This report presents findings from the SCOTENS Teacher Educator, Student Teacher and Policy Perspectives on Creativity (PerC) project, which explored how creativity is understood and experienced by teacher educators and first‑year student teachers across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Using a qualitative design that combined duoethnographic dialogue among four teacher educators with in‑depth interviews with eighteen student teachers, the study examined personal beliefs, childhood experiences, professional practices and policy discourses shaping creativity in teacher education. Informed by Foucault’s writings on discourse, the analysis reveals that while curriculum policy frames creativity as a transferable competency, it is understood by participants as personal, emotional and founded in lived experience, play and collaboration. The findings challenge reductive and quantifiable approaches to creativity and highlight tensions between policy imperatives and educational practice. The report concludes by outlining implications for teacher‑education workshops and curriculum design, advocating for pedagogies that prioritise self‑expression, collaboration, playfulness, reflective judgement and a balanced relationship between structure and autonomy in fostering meaningful and inclusive creative practice.
