Meeting in Liminal Spaces: Educational Encounters, Creativity, and Possibility in Post-Primary Education

Author(s):

Irene White(presenting / submitting)Francesca Lorenzi(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

03. Curriculum Innovation

Format:

Paper

Session Information

03 SES 10 A, Curriculum Development and the Role of Knowledge Selection

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

15:30-17:00

Room:

K4.16

Chair:

Mark Priestley

Contribution

Research Questions

The paper questions whether spaces of genuine encounter between students and teacher can occur in a climate of standardisation and quantification in education. The paper suggests that such encounters are likely to happen in liminal spaces. This has led to the question what enables the creation of such liminal spaces. Furthermore, the authors explore whether arts provide the key for entering such liminal spaces by opening a world of possibility and opportunity where the unexpected and the unplanned are both enabled by and enable creativity.

Objectives

The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it aims to establish whether room for creativity can be found in the general context of performance-driven, standardised post-primary education. Secondly, it contemplates the concept of a liminal space and the opportunities that such a space offers for possibility, encounter and creativity within a structured curriculum. In particular, it appraises the role of the teacher, the significance of teacher disposition and the site of teacher-student relations as enabling factors in the creation of such spaces. Finally, it considers whether the arts (another liminal space) and arts-based approaches to teaching and learning are especially well positioned to support transitions from the formal curriculum to liminal spaces.

Theoretical Framework

The paper builds on previous research carried out by the authors on the infusion of creativity in post-primary education in Ireland (Lorenzi & White, 2014; White & Lorenzi, 2016) and on the potential generated by the infusion of creativity in school systems. This original study led to a wider reflection on the increasing dichotomy between creativity and standardisation. Consistently with Noddings (2013, p.210) we are concerned that a ‘preoccupation with curriculum standards that are overly prescriptive’ has resulted in a loss of creativity.

This paper puts forward that authentic relations between students and teachers –which may result from rich pedagogical encounters- are at the core of education as human development. We follow Conroy (2004) and Todd (2014) in their discussion of human existence and we suggest that rich pedagogical encounters are more likely to occur in liminal spaces. Such liminal spaces are not only found away from but also within formal educational environments. They are liminal insofar as they represent what Turner (1964) termed in anthropological terms an ‘inter-structural situation’. This is particularly relevant in the context of post-primary education. Students – as adolescents- themselves are liminal beings. Neither child nor adult, adolescents hover somewhere in the ‘in-between’. McLaren’s (1988) definition of liminality as ‘a homogeneous social state in which participants are stripped of their usual status and authority’ (p165) captures the dynamic of such a space.

Building on Conroy (2004) we consider creative arts as the enabler that allows the teachers and students to generate and inhabit such liminal spaces. The arts also represent a liminal space. Participating in creative collaborative artistic expression can provide adolescents an opportunity to explore their identity, develop their voice, discover their strengths and weaknesses, increase their capabilities and protect their well-being. O’Shea and Lorenzi (2016, p.367) argue that the ‘unquantifiable is a core dimension of education that safeguard utterly irreducible and unpre-dictable moments of learning that occur in real-live dialogical learning’. It is precisely the unquantifiable that creativity brings about in liminal spaces.

Therefore, we argue that creativity in education has a value that needs to be recognised and promoted through the encouragement of a principled and decentralised pedagogy (Burnard and White, 2008) which places trust and gives room to the teacher to open liminal spaces of genuine educational encounter.

Method

The theoretical investigation carried out by this by paper has utilised a combination of documentary analysis (Bailey, 1994) and conceptual analysis (Wild et al, 2013). Conceptual analysis refers to the analysis of the key concepts that underpin the theoretical framework of the research study. An initial documentary and critical analysis of selected policy documents and literature in relation to creativity and education systems (for example, OECD PISA report, 2015; NACCCE All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education Report, 1999) have formed the basis for the development of a critical and conceptual stance. In line with Petocz and Newbery (2010), the interconnection of creativity, possibility and liminality is scrutinised for ‘clarity and coherence’ (p. 126). Finally, the conceptual analysis has led to the identification of recommendations to inform policy and practice.

