ABSTRACT

However, they also found that a significant group of teachers was able to respond more actively to changes through what they termed ‘creative mediation’ (Osborn 1996). They identified four forms of this – protective, innovative, collaborative and conspiratorial (Osborn et al. 2000). Research into creative teaching, carried out during the same period as the Pollard research, found that the teachers who worked creatively ‘appropriated’ the reforms to maintain their creative practice (Woods 1995, p. 8). Other research suggests that the reforms as a whole reduced the use of teachers’ experience and their knowledge of children and created a ‘hurry along’ climate (Dadds 2001).