Chapter 9: I’m a Creative, Get Me Out of Here: Supporting the Development of Research and Reflective Pedagogy in Practice-as-Research

Creating time for research alongside teaching, marking and examining is challenging for every academic but particularly for those whose research emerges from their practice. In theatre departments, research is intrinsic to the creative process which produces performances, productions and company work. As this creative research is not always written up as a conventional article, chapter or book, theatre practitioners and practice-as-research staff can feel that their work is not a research output but a creative one. Practitioners can be reluctant to describe themselves as researchers and need to be supported to see the creative work they produce as a research outcome in itself. Reconsidering definitions of how an academic, producing, creative arts work could be defined is also part of finding this sense of place in the academy. The work of creative research academics develops their students’ learning, and practitioners can be encouraged to recognise that reflecting on their creative research practice will help to inform their pedagogical approach to teaching theatre when working with students, as well as creating a research outcome in their work. This chapter examines strategies to encourage creative research academics to define themselves as researchers and to see their creative work as a both developing pedagogic practice and research.