From Stressed Out to Agentic and Thriving: Developing Creative Agency in Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Developing Teacher Agency and Leadership

Abstract

Developing the creative teacher is possible through a focus on their beliefs, understanding, and affect toward the uncertainty that creativity requires. That creative development may materialize in more joy and less stress, as well. This early phase study analyzes the effectiveness of a hybrid professional development model focused on teachers’ creative agency during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of intensified stress, anxiety, and disconnect. Results indicated the PD experience supported (a) an increase in teachers’ creative agency, empathy, joy, and buoyancy in teaching during the pandemic and (b) a reduction in their secondary traumatic stress. Qualitative analyses illustrated a variety of personalized pathways for this development. The evidence suggests teachers’ creative agency and well-being may develop together.

Authors

• Ross C Anderson, University of Oregon

• Gabriella Schuhe, Inflexion

• Jen Katz-Buonincontro, Drexel University

• Tracy Bousselot, Inflexion

• Jess Land