91 Visual Arts Research Volume 35, Number 1 Summer 2009

2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Postcard Moments:
Signicant Moments in Teaching
Tis qualitative study explores the nature of preservice art teachers concepts of what it
means to be a teacher. Using a multisemester reective art and writing project entitled
Postcard Moments, preservice art teachers, students in an art education program at a
Midwestern university, were asked to creatively document revelations and transforma-
tions during their course of study in preparation for becoming teachers of art. Trough
analysis of students Postcard Moments, the researchers gained insight into how their
preservice art teachers made connections between experiences, signicant moments, and
their emerging teacher identity.
Because learning transforms who we are and what we do, it is an experience of iden-
tity. It is not just an accumulation of skills and information, but also a process of
becoming to become a certain person, or conversely, to avoid becoming a certain per-
son. (Wenger, , p. )
Tis article discusses the results of a study that explored the nature of preservice
art teachers concepts of what it means to be a teacher. Te study was conducted
over , years in an art education degree program at a large, Midwestern univer-
sity. Te researchers, also the writers of this report, share insights about the
ways in which reective practice supports the development of art education
majors emerging identities as teachers of art, and how insights gained from this
study provide content for self-reection into our own thinking about teacher
education.
Kathleen A. Unrath
University of Missouri
Carrie Y. Nordlund
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
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92 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
Studies conrm that reective practitioners continually analyze signicant
moments within their learning experiences. Extrapolating from such research, we
wondered how art education majors awareness of their own identitywho they
are and might become as educatorsmight similarly be enriched through self-re-
ection. What learning experiences can art education faculty members in teacher
preparation programs develop to provide robust opportunities for preservice
teachers to reect upon their learning and construct their own knowledge about
teaching practices? And how can we facilitate intentional ongoing reection and
an open mindfulness in our students as they form their teacher identities? In an
eort to answer these questions, we developed Postcard Moments, an assignment
designed to encourage students to creatively document and reect upon their
self-discoveries and epiphanal moments as they progressed through their teaching
certication program. To study the eectiveness of the Postcard Moments strategy,
we also engaged in action research to discover what kinds of events or signicant
moments were translated by our students into postcards, what this revealed about
how these students reected on their teaching experiences, and what this means
for teacher education programs of study.
Postcard Moments are works of art that art education students create at key
moments during their course of study and eld experiences; such works are visual
metaphors expressing a moment of enlightenmentan epiphany or crystallizing
experience accompanied by narratives or writings about their personal journey
as student teachers. Te assignments small postcard format serves as a compact,
portable, and focused place where these reections are actualized. A traveler might
choose which external event or experience from a trip or journey is signicant
enough to write home about; our preservice art teachers, however, must look
inward for expressive commentary about their journey of learning. We asked stu-
dents to share epiphanies on their postcard moments.
Literature Review
Te term epiphany is a Greek derivative meaning to come into view (McDonald,
:cc, p. ,:). Jarvis (:,,;) dened epiphany as sudden discontinuous change,
leading to profound, positive, and enduring transformation through recongura-
tion of an individuals most deeply held beliefs about self and the world (p. v).
After implementing a narrative study that analyzed epiphanies within peoples life
stories, McDonald (:cc) dened epiphany as a profound illumination . . . of
self-identity and an intentional experience made signicant and enduring by the
ascription of personal meaning (p. ,).
