Language and Creativity in Contemporary English Classroom - Softcover

Doecke, Brenton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1921586877 ISBN 13: 9781921586873

Publisher: Phoenix Education Australia, 2014

Synopsis

What do English teachers understand by the word ‘creativity’?

¨ How does their understanding of creativity differ from the meanings that others ascribe to this word?

¨ What forms does creativity take in their classrooms?

Prompted by Raymond Williams's statement that creativity involves stepping from the 'known' into the 'unknown', the contributors to this volume inquire into how their students explore the 'unknown' in a policy environment where everything is mapped out in advance by predetermined learning 'outcomes'. They see their classrooms as spaces for students to engage in imagination, play and learning that exceed the conventional expectations of standardised learning continua. However, rather than supposing that it is possible to transcend those settings, as in old-fashioned notions of creativity or giftedness, the authors carefully trace the ways in which moments of creativity still occur within the heavily regulated environments imposed on them by governments. Creativity, they argue, should be understood as a product of the institutional setting of the school, as something that is facilitated by the social relationships of the classroom, rather than falling back on to the notion of school as a place of regulation and control, and creativity as something that can only happen outside the school gates.

History has a privileged place in these essays, which draw on work from a number of key theorists in the history of English curriculum and related areas of the social science, including the work of Raymond Williams.

The book offers a powerful critique of standards-based reforms. It also strikes an optimistic note, reaffirming the capacity of young people and their teachers to imagine their lives and work differently from a world organised according to centrally prescribed standards and learning outcomes.

Edition details

• Publisher: Phoenix Education Australia
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1921586877
• ISBN 13: 9781921586873
• Binding: Paperback