Expected Outcomes

This paper presents a reflection on the potential of liminal spaces to enrich the educational experience. It argues that liminal spaces empower teachers and students to embark on a journey of discovery, that allow moments of opportunity to become powerful and authentic sites of learning that stimulate the type of critical and creative thinking needed for true creativity to occur. 1) It puts forward that if creativity is to occur in post-primary education, a systemic change is needed to make room for the unplanned, uncertain and unexpected opportunities for learning that arise in classrooms daily. The development of creativity is dependent on an education system that: a) allows room for spontaneous explorations -within and outside the curriculum; b) recognises the value of teachable moments and affords teachers and students the freedom and flexibility to seize those moment and to enter a liminal space where together they can pursue tangential options that capture students’ interests and imagination; 2) We argue a need to place trust in teachers’ agency and a need to recognise the influence of teacher disposition on teachers’ ‘ability and willingness... to implement innovations in their own teaching practice’ (Beijaard et al, 2000, p.750). We suggest that developing teachers’ confidence in their own creative ability will result in ‘a willingness to develop pedagogy and classroom creativity’ (Burnard and White, 2008, p.673). 3) We put forward that the arts and arts-based methodologies need to gain recognition in education systems. The creative arts offer an unrivalled portal to liminal spaces and have a pivotal role to play in developing creativity in education. Despite this, the arts continue to be relegated to the margins of education. We argue that if creativity, innovation and critical thinking continue to be hailed as 21st-century education goals, future educational reform must place arts education centre stage.

References

Bailey, K. 1994. Methods of Social Research. 4th Edition. New York: The Free Press Burnard, P. and White, J. 2008. Creativity and Performativity: Counterpoints in British and Australian Education. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 34, No. 5, Creativity and Performativity in Teaching and Learning: Tensions, Dilemmas, Constraints, Accommodations and Synthesis (Oct., 2008), pp. 667-682 Conroy, J. C. 2004. Betwixt & Between: The Liminal Imagination, Education, and Democracy, Peter Lang, New York. Lorenzi, F. and White I. 2014. Evaluation of the Fighting Words Creative Writing Model Report available from https://fightingwords.ie/news/dcu-report-fighting-words-model Mc Laren, P. L. 1988. The Liminal Servant and the Ritual Roots of Critical Pedagogy. Language Arts, Volume 65, Number 2, February 1988. Noddings, N. 2013. Standardized Curriculum and Loss of Creativity, Theory Into Practice, 52:3, 210-215, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2013.804315 OECD (2015) PISA Report available from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf O’Shea A., Lorenzi, F. 2016. The Unquantifiable as a measure of good education. Ethics and Education, 10:3, 361-371, Petocz, A. and Newbery, G. 2010. On conceptual analysis as the primary qualitative approach to statistics education research in psychology. Statistics Education Research Journal, 9(2), http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/serj/SERJ9(2)_Petocz_Newbery.pdf Robinson, K. 1999. All our futures: Creativity, culture and education. Report to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education. London: National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education. Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. 2015. Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. New York, NY: Viking Penguin. Todd, S. 2014. Between Body and Spirit: The Liminality of Pedagogical Relationships. Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 48, No. 2. Turner, 1964. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage,” The Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society (1964). Symposium on New Approaches to the Study of Religion. pp. 4-20. Reprinted in: Lessa, W. A. & Vogt, E. Z. 1979. Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach, 4th Edition. Harper & Row. White I. and Lorenzi F. 2016. The development of a model of creative space and its potential for transfer from non-formal to formal education. International Review of Education: Journal of Lifelong Learning, December 2016, Volume 62, Issue 6, pp 771–790 Wild, C. J., Pfannkuch, M., Regan, M. and Parsonage, R. 2013. Next Steps in Accessible Conceptions of Statistical Inference: Pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps The University of Auckland, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Available ONLINE https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~wild/TEMP/bootstrap.pdf Accessed 6 January 2017.

Author Information

Irene White (presenting / submitting)

Dublin City University

Dublin

Francesca Lorenzi (presenting)

Dublin City University

School of Policy and Practice