In the decision-rich arena of the classroom, epiphanies, reections, and
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meanings that novice educators make of their pedagogical experience are emer-
gent, uid, and deeply informative to educational researchers. Researchers have
focused on educators reective journals as specic tools for understandings how
teachers learn to teach and become teachers (Doyle, :,,;; Henry, :,,,; Kowal-
chuk, :ccc; Roland, :,,,; Rowls & Swick, :ccc; Sickler-Voit, :cc;; Stout, :,,,;
Uline, Wilson, & Cordy, :cc; Yinger & Clark, :,:). We wondered whether
students reective practice would expand beyond typical written journals. For
example, Kowalchuks (:ccc) student teachers were provided open-ended prompts
and asked to create reective statements about clinical experiences. Reective as-
signments also have been required when a preservice teacher enters into the eld
during the transition from theory to practice. In a similar study, Sanders-Bustle
(:cc) asked her students to use visual/verbal artifact journals as constructs for
reection and meaning making. Her study diered from ours in that she asked
her students to respond to art and artifacts in their everyday environment, whereas
our students were required to respond visually and verbally to experiences sur-
rounding the climate and curriculum of K:: schools. In our study, critical, but
poetic, connections, words, and images were shaped into artworks representative
of the preservice teachers reective practices.
Some researchers have focused on the importance of preservice educators
becoming self-reective (Bain, :cc; Campbell, :cc,; La Jevic & Springgay, :cc;
Susi, :,,,). Others have measured and analyzed the quality and categories of
teacher reections (Bergsgaard & Ellis, :cc:; hooks, :,,; Lee, :cc,; Miller, :,,;
Schn, :,,; Susi, :,,,; Unrath, :cc;; Zeicher & Liston, :,;). Unlike these stud-
ies, our research has focused specically on preservice art educators epiphanies,
which occurred during the experience of teaching and learning. Using epiphanies
at the center of reective practice allowed our students to reect from a particular
self-described point of departure and informed us about how this guided them to
particular philosophies of teaching.
Reective Assignment Framework
As teachers of teachers, we were interested in the profound transformations of self-
identity in our students. Postcard Moments were art as rethought (Smith-Shank,
:,,,) specically directed at rethinking pedagogy through art making that mines
divergent connections to the epiphany. Te postcards captured the reective arts
practitioner in action and demonstrated how teaching dilemmas embedded in the
microcosms of classroom life are lived, contemplated, and dealt with by emerging
teachers.
Participants of the study (n = o:) were all preservice students of a single
93 Kathleen A. Unrath and Carrie Y. Nordlund Postcard Moments
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94 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
faculty researcher, Kathy Unrath, one of the writers of this report, and from ur-
ban, suburban, and rural Midwest communities. Te other researcher/writer of
this report, Carrie Nordlund, was a graduate teaching assistant in the program at
the time. Of the student participants, ;c were women and :c were graduate
students earning initial certication in a Master of Education in Art Education
program. Te eld experience placements that accompany art pedagogy courses
are three semesters and require the students to spend : hours per week in a local
school district K:: art classroom.
When we rst met our students, we described growth toward becoming
art teachers as a metaphorical journey. We asked students to share their personal
insights from the journey in the form of postcards, like postcards that are sent by
travelers who wish to share their adventures with someone back home. Although
postcards are traditionally dened as small cards with pictures on one side and
written messages on the other, we invited students to think creatively about the
forms of postcards they might make to send. Tey were asked to connect the
visual imagery to the verbal commentary so that each enhanced the meaning of
the other. Te inspiration for a postcard could emerge from university classroom
discussions, eld experiences in the K:: classroom, interactions with learners, or
from theoretical course readings. Two postcards per semester were listed in the syl-
labus as a course requirement, although they were not graded.
Te task of creating a Postcard Moment supports inquiry as artist, researcher,
and teacher (a/r/t) (Irwin et al., :cco). Postcard Moments encouraged students to
wonder continually, thus allowing inquiries to generate from and within the places
they experience. As one student noted, A Postcard Moment constitutes reection
and involves looking back, as an artist as well as an art educator, where newly ac-
quired knowledge, understanding, and deliberation are captured at that particular
moment (student comment, May ;, :cc). By providing opportunities for stu-
dents to reect on their own learning, we modeled the ethic of reective practice
and encouraged the students to take ownership of their acquisition of knowledge.
Te intent with this assignment was to cultivate in students an ethic of in-action
reection (Schn, :,,, :,;) that might become embedded into their professional
practice.
