Collective Creative Activity: Resistance Unit of Teaching Work

Abstract

In this work, we analyze teachers' imaginative and creative processes in the initial years of schooling based on the Historical-Cultural Theory, mainly grounded in the social work concepts of Marx and the reproductive and creative activities of Vygotsky and his interlocutors. We attempted to answer the question: what evidences the imaginative and creative processes in the teaching activity? The research context encompassed the teachers' work from a school involved in a collaborative university/school project. The analysis of the teaching activities, mediated by the analytical unit "collective creative activity", showed the coexistence of reproductive and creative activities in teaching work. The creative processes emanate from and between prescribed reproductive activities, constituting and constituted by collective resistance practices. We also point out that an essentially collective creative act, interwoven by elements from the relationship between imagination and reality, emerges from the interrelationship between personal, professional, foreign, and historical experiences, with strong emotional bonds. The collective dimension stands out as a unit of resistance, in which the imagination of each subject is simultaneously sustained by him/her and a source of collective creation. These results advocate for collaborative actions between teachers, inviting them to imagine and create, as the richness of the experience would not be reached through solo teaching work. After all, collective work and teaching authorship, mediated by imagination, are pillars to construct teaching as a human activity, as praxis.