Teaching to Mobilize Creative Experience

Abstract

Teaching to Mobilize Creative Experience Sarah Thomas, Jillian Harpster Abstract What does it take to teach creatively? To amplify creativity and teacher agency in schools, this qualitative study operationalized Csikszentmihalyi’s creative process, observed essential teaching dispositions for leading a creative classroom, informed curricular design process, and ultimately argued for creativity’s centrality in education. A research circle involved recent University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduates, now in-service Secondary English teachers, electing to meet for one year. Their desire to research and professionally dialogue came from a perceived lack of creative self-identification, a need for complex and informed understanding of creativity’s nature and process, and additional ways to address creativity’s de-emphasis within their curriculum. Participants had periodic conversations in which they reviewed research literature, analyzed existing curriculum to observe opportunities for creative experience, and were encouraged toward curricular experimentation, revision, and implementation. After engaging informally, participants were invited to advance the work toward local and national presentation toward eventual publication. The facilitating professor and one participating early career teacher advanced the work to those final levels. This article reflects their culminating work. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jehd.v5n4a7