Who Still Dares to Dream? The Critical Role of Creative Capacities in Teachers' Lives

• In Event: Critical Teachers and Teacher Educators: Lessons From the Resisters

Abstract

Although teachers are often expected to be “change-agents,” many lack the creative capacities to see the need for change, generate ideas for change, and enact change in school communities overshadowed by prescriptive reforms and socioeconomic inequalities. This study examined the effect of environmental influences on development/support of creative capacities in the pre-professional and professional lives of 14 inservice teachers. Correlations across cases were found between the demonstrated capacities /leadership for change and the frequency, substance, and support noted in environmental influences. By advancing understanding of how creative capacities were developed and supported in these teachers’ lives, this investigation
contributes a new dimension to the discourse on developing teachers as change-agents who work for educational quality relevant to all children.

Author

• Marilyn J. Narey, Narey Educational Consulting, LLC