Closing the equity gap : outcomes when teachers encourage creative story and music making

When researchers talk about equity, they talk about the correlation between educational disparities and skin colour, ethnicity, gender, linguistic facility and social class (Carter and Welner 2013). Drawn from research in schools in low socio-economic status (SES) areas, where equity is an ever-present challenge, this chapter sets out to examine the work of three teachers who facilitated the use of imagination and supported creative and imaginative effort amongst all students in their classrooms. This chapter is also about the long-term outcomes when teachers encourage critical thinking and creative energy in their students and, in so doing, commence the closing of the equity gap. Creativity allows space for thinking about the world around us and also about worlds different in time and location. However, not only can creativity re-consider worlds from the past; when students imagine, their creativity can be a resource that draws the future into the present, in line with the MeE framework, as a means for planning future activity. Imagination and creativity enable students to imagine a future that is achievable and possible with effort.