On Becoming ʹWide-Awakeʹ: Artful Re-search and Co-creative Process as Teacher Development

In this essay we reference a co-creative art installation entitled Box-ing In/Out (Di Rezze & Mantas, 2006; Mantas, 2004). Through this collaborative project we describe how artful re-search and the co-creative process can help teachers access and reframe tacit understandings of teaching and learning. We argue that the personal meaning making, which results from such a re-search process can be understood as embodied learning. We propose that when teachers identify, reclaim and continually reframe their subjective understandings of teaching as social practice, they can embody a more response-able (Di Rezze, 2000; Surrey, 1991) disposition toward students; that is, be able to respond to them more thoughtfully, mindfully and with care. As agents in their own learning, teachers can then begin to create more nurturing teaching and learning spaces for both self and the students entrusted to them.