Working with Constraints: Creativity Through Repurposing

This chapter introduces repurposing as a core skill for creative teaching, particularly for working within constraints. Not only are constraints a reality in most educational settings; they are a necessary part of creative work in any domain. Repurposing, broadly defined, involves the use of a tool in ways that are not originally intended. We explore repurposing as a process of melioration, also known as the, “competence to borrow a concept from a field of knowledge supposedly far removed from his or her domain and adopt it to a pressing challenge in an area of personal knowledge or interest” (Passig 2007, p. 2). Teachers and teacher educators should view repurposing as a creative pedagogical ability to adapt and use what is available, by seeing beyond the obvious designed purpose of an object. Unpacking the notion of repurposing based on literature argues for teaching as an act of design, noting that design (like teaching) is inherently purpose-driven and constrained. Both users and designers often repurpose objects, tools, or ideas to creatively rethink the possibilities and manage or address the constraints of their immediate situation. We discuss how tools and objects have affordances that signal what users can do with them, while also having a zone of possibility or alternate purposes that allow users to think beyond the tools’ intended purposes. By engaging this kind of design frame, we suggest that developing repurposing skills can be part of teachers’ exercise of creativity to work with given constraints, particularly in interdisciplinary (e.g., STEAM) contexts. In highlighting several examples from the teaching literature, we aim to exemplify the notion of repurposing as an essential pedagogical skill to allow creativity under constraint.