The New Dreamkeepers: A Call for Critically Conscious,Culturally Responsive,and Creative Educators in Gifted Education

The connection between culture and creativity is a more novel, an always existing concept. Although research and literature affirms this, less is known about how individuals’ implicit beliefs towards racial and ethnic subgroups influence their perceptions of creativity. This conceptual and praxis manuscript reviews key findings and recommendations from two interconnected empirical studies that examined the relationship between individual’s racial implicit bias, also referred to as a participant’s automatic association, toward Black and/or White individuals and their desirability of creative characteristics in students, particularly those of color. Findings indicated a significant correlation: educators with lower levels of implicit bias demonstrated higher valuations of creativity, both intrapersonally and in their desirability of student creative behaviors. From these finding emerged a new pedagogical identity introduced in this manuscript as the C³ educator: one who is critically conscious, culturally responsive, and teaches for creativity. The manuscript concludes with two recommendations for schools and districts to cultivate this identity within educators in every educational setting.