With this assignment, we were mindful of how teachers processes of be-
coming educators are entwined with participation in their learning community
(Wenger, :,,). At the core of the Postcard Moments assignment was the premise
that educators examine personal beliefs in the actual classroom context . . . [and]
evaluate those beliefs, eventually reinforcing, adapting, or rejecting them (Henry,
:,,,, p. :o). One student wrote,
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Deciding on a singular Postcard Moment from the eld was quite dicult. Every
day seemed to bring about new challenges and experiences resulting in epipha-
nies one might never come to in the regular college classroom. I decided that
making larger postcards in the form of small books would help me to synthesize
my thoughts in a manner that was reective both visually and verbally. (April ,,
:cc,; see Figure :)
Methodology
Tis study was driven by three research questions: How has the implementation
of the Postcard Moments assignment facilitated intentional reection and an open
mindfulness in art education students as they form their teacher identities? What
can we learn from a thematic analysis of the content of their imagery and verbal
commentary about their own learning? What can we discover about the contexts
in which the Postcard Moments occurred? Tis study, following the action-research
tradition, purposefully captured the reective observations of preservice students
as they made meaning about their teacher-training experience. Te eectiveness
of emerging theory, through action research, is that it helps the people in the situ-
Figure 1. Postcard moment synthesized in book form.
95 Kathleen A. Unrath and Carrie Y. Nordlund Postcard Moments
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96 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
ation make sense of their experience. Action researchs spiraling thinkactreect
methodology engages people actively in all stages of generating knowledge based
upon experience and reection: Being iterative, action research is also an emer-
gent methodologyit accumulates understanding gradually. Participation, by
building shared understanding and shared commitment, increases the motivation
for collective and collaborative action (Dick, :cc,, p. ,). Te student participants
in this study were engaged and were informed by inquiry into the ecacy of their
own teaching experiences.
Since learning is entwined with doing, it made sense to investigate the pre-
service art educators learning through their in-action reections that highlight
moments of discovery. Terefore, our research strategy has also been inuenced
by Denzins (:,,) social theory about turning-point moments within lived ex-
perience, and his research methodology of interpretive biographies where storied
epiphanies biographically capture metamorphosis and change. We analyzed Post-
card Moment artworks as narrative representations of our preservice art educators
self-dened epiphanies during their metamorphosis from student to teacher.
In action research both the content (the growing theory) and the process
(the research methods that are being used) can be emergent. Tis it shares with
grounded theory (Dick, :cc,, p. ,). Tus, borrowing from grounded theory
(Glasner & Strauss, :,o;), our data analysis employed constant comparison
analysis of :: postcard artworks. As new postcards arrived, we constantly sorted
the artifacts into categories comparing new data with other emergent categories.
Inductive analysis (from specic to broad) enabled us to connect small segments
of information to the larger categories. Open coding analysis included identify-
ing, naming, categorizing, and describing phenomena found in the imagery and
text. From these categories, we determined emergent themes evident in both
the Postcard Moments visual metaphors and verbal commentary, rst by coding
each of the artifacts and second by comparing similarities and dierences across
the data.
Te study considered several trustworthiness strategies within its methodol-
ogy. We independently analyzed the Postcard Moment artifacts to compare and
substantiate our interpretations and to establish high interjudge reliability. We
returned to the artifacts over a ,-year period, allowing us intimate and signicant
consideration of the data. After the data analysis of Postcard Moments, member
checks with students were conducted via class discussion, as well as through email
communication with the student participants. Such member checks aorded
additional reection for both our students and us, and conrmed the emergent
themes.
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Findings
Te studys data analysis conrmed that students epiphanies are memorable and,
when reected upon, help crystallize who students want to become. One student
reected about the process of developing the postcard:
I remember initially struggling with this assignment. Now that I was cognizant
of these Postcard Moments, I began feeling almost paralyzed by the shear number
that I was experiencing every day. Which ones to choose? Tere were too many!
I nally decided to take a risk and approach making my postcards dierently.
