Creativity: the self-regenerative curriculum resource

Carlin et al. argue that "TEEP [Teacher Education ExpertPanel] positions teacher education and indeed education as a 'science' or 'absolute' removed from the lives of children and young people" (2023, p. 2), a view shared by many.Industry experts such as Donna Pendergast have pushed back at the overriding emphasis on streamlining teacher education and resource-planning, saying "tinkering with ITE [Initial Teacher Education] will not be a panacea for the workforce shortage challenges facing the sector, with ITE a small part of the much more complex landscape, and with a long lead time to take effect" (Carlin et al., 2023, p.2).The current moves also mark a distinct turn away from training in more enduring, embodied and experiential skills like collaboration, creativity and co-design.As Pendergast notes, the "loss of agility and likelihood of sameness is thus concerning; cookie cutter education programs seem to be the antithesis of what we need to ensure we attract and graduate a diverse teacher workforce" (2023, p.2).Ironically, the creative work of curriculum translation is an example of the type of creative labour that should be key to education across all subject areas.General conceptions of creativity often foreground big C creativity-that is, the creativity that is enacted by talented individuals in fine arts practices such as painting, writing and dance.However, creative education is a mode of engagement with knowledge that spans the disciplines and enables "problem solving, curiosity, playfulness, and exploration" (Welch et al., 2021, p. 481), developing "skills, behaviours, logic, resourcefulness, and imagination" (p.473).Further, there is a consensus in creativity studies that 'has shifted definitions of creativity from an individual trait to a collective social process" (Bilton, 2010, p. 231).That creativity should and can be available to all is enshrined in the 2019 Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, which sets the goal that "All young Australians become confident and creative