Talking Creativity - The Credne Podcast Series
Welcome to Talking Creativity
At Credne we love talking about creativity, and our podcast series gives us the opportunity to do just that.
We chat with renowned academic experts in creativity, to creative practitioners, and to those engaging with creativity in the community.
These conversations also explore different facets of creativity, and different ways to foster it within higher education.
Available now on Spotify, Apple and other podcast platforms
Episode 1: Introduction
A brief introduction by Dr Ciarán Dunne on the 'Talking Creativity' podcast
Episode 2: Vlad Glaveanu: Creativity in a social context
What is creativity? How does it fit into the dynamics of a group?
In this episode, Joe Binetti talks to one of the foremost scholarly experts on creativity, Professor Vlad Glăveanu, to unravel some of its mysteries.
This rich and wide-ranging conversation explores the ramifications and importance of creativity in education, and Professor Glăveanu also explains how educational practices can benefit from a sociocultural approach to creativity, positioning it within social interactions.
Episode 3: Wind&Bones: Creativity at the academic margins
Credne Research Assistant Tim Hannigan joins writers Will Buckingham and Hannah Stevens to discuss the connections between creativity and interdisciplinarity, and the creative benefits of operating at the margins of formal academia. The conversation also covers the rich potential of teaching creative writing in intercultural and multicultural contexts, and the role of creativity in fostering social change – something Will and Hannah explore with their community interest company, Wind&Bones.
Click here for Wind&Bones website
Episode 4: In conversation with James Kaufman
Looking for an inspiring discussion of creativity and its potential?
In this episode, Joe Binetti talks to renowned creativity expert Professor James C. Kaufman of the University of Connecticut, who, with Ronald A. Beghetto, developed the influential Four-Cs model of creativity – amongst many other things.
James shares anecdotes and experiences from his multifaceted career, and provides education practitioners some key tools to understand creativity. He takes us on a journey to appreciate the beautiful risk of being creative, and argues that it is never too late to develop our own creative potential.
Episode 5: Lene Tanggaard: From creative apprenticeships to creative connoisseurship with Lene Tanggaard
Who is allowed to be creative? Who are the gatekeepers?
In this episode, Ciarán Dunne talks to Lene Tanggaard of Aalborg University, to explore her research and to delve into her powerful arguments for approaching creativity education through an apprenticeship model.
Lene also talks about the material dimension of creativity, the role of “connoisseurship” in its assessment, and the importance of a supportive teaching and learning environment. “There are no stupid questions in a creative classroom,” she says.
Episode 6: Larry Livingston
What is the function of constraints on creativity? And that of feedback? What about downfalls?
In this episode, Ciarán Dunne talks to distinguished conductor, educator, and administrator, and a highly respected motivational speaker Larry Livingston.
Sharing his life experiences, and punctuating his conversation with lively anecdotes, Larry dives into a provocative discussion about the conditions that foster creativity, the power dynamics of the classroom, and the importance of focusing on the students.
The role of failure and vulnerability is reframed and it is turned into a force for change to allow students' empowerment and the strengthening of their inner motivation.
Episode 7: Aurélie Boulos on creativity in higher education
What are the constraints faced by academics in search of creativity? Which is the role of failure in education? And that of interdisciplinarity?
In this episode, Ciarán Dunne talks to Dr Aurélie Boulos. Aurélie has invaluable experience in the field of creativity and education enhancement. She works for the European Commission as Strategic Partnerships Manager, and was previously a project manager for UNESCO, and Educational Developer at Sorbonne Paris Cité University.
Drawing from her experience and her research, Aurélie brings us on a journey through the challenges of fostering creativity in higher education. From the role of mobility to the need to break down the walls of disciplines, she reflects on the symbiotic relationship of teaching and learning, the importance of enhancing training for educators, the role of trust and the value of failure.
Episode 8: Not messing around! Alfonso Montuori on creativity, passion, culture and more
In this episode, Ciarán Dunne talks to Alfonso Montuori. Alfonso is Professor in the Transformative Inquiry Department at California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a widely-published authority on creativity, complexity and education - and also a professional saxophonist.
