Creative Teachers

Good teaching is creative teaching, yet there is little research focusing on creative teachers themselves. In this article we report a synthesis of 13 qualitative case studies and 2 quantitative studies of teachers who demonstrated everyday or local creativity in their work. Themes and categories were identified through constant comparison and interrelationships among themes were explored. Four themes are described: personal characteristics, community, process, and outcomes. Teachers' creative processes emerged from the interaction between their personal characteristics, including personal intelligences, motivation, values and the communities in which they worked and lived. These processes resulted in a wide variety of outcomes. The findings suggest that cooperation between teachers and administrators is essential for teachers to succeed in creating positive change.