Becoming a Creative Practitioner

• In Event: Applications of Invitational Theory and Practice in Multiple Contexts

Abstract

The “creativity gap,” is a distressing discrepancy between the ostensible value educators place on creativity and its absence in schools. This case study focuses on a single professional development experience in which elementary teachers learned strategies for using drama pre-writing activities, and also how to become a creative facilitators with the ability to cultivate an environment in which student creativity could thrive. How would teachers take on the attributes and skills of a creative practitioner? Findings indicate teachers embraced this departure from the norm, recognizing how loosening their reigns emboldened “voice and choice” in student writing. Teachers also struggled to remain open ended in their prompting and use the vocabulary of the arts to stimulate creativity.

Author

• Jamie Christine Simpson Steele, University of Hawaii - Manoa