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Contemporary textile arts include a diverse continuum of practices ranging from DIY strategies rooted in grassroots culture often intentionally and intensely anti-intellectual, relational aesthetics based in social or collective practices and hyper technological electronically reliant practices often conceptual in nature. Contemporary educational practices also have a broad range of approaches and ideologies, which manifest in many forms, from applied situated social studio learning to e-learning platforms and distance learning, dependant upon social media and e-resources.
Given this complex range of diverse approaches and practices, how do we locate ourselves as educational practitioners? How do we settle into our educational spaces as we negotiate institutional or workplace limitations, our own beliefs about our pedagogical and studio practices as well as student desires as they learn to become textile artists?
This presentation paper will explore the relationships between contemporary textile art practice and contemporary educational theories. My exploration will consider how this relationship may be used to locate, identify, and sift through issues facing textile arts pedagogy.