In western societies, the persona of the artist has largely been associated with prevailing myths of the creative individual including the artist as genius and outsider. In my inquiry I endeavored to understand what it means to be an artist from the perspective of budding “creatives”. In this study I explored the process of becoming an artist that is how college students construct and navigate an artistic self (selves), and the factors that influenced this process. My purpose in this multiple text narrative inquiry was to discover how undergraduate art majors construct and navigate their artistic identity/identities, particularly while engaged in an artistic undergraduate research (UR) experience. I selected to explore students engaged in an undergraduate research project as a way to understand the process of artistic becoming within a unique educational practice, and to determine the role of creativity within this process. My study involved students who participated in an undergraduate research scholarship program developed by the Office for Undergraduate Research at a large research university in the southeast of the United States. Ten undergraduate art majors participated in this study. Data included in-depth interviews, and participant writings in the form of “artist” reflective journal entries (which included both written and visual text), and a final self-reflection essay. I analyzed the interview data through a holistic- content approach (Lieblich et al., 1998). I identified specific themes in order to understand the complex, “whole” individual, which assisted me in understanding participant “artistic selves”, and how creativity played a role in this process. I analyzed participant art products using methods adapted from Riessman (2008) and Keats (2009). Three key findings emerged from my inquiry. First, for the majority of participants, the construction of artistic identity/identities involved a significant evolution in their meaning making structures. Second, the notion of “doing” for oneself through research was profound for most individuals, which resulted in a stronger sense of artistic identity/identities. The third major finding was how participants weaved their artistic identity/identities through creativity. Implications of my research underscore the need for more robust institutional support and resources to assist emerging artists with developing career skills, creating supportive environments for art majors from a variety of backgrounds to help them succeed and thrive in college, the design and implementation of additional educational practices in the arts that promote self-authorship, and the expansion of UR activities within the arts.

With the continual use of standardized testing, teaching art in schools, particularly elementary schools, often falls to generalist teachers with little to no experience in art. While art can be integrated into daily curriculum for deeper and lasting learning, without the proper training or support, generalist teachers are left to implement art as they encountered it in the past, if at all. Artistic anxiety and culturally misappropriated artistic experiences result in the arts being used inefficiently or avoided completely. Creating a curriculum for preservice elementary generalist teachers, I explored art integration through developing artistic confidence, skill, and identity for 16 non-artists in a 3-credit term course that included an art-teaching practicum component for participants. While the majority of participants finished the course with a positive artistic experience--many declared that they had started on an artistic path and that they looked forward to integrating the arts in their future curricula--it was evident that a course covering art integration, developing an artistic self, and completing a practicum left participants rushed and overwhelmed. Some even closed themselves off to certain projects, afraid of failure. To help preservice elementary generalists connect to art as a learning tool, I suggest establishing an arts integration minor that requires a full-semester studio course focused only on developing an artistic identity. The course should build artistic confidence and habits that preservice teachers can take into practicum courses, which focus on experientially integrating the arts in lesson planning and teaching.

This thesis aims at the problematics of personal growth of students with special needs in the field of art education. For example in ceramics they move from mechanical imitation of certain craftmanship to their own artistic self-realization. The goal of this thesis is to explore, dokument and describe in what ways can succes of a student be influenced. The claim will be verified, that though specifically chosen artistic tasks, that do not také place only in ceramics workshop, not only work related but also intelectuall skills that are connected with interiorization of the procedures can be developer. The subject of this research are the exspressions of verbal communicetion between students. The course of these interactions, their connection to the special needs of the students, and to the formationof their roles in the group, and what influence it has on these roles. This research is designed as a qualitative multiple case study according to theory of Strauss and Corbin. The main means of this research are transcription and analysis of data aquired from video recordings throughthe ATLAS.ti program and their interpretation. The output of this research could srve as a starting poind for creatings a more sffective methodology for teaching ceramics to students with special needs. The new educational...