Managing creative teaching and performative practices

Policy discourses are one of the main means whereby policy texts influence the value, the implementation and the embedding of policies in the settings in which they operate. However, a number of discourses operate at the same time in any given context and they also influence the interpretation and implementation of them through the way in which practitioners manage policy processes as mediators. This research, sponsored by the ESRC, focuses on two such discourses in education in England, that of performativity and creativity and investigated how primary teachers managed these policies and how they were influenced by them.We found that performativity and creativity policies were mainly being developed in primary schools in parallel although we also found some examples of integration of them in what one teacher described as ‘smart teaching’. The major finding was that teachers sought to ensure pedagogic and professional success for both these fields to the best of their ability and to maintain their professional wellbeing.

► This research examines how primary teachers manage the two discourses of performativity and creativity.
► We found that performativity and creativity policies were mainly being developed in primary schools in parallel.
► However, we also found some examples of integration through ‘smart’ teaching.
► Our main finding was that teachers sought to ensure pedagogic and professional success for both discourses.