In developing my teaching practice at UAL, I am drawn to these ideas of self-reflexivity and narrative as research. The pedagogic challenge lies in fostering spaces where students can construct meaning through both individual introspection and communal exchange. As arts educators, we navigate the balance between structured knowledge and creative exploration, shaping learning environments that honour both accuracy and the generative potential of storytelling.
A key theme in the text is self as subject-matter, where the educator’s personal and professional identities merge through storytelling. Trish Osler reflects on the fragmented roles of artist, researcher, and teacher, noting how they merge in fleeting moments: “If the symbiosis we hope for can be felt in moments…” This tension between roles is a familiar challenge in higher education, where time and institutional structures often limit personal creative practice. Isabelle Guillard extends this idea, situating pedagogy within an ecological awareness: “I am constantly reflecting upon my actions at the personal and super personal level.” This suggests that teaching is not static but an evolving process of self-examination and relational learning.
Arianna Garcia-Fialdini’s research validates artistic inquiry as a method for exploring immigrant identity. Her work highlights how storytelling can be a means of reclaiming agency and forming connections within a community. This aligns with the workshop’s emphasis on understanding students’ diverse needs, particularly in institutions like UAL, where international and diasporic perspectives shape the student body. Sandrine Côté’s narrative, which explores generational storytelling, resonated deeply. Her reflections on inherited narratives and objects forming parts of identity highlight how material culture can serve as an anchor for memory and belonging.
A recurring question in the text is the balance between accuracy and storytelling in education. Sandrine’s work raises questions about embellishment—how much artistic license is permissible in shaping pedagogic narratives? This tension is relevant in higher education, where conventional research methods prioritise factual precision, often at the expense of emotional or cultural truth. The text suggests that narrative-based research operates in the intermezzo—a space between personal history and collective meaning-making. This aligns with heuristic phenomenology, where knowledge emerges through lived experience rather than objective observation.
The fifth narrative in the text emerges through threadscape, where individual stories intertwine to create a broader shared experience. This reflects the role of observation in teaching: learning does not happen in isolation but through entangled dialogues between self, community, and context. Teaching becomes an act of echolocation—a way of positioning oneself in relation to others through storytelling and shared inquiry.
Reading Reference:
Osler, A., Sibley, J., Canning, C., and McDonald, A., 2019. Storying the self as pedagogic practice. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 12(1-2), pp.109-124