Creativity, resilience and early career teachers

Creativity. Resilience. Early Career Teachers. On the surface, three disparate concepts that have independently and deservingly drawn focus in related fields of research including psychology and education. However, there is only limited literature that draws together all three concepts, particularly in terms of understanding the relationships between resilience and creativity in the work environments and practice of Early Career Teachers (ECTs) who teach in generalist primary classrooms in Tasmania. In order to understand the experiences of the ECT participants and how these relationships inform their beliefs and in turn practice, I have taken a narrative inquiry approach to both the phenomenon being studied and in reporting the data. In this thesis I introduce five ECTs who generously shared their stories with me to illustrate the ways resilience and creativity are understood by them and how their practice is informed by being both resilient and creative. Data were collected through both theoretical and practical discussion processes as well as artefact elicitation and are reported as narrative life portraits that reflect the unique perspectives of each. In turn, the portraits illustrate the interplay between resilience, creativity and the work of the ECT. This study will be of interest to and have implications for educational researchers, education policy makers, teacher educators, school leaders and classroom teachers.