Author: Desiree Gilbert
Gilbert, Desiree, 2023 Re-imagining professional learning: How an organic exploration of creativity and its connection to learning illuminates new possibilities, Flinders University, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Terms of Use: This electronic version is (or will be) made publicly available by Flinders University in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. You may use this material for uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material and/or you believe that any material has been made available without permission of the copyright owner please contact copyright@flinders.edu.au with the details.
In this study an organic inquiry approach was used to openly explore and better understand creativity and its connection to learning. This approach was inspired and motivated by personally disorienting experiences in which varying theoretical perspectives in research created uncertainty about my understanding of creativity as a life-fulfilling and generative learning experience. A further purpose was inspired by my context as a facilitator of teacher professional learning, namely to explore ways to enhance and enrich teachers’ learning experiences.
This purpose challenged me to draw synchronously upon my enhanced understanding and knowledge of creativity and learning and engage in a deepened exploration of how teacher professional learning may be re-imagined. Research which invites new ways to enhance learning, and centres on the experience of the learner and learning, provided inspiration for this exploration.
In this study, I adopted a qualitative phenomenological methodology and organic inquiry approach to incorporate different ways of knowing to explore creativity and its connection to learning, and gather, analyse, interpret and make meaning of data. Perspective taking, storytelling, collective inquiry, reflective practice, including liminal encounters and discernment were embedded in this study to create space for possibilities to be explored and actuated. These strategies for exploration drew upon the organic inquiry approach to research.
Findings from this study illuminated my research question: How can expanding my understanding of creativity and its connection to learning assist me to re-imagine professional learning for teachers so that their learning experiences are enhanced? Early findings highlighted the importance of personal and environmental conditions, and ways of working that foster and enhance creativity and learning. Also illuminated were the iterative and fluid phases in the process of creativity. Re-looking at data from this study revealed deepened insights in relation to the connection between creativity and learning. These included an enhanced awareness of the need for balance between creativity and critical reasoning, and the vital role of reflection, for fulfilled learning.
Continued examination of data from this study, along with self-reflection, provided ontological insights into the connection between creativity and learning and created a “thirdspace” for the generation of new ideas, and for critical reflection and discernment. Nearing the end of this study, an unexpected insight emerged from this generative and reflective space. This insight shed light on the importance of connecting to the imaginal as a source of creativity and to generate new possibilities for re-imagining teacher professional learning.
As a consequence of this study, my enhanced knowledge and understanding of the interrelationship between creativity and learning, and heightened consciousness of the imaginal, transformed my being and practice as a professional learning facilitator. For participants in this study, engagement in the organic inquiry approach to research catalysed their creative potential and inspired them to re-imagine their teaching practice. In addition, findings from this study contribute to educational research in relation to re-imagining professional learning whereby the focus is on enhancing teachers’ experiences of learning.
Keywords: creativity, critical reasoning, imaginal, professional learning, reflection
Subject: Education thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2023
School: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Supervisor: Dr Leigh Burrows