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Teacher educators act as a conduit to student teachers of policy and this has an impact on practice. Changes in policy affect how subjects are viewed in terms of their importance. This research seeks to explore the apparent increase in emphasis on wellbeing development in policy which influences the work of arts teacher educators, alongside a declining focus on the arts, and a separation of wellbeing from the arts in policy lexicon. Adopting a self-study approach, this article explores if wellbeing features in our practice as arts teacher educators and how our arts education practice aligns with national policy and curriculum development in the Republic of Ireland. The results of the study outline ways in which arts teacher educators are shaped by policy. Recommendations are made for a broader view of wellbeing in policy, and an experience of wellbeing and arts which is embedded into learning processes in teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a group of seven teacher educators report on how they embarked on a process of collaborative autoethnography to uncover the problems and possibilities of teaching arts education using digital methodologies. Arising from the pressing need to pivot from in-person, campus-based teaching to online modes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the phenomenon prompted the authors to engage in critical and inquiry-oriented reflection on the experience. While the full group comprised teacher educators from across diverse disciplines, the current study focuses primarily on the idiosyncratic nature of teaching arts subjects such as music, drama and visual arts education to student teachers. Using qualitative analysis, the study identifies key themes and insights gleaned from critical explorations of the data. Although embodied pedagogies are considered no less valuable than before, the study reveals unexpected benefits that arise in the digital context, especially in arts education. In this frame, arts education is recast in a dynamic and unexpected fashion, despite the exigencies of the digital environment. Ultimately, the study points to important teaching and learning experiences, and new ways of framing dimensions of those experiences, that can inform future teaching worlds in the digital space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]