Tutor profile - Jo

As a dedicated artist educator with over twelve years of teaching experience in a variety of contexts, Joanna has developed a profound understanding of the benefits of instilling a love of life-long learning through art. Whilst teaching, Joanna witnessed how art as a universal language, has the potential to build bridges and break down barriers in a number of ways. For example, art can encourage the development of well-being in young people through exposure to different cultures and perspectives. As a result, fostering an empathetic understanding of others in conjunction with the development of the self as an individual and how to make sense of their place in a rapidly transitioning world.Furthermore, Joanna believes in our current challenging times which is compromising the wellbeing of many that the practice of art and it's many benefits has an important role to play.

In 2017, Joanna completed and gained a distinction in an Art Education Master's degree. Since 2018, Joanna has been a studio holder at Magdalen Studios in Oxford, and she enjoys and benefits from being part of an artistic and vibrant community in Oxford. She regularly exhibits work on a local and national basis. One of her most recent commissions was a participatory art project for Stowe National Trust park based on the River of Styx Greek myth, and for the London/Oxford based Zuleika gallery to raise money for the NHS workers , exhibiting with other local Oxford artists and acclaimed UK artist Jenny Saville.

Alongside this, Joanna is currently preparing a proposal for a part-time interdisciplinary PhD in art and education at Oxford Brookes University which she hopes will give her the support and specialist advice to continue her multi-sensory video and installation visual research further.

After accomplishing a PGCE in Art education from Oxford Brookes University in 2007, Joanna gained employment at Bellerbys International College in Oxford. Initially, she was the only art teacher here and took responsibility for student progression to a comprehensive range of creative degree courses. This involved teaching a wide range of specialisms such as painting, printmaking, drawing, life drawing, installation art, three-dimensional design, graphics, textiles, animation, and Photoshop. Joanna also successfully devised schemes of work and guided students through the art portfolio process in its various digital formats for their university applications often under pressured circumstances as the sole art teacher. Consequently, her students have been rewarded with places at top art and design universities such as UAL, Goldsmiths, Newcastle, Kingston, Kent to name but a few.

Joanna's breadth of experience in a formal educational setting is teaching general art and design from key stage 3 to 4 in state schools, key stage 4 and 5 in an international college setting. In a further education context, she taught contextual studies and 3D art to level 3 and 4 students on the UAL art and art foundation diploma. She has also had experience lecturing to undergraduates in a higher education context.

In these challenging times, her approach to tutoring is on an online basis. Consequently, Joanna understands the potential issues of teaching in this format, such as being able to source materials and the intensity for both the student and teacher in this learning format. Therefore, Joanna adopts a bespoke approach that will enable the student to be able to take stock of their learning productively and practically. Joanna will also provide alternative sources and methods of creating and locating appropriate materials which will be accessible to all students within the domestic space that most of us are now working within. Alongside this, she will provide a variety of learning methods in this context that will enable the pace of the lessons to be lively, purposeful and engaging for each student.

As a personal tutor for the last seven years and an art teacher for eleven, Joanna has enjoyed and understood the need to form and maintain appropriate relationships with her students on an individual and group basis. Students trust her as a non-judgmental, caring listener as they confide in her. However, she is always clear that if she feels that their safety or the well-being of others might be compromised, she will still take any of these issues to an applicable welfare agency. Joanna believes this is integral to the successful functioning of any educational community and the holistic needs of the individual student.