, such as increased engagement, voice projection and visibility, are also suggested to infiltrate transformation in future materialisations of cognitive engagement in the policy, practice and research of art education.