Beyond the heart shaped box: a study in teacher creativity

Abstract

Creativity is widely recognized as an essential competency for navigating the complexity of contemporary society. Despite its prominence in educational policy and across Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as a key curriculum deliverable, research suggests that structural demands for standardization, accountability, and measurement continue to constrain creativity in teaching and learning. As an arts-integrated study using Parallaxic praxis methodology (Sameshima et al., 2019) within a mixed methods and multi-stage design, data analysis culminated in a research-creation process to integratively explore teacher creativity. Theories derived from education, leadership, organizational behaviour, positive psychology, and human resources management also assisted in examining Canadian teacher perceptions of creativity and moderators of creativity in practice with its intersections with growth need strength and happiness. Specifically, this study asked: How do teachers understand creativity and creative ability? What is the relationship between intrinsic creativity and extrinsic support for teacher creativity? Is there a relationship between high growth need strength and creativity? And finally, how is intrinsic creativity related to engagement and happiness in the teaching profession? Across teachable subjects, teachers viewed creativity as an innate, yet developable, capacity central to higher-order thinking, effective teaching, professional and personal identity, and a significant source of meaning-making. Participants reported high levels of intrinsic creativity, generally supportive teaching environments, and strong Growth Need Strength (GNS). Consistent with literature in other professions, moderate positive relationships were observed among these. While the relationship between creativity and happiness was less clear, the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, burnout, and the unpaid labour associated with creative work from study data suggests there are also important connections with creativity to wellbeing, care and the quality of teacher-student relationships. Further explored through the research-creation artefact Lii vway dedaan li gran bois, the findings highlight creativity’s relationship to paradox, relationality, technology, and educational change, positioning creativity as a critical dimension of teaching effectiveness, supporting a renewed investment in arts education for the development of creativity, as well as, post-pandemic healing, and decolonial methodological innovation in educational research. Given the specific responsibility teachers have for facilitating creative competencies in students, results present an opportunity for educational leadership to more authentically engage with teachers, improve the quality of professional practice and teacher engagement, and ultimately affect Canada’s ability to cultivate creative capacity in its citizens. As a transformative educational leadership undertaking, understanding creativity both in education and decolonial research practice is a larger issue with implications in education and for meaning-making in the broader trajectory of knowledge production. Specifically, this study introduces the Lii Flashée Framework, a distinctions-focussed Métis methodology to bridge culturally specific ways of knowing with traditional Western research practice.