Sustainable pedagogy: a research narrative about teachers, creativity and performativity

Abstract

By relating ecology to pedagogy, this paper establishes the need to shift the focus from classroom strategy and teacher compliance to professional interaction and teacher voice in order to sustain teachers in their work. The impact of environmental factors on the maintenance and development of teacher pedagogy is explored through consideration of performativity and creativity and an emerging conceptualisation of pedagogy is forwarded and illustrated with three recent pedagogy projects. The paper concludes that ‘sustainable pedagogy’ affords a richer and more complex understanding of teacher identity and professionalism and that creativity might provide a suitable antidote to performativity.