Raymond, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-8984 (2019) Creativity and/or performativity? A critical case study of tensions experienced by pre-service and early career teachers. Doctoral thesis, York St John University.

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Text (Doctoral thesis) Peter Raymond - Final APPROVED thesis for Moodle and RaY 2019.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the relationship between creativity and performativity in English primary schools and Initial Teacher Education (ITE). It focusses on exploring the views and experiences of student and early career teachers and ITE leaders, as they negotiate the tensions between creativity and performativity in schools and in ITE itself.

In the climate of substantial, complex changes in education policy (Espinoza 2015) and an increasing focus on performative accountabilities, creativity has, arguably, lost its essence (Mould 2018). The growth of neoliberalism, now widely regarded as the dominant ideology (Moore 2018), has led to an education system, where managerial approaches of surveillance and targets are commonplace. Schools and ITE departments are judged, rewarded and sanctioned based on inspections and pupil and student teacher outcome data. They have seen a shift towards the logic of performativity (Flint and Peim 2012), which lies in the neoliberal logic of competition between schools (Clarke and Moore 2013). This logic has become a normative force (Locke 2013), potentially suppressing teachers’ freedoms to practice creatively.

The thesis builds a theoretical framework around three key thinkers. Firstly, Bourdieu and the notion of habitus. Secondly, Foucault and his ideas around power and self-formation. Thirdly Lacan’s psychoanalytical perspectives, including the concept of ‘lack’. From Lacan, Ruti develops the idea of ‘lack’, in the context of creativity and agency.

Using a case study approach and interviews, the findings provide evidence to suggest that meaningful and authentic creativity for emerging qualified teachers, lies in the development of a robust creative agency, that allows them to resist performative pressures, developing ways of teaching that have meaning for them; the ‘art of living’ (Ruti 2009).

The thesis concludes by proposing a model for ITE, that will help student teachers to develop the ‘the art of living’ into ‘the art of teaching’.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Status:	Unpublished
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1705-2286 Education and training of teachers
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/4044

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