This paper explores the role of imagination on art and design educators who undertake autoethnographic research in adult community learning (ACL) in the UK. ACL in the UK comprises community‐based learning opportunities delivered by local authorities and general further education colleges (Department for Education [DfE] 2019) and provides accredited and non‐accredited adult learning, primarily catering to learners aged 19 and above. Artist‐teachers in ACL are professional artists and teachers, dedicated to both, who have the competencies needed to work in and through art and ACL. Imagination is central to autoethnographic research, and can therefore be an entry point to a subject or phenomenon understudy for art and design education research. This paper presents a case study of autoethnography as a research process and outcome, which is used to understand what conflicts artist‐teachers in ACL face in their role. The case study presented draws upon my own experiences and interview data from 17 artist‐teachers in ACL. Drawing on autoethnography, this paper relies on the researcher's imagination to interpret personal experiences and cultural phenomena (Bochner & Ellis 2016). Within the paper, the analysis of the autoethnographic writing is presented separately from the story.

中文翻译：

---

想象力在自体民族志研究中的作用


本文探讨了想象力对在英国成人社区学习 （ACL） 中进行自体民族志研究的艺术和设计教育者的作用。英国的 ACL 包括地方当局和普通继续教育学院提供的基于社区的学习机会（教育部 [DfE] 2019），并提供认证和非认证成人学习，主要面向 19 岁及以上的学习者。ACL 的艺术家教师是专业的艺术家和教师，致力于两者，他们具备在艺术和 ACL 中工作所需的能力。想象力是自体民族志研究的核心，因此可以成为艺术和设计教育研究的主题或现象的切入点。本文提出了一个将自体民族志作为研究过程和结果的案例研究，用于了解 ACL 中的艺术家-教师在他们的角色中面临的冲突。所介绍的案例研究借鉴了我自己的经验和来自 ACL 的 17 位艺术家教师的采访数据。借鉴自传民族志，本文依赖于研究人员的想象力来解释个人经历和文化现象（Bochner & Ellis 2016）。在论文中，对自传民族志写作的分析与故事分开呈现。