This fascinating and entertaining conversation ranges from the unlikely origins of Alfonso’s own scholarly interest in creativity, to group creativity, the problems of assessing creativity and and the potential of transdisciplinarity.
Episode 9: Colm Ó Cuanacháin: Finding words with Fighting Words
For this episode, Tim Hannigan joins Colm Ó Cuanacháin of the Fighting Words charity, which works with children, young people and adults using creative writing. Colm is Fighting Words’ Education Director at Dublin City University, based in the Institute of Education. Colm explains the Fighting Words model – based on the idea of writing as a creative skill in its own right, a teaching tool and a force for social change – and how it can be deployed in education at all levels and in all disciplines to unlock the potential of creativity.
Click here for more information on Fighting Words
Episode 10: Stephen Nachmanovitch: creativity as action
What is creativity? Creativity is not existent, what exists is “creating”. In this episode, Ciarán Dunne engages with Stephen Nachmanovitch.
Musician, artist, author and educator, he teaches about creativity and improvisation across many different domains. Stephen reflects on how creativity exists as an action. The act of creation is shaped by the connections with the history of the world, social elements, multi-disciplinarity and systems. Connectivity and an empathetic environment are the fuel of creation.
Episode 11: Culture, community and collaboration with Jenny Siung of the Chester Beatty
In this episode, Tim Hannigan talks to Jenny Siung, Head of Education in the Chester Beatty, a brilliant Dublin museum, which works to promote the appreciation and understanding of world cultures. The conversation explores some of the museum’s recent educational initiatives, and its engagement with creative practice. It also covers cultural spillover, the making community, the value of mistake-making and much more besides. But the central theme is the creative potential of collaboration, between organisations, disciplines and individuals.
During the podcast, Jenny talks about a collaborative community project at Derby Museum. This is the video she mentions
Click here for Chester Beatty website
Episode 12: Letting it flow: the power and the possibility of arts-based research with Patricia Leavy
In this episode Tim Hannigan is joined by acclaimed scholar and novelist Patricia Leavy to talk about arts-based research. It’s a rousing and thought-provoking conversation covering transdisciplinarity, the rich possibilities of creative practice as a means of both generating and disseminating research, the ethical imperatives for public scholarship, and the exciting things that happen when academics step beyond their own comfort zone, and let things flow.
Click here for Patricia Leavy’s website
Episode 13: Resilience on the path of creativity with Jonathan Plucker
What is the danger of standardisation in education, how important is the type of feedback provided to students, and the risks involved when engaging in a creative teaching and learning experience?
In this episode, Professor Jonathan Plucker shares with Joe Binetti his expertise and insights into the practice of creativity.
He explores the difficulties experienced by educational practitioners and students, dwelling on the importance of considering the ethical implications of teaching for creativity and giving encouragement and strategies to persist in teaching for creativity.
For more information on Jonathan Pluckers’s, click here
Episode 14: The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Creativity with Kerry Freedman
In this episode, Tim Hannigan meets Professor Kerry Freedman, Professor of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University and Coordinator of Doctoral Programs in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She talks about art education, visual culture and creativity.
Which is the social aspect of creativity? What is the relationship between creativity and leadership? How shall we assess creativity? Why is it essential to include failure in the learning path?
Kerry addresses these questions and tells us what education can teach other fields or disciplines about fostering and assessing creativity.
Kerry Freedman’s website is here
Episode 15: What’s the antidote to standardisation in education? A conversation with Ron Beghetto
How important is it to have a definition for creativity? And how research on creativity can impactfully inform educational practices?
In this episode, Joe Binetti interviews Professor Ron Beghetto, the internationally recognised expert on creative thought and action in educational settings.
He describes some principles that can foster a more creative teaching approach promoting changes to existing teaching, learning, and leadership practices. He outlines the risks of the pedagogies of the sameness, providing ideas and solutions.
From the value of the learning experience to the importance of nurturing a plurality of perspectives, Ron gives practical examples of how educational practitioners can transform a lesson by implementing simple strategies and a different understanding of the learning experience, one that values the learning process.
