Abstract
What fictions do we tell ourselves in order to teach? How do our stories as educators impact how we see our learners? Building from auto-ethnography research I begin with the personal and then invite co-participants to further illuminate a shared experience (Chang, 2008). In this example, I highlight the self-reflective work toward revealing and concealing identities associated with “teacher.” Using collage pedagogy (Garoian & Gaudelius, 2008), students in a pre-service art education class, created paper doll narratives marking and unmarking themselves through collaged backdrops and clothing choices which performed identities that would impact their role of teacher. Future teachers also “undressed” themselves from fashions that impeded their abilities to see their students beyond stereotypes. Through the design of the dolls and reflexivity, we examined the frictions of identity and representation within the larger social, political, or institutional landscapes of what it means to be “teacher/student” in the 21st century school sphere.