Instead of noting the guideposts along the journey, I decided to synthesize the
larger path. I sought to create a vessel to house my reections on the experi-
ences Id had up to that point in my journey to becoming an art teacher. What
resulted were minimanifestos declaring my newfound passion and increased un-
derstanding for the art education profession. As I began working, I also became
fascinated with the idea of the viewer having to physically search for content
buried in folds, enclosed in pockets, tucked behind doors, etc.to mirror my
own path of discovery. (June :,, :cc,)
Four themes emerged from our analysis of the :: postcards under con-
sideration in this study: (a) Armation of the Act of Teaching Art (;: postcards
[:o]), (b) Actualization of Curriculum (,, postcards [::]), (c) Acknowledg-
ment of Best Practices (o; postcards or [:]), and (d) Manifestation of Art
Teacher Identity (: postcards [:,]). Te four emergent themes provided rich
insights to us about these preservice art educators in-action revelations and peda-
gogical philosophies, particularly in relation to their underlying beliefs about why
teach art, what to teach, and how to best teach. Similarly, the preservice art educa-
tors epiphanies, revealed in their Postcard Moments, reinforced their own under-
standings of their self-discovered strengths, weaknesses, and professional goals.
Theme 1: Afrmation of the Act of Teaching
A signicant theme that emerged from our analysis was an armations of why
to teach. Tese preservice art educators recognized their passionate desire for a
place within the eld of education. Trough the wide, open eyes of their young
students, some of these becoming teachers discovered, as one stated, What it
was like having newfound curiosity of life, people, and things. Another stated,
Te littlest thing or something we, as older people, nd insignicant can mean
the world to a child.
One particular postcard centered on an expansion of perspective while teach-
ing at an alternative high school with pregnant teenagers. It displayed, I saw that
97 Kathleen A. Unrath and Carrie Y. Nordlund Postcard Moments
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98 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
these girls may only be teenagers, but they had experiences like that of having a child
growing in your womb that I hadnt had. Tese girls were given a voice . . . through
art and illustrated the pregnant student on stage with a condent voice (Figure :).
Another preservice art educator found her inspiration emerging from col-
lege students who she was teaching in an art-appreciation class. She stated, As I
watched the students, I felt I was also watching myself develop as a teacher. I feel
this postcard visualizes this moment, as I metaphorically hatch as an educator
(Figure ,).
Theme 2: Actualization of the Curriculum
Tis postcard theme demonstrated how the preservice art educators reected upon
the boundaries of their lessons. Some Postcard Moments supported the need for
open-ended exploration of art media and processes within lessons, as in an art-for-
art-sake approach. Others revealed struggles between student-centered discoveries
and teacher-prescribed criteria, and suggested a proportion of each that might be
necessary in an eective lesson.
One postcard that was
created after an observation
of participants in sensual me-
dia exploration at a womens
shelter read, Dont forget to
teach bad art; this can be very
soothing, to have no expecta-
tions. Tis verbal comment was
juxtaposed with a nonobjective
color-collage image. Tis com-
mentary may be particularly
notable during an era when
focus is on standards-based
learning. It suggests a need for
surprise, exploration, and unex-
pected consequences that may
not be comparable with rigid
outcomes-based expectations.
Te postcard reminds us to not
lose sight of what it means to
explore in materials and discover
meaning within the play. Figure 2. Pregnant art student.
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Other postcards recalled moments where the preservice art educators were
intimidated by a particular art media and gained empathy for K:: students strug-
gling in such media. One stated, If [the students] are comfortable with the me-
dia, they will more likely push themselves to create something wonderful.
An emergent category from the data was actualization of what is means to
think like a teacher. Some of the Postcard Moments demonstrated the preservice
art educators expansion of content knowledge within the eld. Much like an art-
ist who reects upon relationships and happenings within our world in order to
create and express, some of the preservice art educators recognized how the act of
designing art curricula resembles the act of creating art. Other epiphanies were
generated from environments outside of school settings. One postcard spoke to
a newfound openness for what a lesson can be: Im starting to think more like a
teacher . . . [W]hen I see something that interests me, I immediately think about
how I can turn it into a lesson.
