In European as in many other western countries, there is a tension between the expressed desire within national curriculum documents for creativity, innovation, inquiry, critical analysis and collaborative skills (Norwegian Curriculum 1997; Learning and Teaching in Scotland,2008; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007;  EU 2006) and increasing emphasis on what are sometimes called the basics or fundamentals in initial teacher education.

The pressure of PISA, PIRLS and other programmes for competitive international assessment, and the squeezing of educational funding during recent economic downturns, have led governments to prioritise competency in literacy and numeracy in school outcomes and in funding for professional development of teachers (Sæbo & Alern 2010; Ax, Elte & Ponte, 2007; Mattsson, Johansson & Sandström 2008; Greenwood, Fletcher, Parkhill, Grimley  & Bridges, S 2009 ).  In times of cutback to university budgets such government priorities and perceived economies of delivery are influencing decisions about the retention, development and severance of initial teacher education courses. Yet are the rich goals in the curriculum documents cited above really a divergence from the acquisition of basic skills? Or is creative and contextually embodied pathway potentially a stronger way of achieving fundamental skills?  

This paper examines a theoretical framework in which interactive, creative and aesthetic approaches to teaching and learning are adapted to a range of different subjects, to cross-curricular teaching, and particularly to the development and improvement of reading and writing competencies.  In addition, it reports the first stage of a cross-national research project that investigates the use of creative and interactive methodologies in the teaching of reading and writing. This first stage consists of fieldwork in Norway and New Zealand, first scoping, through a survey, the existing practices and conceptualisations of teachers and schools, then reporting a number of cases studies in which drama processes have been used to motivate reading and writing and to develop specific literacy strategies and competencies. Finally it relates both part of this initial study to a discussion of initial teacher education.

The research question that focuses the study is twofold: 

How can creative, interactive and aesthetic-based processes be used to develop literacy?

What knowledge, skills and experience do beginning teachers need in order to effectively teach literacy?

The wider conceptual framework of this study draws on conceptualisations of

·     curriculum founded on understandings of  knowledge as socially and collectively constructed and characterised by complexity, multiplicity and resistance to closure (Andreotti, 2007),

·     of learning through the aesthetic as holistic, complex, and engaging body and emotion as well as cognition (Greenwood 2010; Sæbo 2009),

·     of literacy as  socially related set of skills (DeZutter, 2007),

·      and of the interactive strategies of process drama, particularly the use of role and framing (Greenwood & Sæbo 2009; Greenwood, 2005; Sæbo 2010).  

The contextually and culturally situated approach to literacy and to initial teacher education discussed in this paper aligns with the conference theme of Education and cultural change.

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