Artists Becoming Teachers: Artists Becoming Teachers: Transformation in a Virtual Forum

This article is an investigation of art and design graduates’ identities as they embark upon their training as teachers. The expressive, ‘confessional’ nature of forum posts from their Virtual Learning Environment are analysed in relation to the students’ identity transformation into teachers. This transition is profound in the case of artist teachers, for whom the contrast between their practice as a critical artist and that of a regulated professional can be severe. The usage of these socially-oriented virtual forums, and the students’ identity transition is analysed in terms of identity theorists such as Butler, hooks and Wenger. There are problems of expression that are brought about by the juxtaposition of visually and spatially adept artist-learners constrained within a largely textual environment, yet this impediment appears to be ameliorated by their social-expressive exploitation of the forums.