Theme 3: Acknowledgment of Best Practices
Te majority of our students Postcard Moments reected on how to teach eectively.
Some epiphanies spoke to the importance of a well-planned and practiced lesson.
Figure 3. Hatching as an art teacher.
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100 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
One student wrote, I was working on my unit plan and making samples . . . [M]
y rst couple of samples did not look good . . . I realized (tangibly) what the impor-
tance of doing the lesson has to do with writing a lesson! Other epiphanies emerged
from eld dilemmas, such as recognition that a lesson was not going well and
needed adjustment or that the teaching strategy was not engaging the student(s). For
example, one Postcard Moment revealed struggles with how to address the unique
needs of a displaced student from the :cc, Katrina Hurricane tragedy. Tis post-
card image was structured with shrinelike doors illustrating diverse experiences that
in turn opened to an illustration of a child behind the experiences. Te child was
drawn with a large bowl in front of him; this was poignant, considering that the
child had been struggling with eating problems that stemmed from mold growths in
his throat (Figure ). Some of the postcards commentary reads,
Home life denitely had an impact on his school life. . . . Sometimes it takes a
little extra . . . to give a student what he or she needs. We should teach each stu-
dent according to his or her unique abilities, knowledge, and situation. I want
to make all of my students feel special. (October , :cco)
During eld experiences, preservice teachers have opportunities to translate
theories about learners into pedagogical practices. Often, emergent teachers sense
a magnitude of profound responsibility toward the learner. Te learner becomes
three-dimensional right before their very eyes. Connecting to the learner, as a facet
Figure 4. Hurricane Katrina
victim.
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of best practice, was frequently cited in the postcard epiphanies. For example, one
shared a success in connecting with an English-language learner who was new to
the school:
He would get frustrated about his artwork and would have trouble telling me
what was wrong. When I taught my Op Art lesson on Vasarely, his eyes lit up!
He began to draw illusions with his ngers in the air. He went above and be-
yond the assignment and even helped other students despite the language bar-
rier. He reminded me why I want to teach. (April ,c, :cc;)
Theme 4: Manifestations of Art Teacher Identity
Postcard Moments oered a venue for preservice art educators to reect upon the
realities and ideals of being a teacher. One postcard shared, Teachers are not per-
fect . . . [T]hey are normal people, like me, doing extraordinary things and giving
selessly of themselves to their students. Another stated, I learned today that
teaching is such a building up of layers like a collage adding bits of knowledge to
your mind. More and more experiences build until you become a nal nished
teacher (or piece of art). Similarly, another epiphany centered on relationships:
I am a role model. I am a successful female artist and my students need my atten-
tion, respect, and honesty. Tey need a relationship with me.
One of the preservice art educators artworks extended beyond the two-di-
mensional postcard format to create a box that contained her personal art teachers
manifesto. In this way, she asserted to herself and exclaimed to the world the role
of an art teacher:
Te desire to make art begins early. Among the very young this is encouraged
(or at least indulged as harmless), but the push toward a serious education
soon exacts a heavy toll on dreams and fantasies. (Some students parents will
even demand their child stop wasting their time on art!) Yet for some the de-
sire persists and sooner or later must be addressed and with good reason. Your
desire to make art beautiful or meaningful or emotive is central to who you are.
Making art is dangerous and revealing. Teaching art is even more dangerous and
revealing but woiru ir!
We must push our students and their work as much as we push ourselves.
We need to take more risks and rock the boat . . . iuiiosii\! We must be suc-
culent wild women and men who let their world know that air is a siiious
ioucariox and that our students desire to make meaningful, beautiful gestures
is essential if art is truly who we are. We need to share our talents with others so
that they may have a voice and feel as ianuious and dangerous and as revealing
as we do. (May ,, :cc,; see Figure ,)
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102 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
Discussion and Insights
Learning about teaching is demanding and endlessly thought provoking. Learning
about the teaching of teachers in the process of becoming is no less demanding
or thought provoking. Yet we know that reection is important to the process of
eective teaching and a highly valued characteristic of master teachers (Unrath
& Nordlund, :cco). Te postcard assignment described in this study provides a
concrete example of how preservice teachers can be asked to engage in reective
practice and why it is such an important ethic to cultivate. Te Postcard Moments
assignment also supports the notion of higher educators acting as facilitators of
these processes through the assignments they insert into the curriculum.
