Exploring Creativity as Community Cultural Wealth, In and Beyond the Classroom

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Drawing on four empirical studies, this session explores creativity within a community cultural wealth framework (Yosso, 2005). Authors offer pedagogical examples of how creativity is cultivated by students and faculty in and beyond post-secondary classrooms. In shifting focus to the epistemic nature of creativity, this session explores the internal and external manifestations of creativity as integral to the process of learning. Furthermore, each paper engages various modes of creativity: filmmaking, screenwriting, writing and illustrating children’s books, epistolary pedagogies of journaling, and a theorization of a pedagogy of silence as vital for opening space for creativity. Grounded in a commitment to Just Educational Renewal (AERA 2025 CFP), this session theoretically and pedagogically centers the creativity of Students of Color.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 5: Inquiry, Transformation, and Communities

Chair

• Bianca N. Haro, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona

Papers

• Exploring Nepantla: A Coming of Conocimiento Story about Cultivating Creative Capital in Film School - Brenda Y. Lopez, California State University - Fullerton

• Writing Children's Books as Creative Capital and Narrative Healing - Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, California State University - Sacramento

• The Pedagogical Affordances of a Critical Race Feminista Epistolary Praxis - Cindy R. Escobedo, University of California - Los Angeles

• Pedagogy of Silence: How Silence Opens Space for Creativity - Magali Campos, University of California - Los Angeles

Discussant

• Daniel Gilbert Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles