Third Space Creative Pedagogies: Developing a Model of Shared CPDL for Teachers and Artists to Support Reading and Writing in the Primary Curricula of England and Wales

Abstract

Zip Zap is a Creative Social Enterprise, which offers an author/illustrator- led Continuing Professional Development and Learning (CPDL) programme to develop teacher knowledge, confidence and skills in delivering creative writing and illustration activities, and a Festival of artist-led activities for school pupils. It is one of a number of initiatives that UK schools can buy into. This paper draws on an evaluation of Zip Zap’s CPDL programme and Festival across two UK sites, with two quite different creative learning contexts – Wales and England, to explore issues affecting the pedagogies at work in the space where teachers and creative practitioners elide. An analysis of findings from teacher/pupil/parent/creative practitioner interviews and observations of classroom teaching and CPDL sessions highlighted a number of key issues in relation to pedagogies of creative writing. These are: the teachers’ lack of confidence in creative writing pedagogies, a lack of shared approaches to teaching creative writing, and the potential for shared creative pedagogies. We propose a theoretical framework based on Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of the third space that offers a framework for professional learning that enables collaboration between teachers and creative practitioners, and the emergence of shared, creative pedagogies that would nurture pupils’ creative writing.