Welcome to the Creativity Action Research Resource. This resource is designed to support teachers, creative practitioners and schools to develop their practice in facilitating students’ creative skills.
It has been developed by researchers at the University of Exeter with input from teachers in schools in Penryn in Cornwall based on their action research together. Through the Penryn Creativity Collaborative Pilot Project, a three-year Arts Council England funded programme, teachers cultivated their own practices in teaching creative skills across the curriculum from early years through to GCSE levels. Their research projects also impacted whole school culture, curriculum and strategy, leadership, partnership working, assessment, CPD and careers. As well as informing the approach, this project is drawn on throughout the Resource, providing real-life examples of different stages of the Action Research process.
Who is the resource for?
The resource is written for teachers in primary and secondary schools, but can be used by any educators or facilitators of creative practice – for example to support creative science collaborations with schools, or artist-collaborators.
What does it include?
It includes a series of eleven modules that will guide you through one cycle of action research. You can conduct this in your classroom as part of your usual teaching. About Action Research provides an overview of the Action Research process. Subsequent modules help you prepare for your action research, and then guide you through a process of planning, doing, reflecting and reviewing. Completing this process will help you develop your understanding of creative skills and creative pedagogy. You will develop a research question that you want to explore in relation to this, design an activity to help you explore it, and collect and analyse data to reflect on it. Because the research all takes place in the classroom, any practice you develop will be directly applicable to your ongoing teaching.
We recommend three pathways of different lengths:
5 hours research-informed reflective practice
| Possible timeline | ||
|---|---|---|
| PREPARE | Understanding Creativity | Before term begins |
| PLAN | Research Design, Activity 2: Developing your research question | Before term begins |
| DO/REFLECT | Analysis, Activity 1: Using Brookfields’ Four Lenses to Reflect on Research Data | Select a lesson/ activity to reflect on, and complete the reflection: First half of term |
| REVIEW | Reporting, Activity 2: Producing your Report | Second half of term |
| REPEAT… | This cycle could be repeated each term, or in future years | |
25 hours action research
This will enable you to complete the whole cycle. Allow yourself approximately 2 hours per module. Some sections will take less than 2 hours – for example reading this introduction! Some will take more – we recommend that you allow additional time for the analysis section. Assuming a three-term year, we suggest you structure your action research as follows:
| Possible timeline | ||
|---|---|---|
| PREPARE | About Action Research & Understanding Creativity | Autumn term |
| PLAN | Partnership, Research Design & Understanding context | Autumn term |
| PLAN/ DO | Ethics & Data Collection | Spring term |
| REFLECT | Analysis, Analyse data using Activity 1 | Summer term |
| REVIEW | Reporting & Sharing and Applying | Summer term |
| REPEAT… | Now refine your question and plan your next cycle… | Summer term |
40 hour-plus action research – all activity with time for a full analysis
Recommended version for research intended for publication, and for collaboration with University partners.
| Possible timeline | ||
|---|---|---|
| PREPARE | About Action Research & Understanding Creativity | Autumn term |
| PLAN | Partnership, Research Design & Understanding context | Autumn term |
| PLAN/ DO | Ethics & Data Collection | Spring term |
| REFLECT | Analysis, Analyse data using Activity 2 | Summer term |
| REVIEW | Reporting & Sharing and Applying | Summer term |
| REPEAT… | Now refine your question and plan your next cycle… | Summer term |
Dialogue and collaboration
The resource uses a dialogic model of practice, based on partnership working. A dialogue partner or group is needed who can be one of the following:
- a creative partner (for example an industry partner or creative practitioner),
- other teachers in your school who are also doing action research,
- a mentor, coach or line manager who can support you to reflect.
Key moments for dialogue time are flagged throughout. These are the points at which you should arrange to meet with your dialogue partner or group and work together on an aspect of the research.
Introduction to the Research Journal
Several of the activities link to a Research Journal activity. Each of these involves completing a downloadable document. You will need to set up a secure folder on your computer where you can store all of these together. You will also put your research data in here when you collect it.
We also invite you to use a Research Diary for your own reflection. Please download this here, store it in your Research Journal folder, and use it throughout your research.
About the authors
Kerry is a Professor in the School of Education at the University of Exeter, UK, where her research focuses on creativity in education, specifically in the arts (dance) and transdisciplinary settings. She co-leads the Centre for Research in Transdisciplinary Education, the Creativity and Emergent Educational futures Network and the MA Creative Arts in Education Programme. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. She is passionate about facilitating creativity between practice and theory, and believes that is for everybody.
Ursula has worked extensively with schools and artists developing creative practice. She has recently completed a PhD at the University of Exeter focusing on creative music workshop practices. She works at the University on a variety of research projects in the School of Education focused on arts, creativity and educational futures and has also taught on the MA Creative Arts in Education.
The Penryn Creativity Collaborative lead is Sarah Childs, Assistant Headteacher at Penryn College, Cornwall. Sarah joined Penryn College in 2003 as Head of Music moving to Head of Creative Arts from 2005 and then as a Specialist Leader in Education delivering CPD across the county. Through her Creativity Collaboratives lead role Sarah now shares practice in teaching for creativity regionally and nationally, passionate to support others to develop change in their schools.
We would also like to thank teachers from schools across the Penryn Partnership Schools who have informed the development of the resource, trying out activities, providing feedback, making their own version of different activities in their schools, and providing the completed versions of Action Research activities that we have provided throughout.
If you are interested in commissioning support for your action research project from a University team, please contact us for further information and costings: k.a.chappell@exeter.ac.uk
