Art and Crisis: Preservice Teachers' Coping amid Constantly Changing Landscapes

As our world endures multiple crises, educators have turned their eye to what does and does not work effectively to assist students in the school environment, regardless of changing landscapes, such as lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-critical race theory legislation, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, personal crises students face, as well as other social and political movements that alter public discourse and impact education. This article, which J. Scott Baker coauthors with four of his preservice teachers (PTs), examines the use of retrospective and prospective reflection through artmaking as a coping mechanism to engage, disrupt, embrace, explore, or confront mitigating factors of multiple crises. With these two types of reflection in mind, this article questions: (1) as preservice teachers ponder their past, present, and possible selves, how do they perceive crises as influencing their teacher identity? and (2) how can teacher educators use art to assist preservice teachers in processing stressors associated with crises and model artmaking as a coping mechanism?