Managing cognitive dissonance in art teacher education

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Autoethnography
• art education
• teacher education
• cognition
• dissonance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that supports this study is available from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [RH] on request.

Ethics

Ethical approval for this study was sought from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, under Grant [IRB-20 20 February 2033-01].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, under Grant [SUG-NAP 5/19 RH].