The project aims to compare the differing cultural values that underpin teacher education in the Middle East (Palestine) and England (Cheshire). The project explores the values, attitudes and perceptions of teacher educators and student teachers in relation to creative pedagogies. Creativity is used as a metaphor for the use of a teacher’s imagination and their freedom to construct learning situations they deem to be pertinent to the interests of their learners. The exercise of a teacher’s judgement in this way is a contentious issue in both cultures, and from our existing research we know that it is an area that both education communities wish to explore further, yet are often prevented from doing so by workload and performance target pressures. The project is, via a series of collaborative research interventions, providing an opportunity to examine the conditions under which creativity in pedagogy flourishes in each community, according to the perceptions of practitioners in the field.

The research theme is a comparison of the construction and application of pedagogical strategies in different cultures, through the lens of creativity – that is the creative licence of the teacher as professional practitioner. We hope the research will reveal both the common interests and values that we share, as well as the distinctive cultural conditions that shape these practices, and determine the forms that any new pedagogy might take.

The principal research objectives are to discover:

• What freedoms teacher educators and student teachers have to research and develop new pedagogical approaches in the curriculum?
• What forms (in what ways and in what configurations, whether collaborative, institutional or individual) can teacher educators and classroom teachers apply and enact creative pedagogies in their classroom practice?
• What are the perceived benefits to teachers and learners if teacher educators and teachers are enabled to exercise creativity in their pedagogies?
• What are the institutional and cultural conditions for the application and sustainability of creative pedagogies?
• What extent can new and creative cultures of enquiry be developed through collaborative research interventions between university departments and schools?

 Finally the overarching objective is to compare each and all of the above across the two differing cultural contexts of north west England and Palestine West Bank, looking for commonalities and differences, and arriving at conclusions about the affects that culture and context may have upon pedagogy, from the standpoint of professional practitioners, institutions and learners. To this end the project will focus on a series of interventions in practice intended to open up creative dialogues about pedagogy between teacher educators, beginning teachers and practitioners in schools in both contexts.

The project is funded by the British Academy.

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