‘We’re Not Building Worker Bees.’ What Has Happened to Creative Practice in England Since the Dartmouth Conference of 1966?

Abstract

Biography Lorna Smith leads the PGCE English programme at the University of Bristol. Her main current research interest, and the field for her doctoral studies, is the impact of the latest national curriculum (2014) on creativity in the English classroom. Previous publications include exploring the impact of technology enhanced learning (particularly the contribution that ICT can make to an English classroom) and developing oracy through storytelling. She launched a successful local Teachers as Writers group in 2013 as part of the National Writing Project, which seeks to explore the impact of teachers' writing on their work with children in the classroom.

Bracing Ourselves: Embracing Policy Changes through a Long-Standing University–Schools Teacher Education Partnership in England

“…. depersonalised closed systems" [31], there is little room for teachers (let alone pre-service teachers) to act agentively, take the initiative, be creative, and respond to the needs of their individual students-all of which we see as fundamental traits of a professional educator [32]. Instead, many teachers feel overwhelmed with "necessity and responsibility" [25], the freedom to make professional decisions in their own classrooms "stifled" [33] by the brace of accountability.…”

The role of English in the conversation of humankind: humanism and creativity in Newbolt (1921) and the national curriculum (2014)

“…By the late 1960s, there is wide-spread use of the noun 'creativity' in English circles as evidenced by publications from the Dartmouth Conference (e.g. Dixon, 1967); 'creativity' appears for the first time in a policy document on English education a few year later (Bullock, 1975) and is present in the first five iterations of the national curriculum for English 1989-2007(Smith, 2018. Throughout, creativity is associated not only with valuing and creating the aesthetic, but with becoming, or personal growth, as if the creation of a 'whole' adult depends upon it; creativity is attendant upon 'possibility thinking' through imagination (Craft, 2005) and 'inter-thinking' -effective and worthwhile communication between people (Littleton & Mercer, 2012).…”