ABSTRACT
The notion of creativity is well established in fields such as art, design and literature. Many language teachers operates within considerable educational constraints, controlled by rapidly changing and top-down ministry policies, mandated curricula, prescribed materials, and prespecified outcomes. This chapter argues that under such circumstances, in order to be creative and to respond empathetically and innovatively to the often diverse and multidimensional needs of their students, teachers may need to act as resisters or subverters of these prescribed conditions. It further illuminates the ways in which teachers of adult English as second language (ESL) literacy learners, many of whom work within particularly constraining teaching conditions, may seek to conceptualize and enact their roles as agents of creativity. The chapter also argues that effective teaching and learning practices that emerge within some ESL literacy classes against the background of these prescriptive conditions can be conceptualized as agentive and creative behavior that constitutes a subtle form of resistance to these limiting conditions.
