2020 Theses Doctoral

How Artists Teach Leadership: Eight Portraits of Artist-Educators

Bang, April Hyoeun

This dissertation explored how eight artists who are also faculty in academic institutions and adult professional development programs teach leadership. As such, the purpose of this study was to understand to what extent and how these self-defined artists who also teach leadership in academic and professional development settings draw from and integrate their roles, skills, experiences, learning, and ways of making meaning as artists to facilitate leadership learning among adults. By doing so, this research sought to move beyond existing technical and conceptual knowledge of arts-based methods in leadership teaching to learning more about specific artists who have inspired or used such methods.
Using the method of portraiture embedded in a qualitative exploratory interview study with narrative inquiry, this study reveals an aesthetic approach to research and presents narratives of eight artist-educators in the form of portraits. Portraits were analyzed thematically using a procedure of cross-portrait analysis. Four conclusions emerged from the analysis. These include evidence of participants’ greater integration or interdependence of artist-educator identities and roles in later stages of one’s teaching career, experience of some degree or form of transformation in personal learning journeys with art, emphasis on experiential learning as an essential aspect of teaching, and advice to emerging artist-educators to embrace their artistic ways of being and knowing and integrate art into their teaching. Several recommendations for future research and practice are offered along with concluding reflections.