Ronald Beghetto’s website is here
Episode 16: Disrupting education with creativity with Kiene Brillenburg Wurth
In this episode, Ciaran Dunne interviews Professor Kiene Brillenburg Wurth. She is Professor of Literature and Comparative Media at Utrecht University.
From the importance of failure and struggle to that of constraints in creativity, this thought-provoking conversation explores the advantages of challenge-based education, storytelling as a teaching medium, and creativity as a force of self-transformation.
She injects disruptions in education without overlooking the importance of knowledge and explores the demands of creativity and the effort required to succeed while re-imagining the educational context.
Kiene Brillenburg Wurth’s website is here
Episode 17: Creativity: the last bastion of human ability non hijacked by AI, with David Cropley
Professor David Cropley, the internationally recognised expert in creativity and innovation and inventor of the term “malevolent creativity”, is in conversation with Joe Binetti. In this episode, David dispels some of the myths of creativity, from the false assumption that creativity is ill-defined to that of seeing creativity erroneously as a male attribute. He shows us why creativity is essential in human life, addressing the obstacles in implementing creative practices. He provides suggestions to students and education practitioners who want to foster their creative potential turning it into creative behaviour. David carefully considers the ethical implications of teaching for creativity, reflecting on the responsibilities of education.
David Cropley’s website is here
Episode 18: ¡Que sudemos la camiseta! Los requisitos para alcanzar la capacidad creativa - Cristina Esteban Alberdi
En esta conversación Ciarán Dunne habla con Cristina Esteban Alberdi de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. A Cristina le interesa mucho la creatividad y la innovación y en sus clases se dedica a forjar y cultivar la creatividad mediante el uso del espacio y diversas herramientas desarrolladas con el fin de generar ideas e identificar conexiones entre ideas existentes, tales como Design Thinking. Cristina nos comenta sobre las características y las condiciones necesarias para estimular la creatividad y la importancia de conceptualizarla como una habilidad que podemos desarrollar. Sin embargo, como cualquier habilidad, explica que para desarrollarla exige que nos esforcemos – ¡que sudemos la camiseta! Al mantener la conversación en castellano, reconocemos que, por ser un fenómeno universal y una faceta fundamental del ser humano, las perspectivas e ideas sobre la creatividad no se limitan al mundo anglófono.
In this episode, Ciarán Dunne speaks with Cristina Esteban Alberdi from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Cristina is very interested in creativity and innovation, and in her classes, she worked to forge and cultivate creativity through space and various tools. These tools are developed to generate ideas and identify connections between existing ideas in the same fashion as Design Thinking. Cristina tells us about the characteristics and conditions necessary to stimulate creativity and the importance of conceptualizing it as a skill that we can develop. However, she explains that to develop creativity we need to work hard - that we have to “sweat the shirt”, sweat our guts out! By having the conversation in Spanish, we recognize that, as creativity is a universal phenomenon and a fundamental facet of the human being, the perspectives and ideas on creativity are not limited to the English-speaking world.
Episode 19: Creativity and Ethics - a conversation with Kelly Moran
What role does ethics play in creativity? Should ethics be added as a criterion to define creativity? Kelly shares with us her insights on this crucial matter. In this episode, Ciarán Dunne explores one of the most challenging aspects of creativity with Kelly Moran. She starts by describing the importance of a safe space for creativity and the purpose of the connection among different disciplines. She points out the importance of conversations, openness and narratively sharing ideas. Then, reflecting on the goal of creativity, Ciaran and Kelly start a discussion on the role of ethics, universal ethics, cancel culture for creativity.
Episode 20: Programmatic assessment - an introduction by Professor Cees van der Vleuten
What is the purpose of assessment? How can we provide rich feedback to students? Why are grades not enough? In this episode, Joe Binetti talks to Cees van der Vleuten from the University of Maastricht. His primary expertise lies in evaluation and assessment, and he introduces us to Programmatic Assessment. Starting from the need for assessing complex skills, "assessing the un-assessable", he leads us through a journey towards programmatic assessment. From the importance of relying on professional judgement to a holistic evaluation of behaviour, he defends the crucial role of narrative and rich feedback fit to stimulating self-directed learning.
Cees van der Vleuten’s website: https://www.ceesvandervleuten.com/