Creativity and Early Childhood Teacher Education: Challenging Dominant Discourse

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 58
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Scholarship: Confronting Forms of Oppression in Early Childhood Pedagogies

Abstract

When creativity is taught and assessed outside of its sociocultural context (Gla˘veanu, 2013) it can perpetuate the deficit perspectives of minorotized learners. We critically analyzed creativity discourse in descriptions of “creativity courses” (e. g., Creativity and the Young Child, Creativity and Play in Early Childhood) within 387 early childhood degree programs. Our analysis revealed lack of sociocultural understanding of creativity (universal development of creativity, disconnect of creativity from learners’ backgrounds, and school context irrelevant to creative teaching and learning). The implications suggest that early childhood teacher educators need to revisit “assumptions of truth, universality and certainty” (Edwards, Blaise, & Hammer, 2009, p. 5) around children’s creative development and take an active stance for what we call creativity justice.

Authors

• Shairoz Noor, Sukkur IBA

• Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City