Collaboration: How can an ongoing dialogue with another artist teacher facilitate the production of artwork? What does this reveal about artist teachers in 21st Century England?

This research investigates how an ongoing dialogue with another artist teacher can facilitate the production of artwork in order to attempt to combat isolation and make time for creative and social engagement. My aim is to gain a broader understanding of the demands of my artist teacher role by collaboratively sharing a personal dialogue with another artist teacher from a different sociocultural context and explore what this can reveal about the role of the artist teacher in 21st century England. My participant, Ana (her name is concealed by a pseudonym for anonymity purposes) is an old friend and fellow artist teacher. We both possess pre-existing understanding of the social contexts in which we exist and work in which has developed from us both studying together at university and following similar career paths of teaching in secondary art education. Analytic autoethnography, the methodology this research is situated within, recognises that data can be collected from others as well the researcher. Methods such as WhatsApp are used as a tool for communication over two geographical locations. The implementation of autobiographical accounts, the production of artwork and digital photographs are chosen to record the development of our making practices and artist teacher experiences. Findings reveal concepts such as how common knowledge, questioning and the visual language act as tools for communication can enable a more comprehensive view of the relationships between learning and understanding our artist teacher experiences