In previous ECER conferences we reported on earlier stages of this project (Greenwood & Sæbø, 2010, 2011). In particular in 2012 we reported on the setting up of the initial work of the third stage  (Greenwood & Sæbø, 2012). Here we are able to report on further case studies and developments, and we can  now further theorise the key elements of the learning that takes place and its implications.

The focusing question for this stage of the project is: What are the core understandings and skills teachers need to acquire  in order to effectively use such processes?

Our project is a cross-national research project in which interactive, creative and aesthetic approaches to teaching and learning are applied to the development and improvement of literacy and to the evolving of democratic attitudes and consciousness. The presentation in 2010 examined the overarching theoretical framework and reported pilot studies in Norway and New Zealand  investigating the use of creative and interactive methodologies in the teaching of reading and writing, and related the initial findings to a disc ussion of initial teacher education. In 2011 we reported further findings and developed a working model for aligning artistry with specific teaching goals. Again it applied findings to examination of the core skills that initial teacher education needs. In 2012 we furthered the earlier investigations, but also  turned   to a more specific exploration of how rich and critical, as well as functional, literacy can be developed through collaborative creative processes and how those processes themselves as well as litercies competencies can foster the development of democratic understandings and individual agency.

 In this paper we report new developments in the project and further theorise the alignment between the competencies and dispositions involved in effective teaching and learning of literacy and the processes and strategies used in interactive and creative learning, with particular emphasis to those of applied drama. We need then further explore understandings of scholarship and artistry in teaching.

The wider conceptual framework of this study draws on conceptualisations of:

- literacy as a complex set of skills and understandings that are socially related and that  serve a range of socio-political and economic goals (Gee 2012);

- learning though the aesthetic as engaging body and emotion as well as cognition (Greenwood 2010; Saebo 2009);

- the interactive strategies of process drama as rehearsal grounds for life (Boal 2006/1974; Heathcote & Bolton 1995; Greenwood & Saebo 2009; Greenwood 2005; Saebo 2010)

The critical approach to literacy and to its implications for teacher education discussed in this paper align with the conference themes of creativity and innovation in boith research and practice.

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