This paper will discuss the preliminary research data collecting for my thesis and complexities around it. The particular aim of the paper is to present the background of the research. The questions that my research addresses are: What and how are the Finnish art teachers telling about becoming and being an art teacher? The purpose of my thesis is to study the process of art teachers´ professional identity formation. This paper will give an idea of one possible approach to the professional identity of art teachers’. In the research the professional identity is introduced as a narrative configuration. The study is based on empirical data that will consist of Finnish art teachers’ autobiographical narratives. Because the actual research data has not yet been collected, I’ll present the preliminary results from focus group discussions. Focus group discussions were done to map out things art teachers’ consider to be remarkable for becoming and working as an art teacher. This paper presents the specific challenges concerning my research data collecting: How to interact in a small country where all the art teachers’ are somehow related to each other? What kind of understanding written autobiographical narratives generate (comparing to life history interviews, focus group discussions etc.)? What sorts of issues remain unwritten/unspoken and on the other hand: what shall be revealed during the writing process/interviews? Also a number of ethical issues concerning the researcher position will be introduced. Among the topics discussed are the role of the art teacher-researcher and the researcher as a creator/“writer” of meaningful stories and/or narratives. The researcher’s personal involvement, self-reflection and the ethically conscious relationship between researcher and those art teachers participating my study are described. The purpose is to discuss the role of co-researchers and how to carry out the research as collaboration.

The research has an autobiographical and narrative approach: the professional identity is introduced as a narrative configuration. Narrative research is an umbrella term that covers a large and diverse range of approaches. Methods used in this study will be narrative analysis and their applications to autobiographical writings and life history interviews. As a methodological framework the theory of the dialectics of the personal and the social identity formation by Rom Harré is applied.

Only two universities educate art teachers in Finland. Finish art teachers work in variable institutions and positions: such as museums (museum pedagogy) and all school levels. Art schools for children and young people and folk schools are also possible working places for an art teacher. Due to my assumption the research data may indicate the importance of these institutions for art teachers’ professional identity. Also the dilemma of belonging to the artists´ tribe or to the teachers´ tribe is introduced.