Exploring Pedagogical Fantasies in Those Learning to Teach Art

Exploring a popular visual culture representation of an arts educator and using the Lacanian concept of fantasy, I interpret an unconscious pedagogical fantasy—teacher as savior—that (student) teachers may have when imagining teaching art. Pedagogical fantasies are fantasies that involve pedagogical encounters/exchanges between two or more people (especially teachers and students) inside or outside of an educational setting. I suggest that teacher educators can use fantasy as an impetus for discussion about and working through the anxieties of the profession of teaching art and art teacher identity.