"I don't have a creative bone in my body" : awakening creativity in educators

Creativity is regarded as the solution to problems of the twenty-first century. Without developing creative attitudes and skills, educators and children risk hindering their creative interests and limiting the number of ways there is to learn and respond to the world. This qualitative study aimed to address the symbiotic relationship between creativity and learning and how creativity is conceptualized and encouraged by educators. Using an unstructured open-ended interview, six educators actively involved in the field of Early Childhood Studies shared their thoughts, insights and expertise. The findings indicated that before educators can encourage creativity in their students they must initially identify creativity within themselves. By broadening personal definitions of creativity, educators can begin to recognize how encouraging and teaching for creativity allows children to define their own proximities of learning and imagine the impossible as possible.