Changing conceptions of educational creativity: a study of student teachers’ experience of musical creativity

Abstract

This study interrogates the views of students training to be music teachers in relation to creativity in the music curriculum. Developing approaches to musical creativity has always been problematic in the classroom setting. However, the increasing movement to promote creativity across the school curriculum – with its broader universalised conception of creativity – has further blurred the concept for music educators. The study was longitudinal and took place over the participants’ training year. An initial questionnaire at the beginning of the year, before they embarked upon teaching experience, was followed up by in-depth interviews at the end of the year, after they had taught in classrooms for 120 days. The responses were coded and analysed using qualitative analysis software. The findings are important because they suggest that a problematic dichotomy exists in relation to the purpose of musical creativity in the classroom. For example, some respondents saw it as promoting generic life skills while others saw it as a conduit to musical understanding. Other findings suggest that teachers and pupils, for a number of reasons, may feel ill equipped or vulnerable when it comes to teaching and learning in creative classroom contexts. The study concludes by proposing a fuller debate on the context and articulation of musical creativity in the curriculum and the implications this might have for future teacher training and the development of emerging pedagogies.

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