The creative pedagogue: Enacting affective pathways for interdisciplinary embodied creativity in primary education

The creative pedagogue: Enacting affective pathways for interdisciplinary embodied creativity in primary education

This chapter has grown through dialogue about creative pedagogies across the primary curriculum. The concept of the creative pedagogue traverses subjects, spaces and classes to express the creative synthesis of curriculum into embodied learning experiences for primary aged students. In developing embodied expertise in creative education, Portelli has been inspired by specific educational technologies such as the Learning Pit, Talk Moves, physical strategies for additives and yarning circles with indigenous communities. We focus on two case studies from Portelli’s classroom, firstly a creative and embodied approach to mathematics education and, secondly, reconciliation yarning circles and indigenous gardening. Exploring these examples, we develop a robust model of creative pedagogical practice derived from Portelli’s experience. The model features an educator that embraces creativity as a pivotal component of their pedagogy, enabled systemically by a school environment that allows for diversity of approaches. In examining an educator at the centre of the ecology, we investigate innovation as a starting point and the associated character traits that are driven by choices to be creative as an educator. We offer a practical philosophy, or ethos of practice, along with some pedagogical methods, for primary teachers wanting to practice more creatively.

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