Becoming subjectivities : academic women in art education

This article-style dissertation disrupts the status quo of academic research by exploring the subjectivity of women art educators across time. The researcher investigates subjectivity, as an evolution of tensions, without being beholden to tradition by using thinking with theory as a methodology for data and visual analysis. By working within and against the established structures of academe, art educators engage in a process of becoming. The dissertation illuminates processes of becoming while (a) disrupting labels placed upon women postsecondary art educators, (b) discovering the emergence of discourse when revisiting an exhibition, and (c) deconstructing the truths regarding two matriarchs of art education. These studies address equity in pK-20 curricula and programs with implications for producing justice in classrooms, artmaking, and among disciplines. The researcher organizes the dissertation into five chapters. The purpose of the first chapter is to introduce three related research studies, or manuscripts, by contextualizing them in the field of art education. Specifically, she states the problems under investigation, describes relevant scholarship, and presents the research theories and strategies. Each manuscript contains a unique study with complementary figures and/or tables, imbedded within the written text. Chapter Five includes a discussion where she outlines the manuscripts' major discoveries, summarizes the linkages among the three manuscripts, and addresses the ways in which the research has the potential to contribute to the field.