Creative teaching or teaching creatively? Using creative arts strategies in preservice teacher education

Abstract

In this article, we argue that it is critical for preservice teachers to experience innovative and imaginative learning and teaching in their higher education studies if they are to feel empowered to initiate creative teaching and learning activities in their own classrooms. By designing and utilising a range of imaginative strategies in final year Creative Arts units of study, two teacher educators aim to encourage primary student teachers to reconnect with their own creative potential. Exemplars from these units of study are used alongside a range of student responses to demonstrate how the imaginative use of arts practice and pedagogy can provide spaces for preservice teachers to explore what it means to teach creatively. In doing so, we offer them an opportunity to reflect on their own beliefs about teaching and how they see themselves as they begin their professional journeys.