Postcard Moments, like other forms of art, become arenas for making sense
of the world. Art teachers may be particularly receptive to reective thinking
because art making is an inherently reective craft (Unrath, :cc;). Te student-
centered art-making component of Postcard Moments, a form of art as rethought
in Smith-Shanks (:,,,) conception, aorded in-depth wrestling with ideas and
reactions about the experience of becoming an art teacher. Within this act of re-
sponsive wondering, we trusted that the students might come to recognize that
Figure 5. Art Teacher Manifesto (open).
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pedagogical theory is no longer an abstract concept but rather an embodied liv-
ing inquiry, an interstitial relational space for creating, teaching, learning, and re-
searching in a constant state of becoming (Irwin et al., :cco). Te postcards unit-
ed the artists creative visualization of a signicant event with a personal narrative
that honored meaning making from an art educators journey. Deciding which
ideas were important enough to commemorate through a creative process placed
credence in their ability to be both reective teachers and artists. Ultimately, their
documented epiphanies revealed discovery and synthesis of eective practices, as
one postcard read:
As I got to know my :nd graders better, I became enlightened as to how dier-
ently each child was living the same year. It is important to me, as a teacher, to
walk in my pupils shoes to better empathize and meet their needs. (April :,
:cco)
Findings of this study also demonstrated that gains in perspective that result
from reective practices are reciprocal in nature, ongoing between teachers and
their students. By choosing to employ the assignment, we also placed value on the
reective ethic of our own practices as university educators. Te action-research
methodology enabled us to look deeply at the responses of our students over time,
and we looked to the postcard artifacts as markers for improvement for us as edu-
cators. What the students have deemed signicant to them, as their epiphanies,
informed us as the co-constructors of their teacher training, and the students view
us as reective practitioners taking action in their best interest. Inclusion of Post-
card Moments-like learning activities in teacher-training curriculum is an attractive
method for teacher educators to make sense of their own practices because teacher
educators may themselves also be in the state of Becoming.
Given that many of the preservice art educators epiphanies about what it
means to be an art teacher emerged from in-action dilemmas, teacher prepara-
tion programs may want to consider our Postcard Moments as meaning-making
conduits for students and faculty alike. Our Postcard Moments model can be easily
adapted into other preservice classrooms where the postcards, functioning both as
artistic expressions and as data sets, can be used to conrm where students have
been and where they are going on their journey in art education. When we asked
our students to discuss the lasting impact of the postcard assignment, the response
below reected the sentiments of many of our students:
A Postcard Moment is a pivotal moment in time that causes one to deeply
reect on his/her experiences within the art education journey. Te Postcard
Moment can be achieved spontaneously, without being prepared for it, or real-
ized through intentional reection upon past events. Te moments that were
103 Kathleen A. Unrath and Carrie Y. Nordlund Postcard Moments
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104 Visual Arts Research Summer 2009
honored in my postcards were chosen because they were moments that made an
impact on me on a deep, personal level. (April :,, :cc)
Our graduates, now certied art educators working in the eld, continue to
analyze their actions and experiences as evidenced in the Postcard Moments they
continue to send!
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Contact Kathleen A. Unrath University of Missouri
,c, Townsend Hall
Columbia, MO o,:::
E-mail: unrathk@missouri.edu
Telephone: ,;,--,,,
Carrie Y. Nordlund Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
PO Box ;,c
Kutztown, PA :,,,c
E-mail: nordlund@kutztown.edu
Telephone: o:c-o,-,c
105 Kathleen A. Unrath and Carrie Y. Nordlund Postcard Moments
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