Moving from the Margins……
Creating Spaces in teacher
education: wonder, theory and
action
ITU 2005
Avril Loveless
aml@brighton.ac.uk
Brighton - pier and pavilion
Greetings from Brighton - an historical,
contradictory and creative town in
which we work as teachers and
researchers
Wonder …
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–
–
What would happen if….?
How do we make sense of …..?
Why do we feel like this …..?
How might things look differently …..?
Who else shares these questions and
longings……?
…the emergence of ‘Creating Spaces’
Theory ….
– How might we find ways to describe and explain
what’s going on?
– How might we make sense of how we see the
world?
– How might we need to change the way we see
the world?
– What might creativity look like when expressed
through tools such as ICT?
… the development of conceptual frameworks
Action ….
– What might this look like in the context of
teacher education?
– What challenges does it raise for our
understanding of professional knowledge and
creativity?
– How might active, practical projects be a
catalyst for change in teacher education, in
research, and in policy?
…the design of a series of research and
development projects in our practice
Wonder ……
Creating Spaces….
Meetings at the margins of
conferences
Connections and affections
Networking and Notworking
Creating Spaces ~
• Some numbers ~
– 2000, 5, 30, 60, 15, 5, 2 ……..
• Sharing ideas, capturing moments,
helping each other to think and act
in our different contexts
Keys to imagination ~
evaluation of visual arts online
• DfES, BESA surveys, Ofsted
reports, Clore Duffield
Foundation
• Unrealised and
unrecognised potential
• Pockets of exemplary
practice
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Value
Motivation
Creativity
Environment
Resources
Funding
Connections
Notworking ……
• … a conference that was not a
conference, but a space and time
for people to share and explore
ideas through talk, play, drama,
eating and drinking, and enjoying
themselves……..
Theory ……
How do we move beyond ….
Creativity is ‘having good ideas’
Creativity is ‘making pretty things’
Creativity is ‘having a good time’
Creativity is ‘easy’
Creativity is ‘taught on Friday
afternoons’
Creativity ~
an interaction between
people and communities,
processes, domains and the
wider social and cultural
context
• Individuals in local communities and
wider social and cultural groupings
• Learning to learn - asking questions,
solving problems, thinking on appropriate
scales, looking for patterns, coping with
disappointment, mapping out and
representing subject domains, acting in
relationship to others.
Resilience
Reflection
Resourcefulness
Relationship
~~~
Guy Claxton - 4Rs of
learning
Big C creativity
&
Little C creativity
~~~
Anna Craft possibility thinking
A framework for creativity
Using imagination
‘All our futures’
NACCCE 1999
A fashioning process
Pursuing purpose
Being original
Judging value
Creative processes
Questioning and challenging;
Making connections and seeing
relationships;
QCA Creativity Pack
Envisaging what might be;
Playing with ideas;
Representing ideas;
Evaluating the effects of ideas.
Developing habits of
mind…….
Language:
Could be … not is
Learning … not work
How… not what
Effort … not ability
Transparency of processes
Modelling work in progress
Learning Power
Developing creative places
& spaces ……
To think
To be inspired or challenged
To express
To celebrate
To share
What does ICT
contribute to
creativity?
Features of ICT
Provisionality
Interactivity
Speed and automation
Capacity and range
Quality
Multimodality
Neutrality & social credibility
ICT capability
Finding things out
Developing ideas and making things happen
Exchanging and sharing information
Reviewing, evaluation and modifying work
…….Higher order thinking
www.nestafuturelab.org
Action ……
Can we
develop a
conceptual
framework for
thinking
about
creativity?
How might this inform our
understanding of
professional learning in
teacher education and
transition?
What are the implications for researchbased practice in teacher education?
How do we represent what we are seeing
in our developing practice and research?
Looking
back on our
progress
…….
Creativity with ICT ~
an interaction…….
Creative processes & a
framework for creativity imagination, fashioning, purpose,
originality, value
Affordances of ICT
mediation and appropriation
ICT capability higher order thinking
Creativity
TTA
The Brighton Creativity and CPD project ……
Research
BA (QTS)
Phase 1
Going to the movies
~ a context for hard fun!
Playing with new toys
Open ended - possibility thinking
Focus on process, not performance
Experiences in the University
Experiences in the classroom
Reflections as QTS graduates
Gleanings and
interpretations
Asking questions - video box, group
discussion, free text questionnaires,
assignment
Looking and listening - work in
progress & DV movies from students
and children, presentations and
assignments
Teacher knowledge & learning
Creative processes
Emotional
demands of
creative
practice
Ecology of
learning
environments
Professional needs and cultures of
students and NQTs
Phase 2
Being Newly Qualified Teachers
(NQT)
Using the media kits in school contexts
First six months of NQT year
Contact with University tutors & students
Visits, feedback and case studies
Themes emerging ……
• Conditions for creative practices
– contexts and communities,
– habits of mind or add-on activities?
• Transitional identities
– capable, critical students to untested,
pragmatic first year teachers
• ICT and digital media - a matter of trust
– Tools, treats and teaching resource
– Pedagogy, epistemology and expectations
• Taking a different view of our teacher
education practices
– catalysts for change
Conceptual frameworks ~
Using the work of Shulman &
Shulman to elaborate on an
interactive model
– vision, motivation,
understanding and
practice
– Levels of individuals,
communities, capital
Models of creative
practice….
High expectations of activity,
reflection and analysis;
Permission to question, explore,
risk, and collaborate;
Acceptance of students as
capable;
Mindful of preparation for
transition.
Research-based practice
in teacher education
Finding openings for
developing new modes of
working in the field …..
… non traditional settings
… arts based educational
research
…research based practice
Analysis & Representation
• How do we find appropriate modes
in which to represent our analysis,
theory and practices?
• How do these modes of
representation reflect an integrity in
our use of the technologies, and in
our purposes for education in the
21st century?
So what?
for
teacher educators?
school partnerships?
researchers?
policy makers?
Balance…..??
• Productivity, motivation, ability, creativity…..
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Conformist
Rebel
Withdrawn/diminished
Transcend/balance
From Suzanne Richter, 1990
Impact and implications
• What are the implications of
creativity becoming more
‘mainstream’?
• How might we recognise and sustain
the creative tension and energy that
is generated from ‘the margins’?
It takes courage to see things
from a different
perspective……
• Resist easy measurement;
• Support the difficult and challenging
research on recognising and evaluating
interaction, process and community;
• Support longitudinal studies of people’s
creative trajectories;
• Show courage, care and community