Exploring Three Pedagogical Fantasies of Becoming-Teacher: A Lacanian and Deleuzo-Guattarian Approach to Unfolding the Identity (Re)Formation of Art Student Teachers.

Abstract

This doctoral study concerns itself with the emergent identity formation of art student teachers: the knowledge and cultural systems [including TV and movies] through which art teaching identity conceives itself, and the ontological consequences [affects on art student teachers' collective and self (dis)identifications] that evolve from those identifications.I examine how media representations of arts educators might act as a catalyst to help unfold the perceptions and desires student teachers have and how they affect how art education and art educators' professional identities get imagined by student teachers.Specifically, I consider them as becoming-teacher, the space or movement in between their state of being a student and their state of being a teacher.I do not look at them as students in the University, nor do I look at them as teachers in the classroom, rather, I attempt to understand the chaos of the transition and dynamism in between these two states-the very plane of immanence within which they are currently situated.In order to understand the movement of becoming-teacher, the methodology of the study includes individual interviews with three art student teachers and a group interview with the same three participants that took place after watching several pre-selected DVD clips of popular Hollywood movies and a TV series featuring arts educators.The DVD clips were shown to help answer the main research question which is: How can popular visual culture representations of arts educators be used as a catalyst to unfold student teachers' unconscious pedagogical desires and fantasies about teaching art?Using a content analysis approach, I construct three categories of pedagogical fantasies that art student teachers may possess and/or employ with partial regard to the type of teacher they are becoming or desire to become/be recognized as.These pedagogical fantasies, of 1) iii subject-supposed-to-know, 2) student enchantment, and 3) ego-identification, support their desires and exist as necessary vehicles for turning their teaching realities into seemingly (deceptively) coherent wholes.These pedagogical fantasies support the student teachers' desires for power/recognition, love/connections, and salvation/social justice.Employing both Lacanian psychoanalysis and Deleuzo-Guattarian philosophy, I consider the affective investments student teachers might develop/employ in their teacher identities as well as how they may (re)negotiate those identities.Specific importance is given to exploring what might happen in those moments when art student teachers begin to realize their pedagogical fantasies about teaching (art) are merely (deceptive) illusions.To conclude, I suggest that teacher educators can use fantasy and desire as an impetus for discussion about/working through the anxieties of the profession of teaching art and art teacher identity.iv DEDICATION To Olivia, Jean, and Marissathree remarkable women who gave their time and unending support as participants and who helped me achieve my lofty research goals.You give me hope in the future of art education; I will always love & admire each of you.v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, as I did with my thesis and with all other major achievements in my life, I must thank my Heavenly Father, through whom all things are possible.You have never forsaken me and you have blessed me with the greatest desires of my heart.I pray that I will glorify you in all of my actions, great and small, present and future.Second, I owe big hugs to my family, my extended church family, my multitude of fantastic friends, and my two feathered-children, Zackie (R.I.P.) and Zoë.Thank you for loving me and supporting me even when you weren't quite sure what it was that I was doing or why I would seclude myself for days and weeks in my research fortress-ofsolitude.Your care packages, phone calls, emails, & words of encouragement were much appreciated!Special scarlet & gray thanks go out to my OSU classmates, especially to Verona, Bill, & Vicki-who have listened to my lamentations and babblings throughout the years.Verona, thank you for letting me know I always have a home in Jamaica, and wherever I am in the world, know that you have a home, too.To Bill, who dared me to be the researcher I desired to be-but seriously, with me and Pippi Longstocking, what would the children look like?Vicki, how many thanks can I possibly offer to you in this tiny space?And of course, a warm hug to my Deleuze Reading Group, Courtnie and Aaron.Next I thank the many professors in the Department of Art Education at OSU who taught me and mentored me, with or without their knowing.Very special thanks goes to Mary

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