Moving from the Margins……

Creating Spaces in teacher education: wonder, theory and

action

ITU 2005Avril 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 …

– 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

A fashioning process

Pursuing purpose

Being original

Judging value

‘All our futures’

NACCCE 1999

Creative processes

Questioning and challenging;

Making connections and seeing relationships;

Envisaging what might be;

Playing with ideas;

Representing ideas;

Evaluating the effects of ideas.

QCA Creativity Pack

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 thinkTo be inspired or challengedTo expressTo celebrateTo share

What does ICT contribute to creativity?

Features of ICT

ProvisionalityInteractivity

Speed and automationCapacity and range

QualityMultimodality

Neutrality & social credibility

ICT capability

Finding things outDeveloping ideas and making things happen

Exchanging and sharing informationReviewing, 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 research-based 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 ICTmediation and appropriation

ICT capability -

higher order thinking

TTA

BA (QTS)

Creativity

Research

The Brighton Creativity and CPD project ……

Phase 1Going to the movies ~ a context for hard

fun!

Playing with new toysOpen ended - possibility thinking

Focus on process, not performance

Experiences in the UniversityExperiences in the classroomReflections 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

Creative processes

Affordances of IC

T ICT

capa

bilit

y

Teacher knowledge & learning

Ecology of learning environments

Emotional demands of creative practice

Professional needs and cultures of students and NQTs

Phase 2Being Newly Qualified

Teachers (NQT)

Using the media kits in school contexts

First six months of NQT yearContact with University tutors &

studentsVisits, 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

Using the work of Shulman &

Shulman to elaborate on an interactive model

– vision, motivation, understanding and practice

– Levels of individuals, communities, capital

Conceptual frameworks ~

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.

Finding openings for developing new modes of working in the field …..

… non traditional settings… arts based educational

research…research based practice

Research-based practice in teacher

education

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…..

• 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