Arias of learning: creativity and performativity in Australian teacher education Julie White * University of Melbourne, Australia This article reports on a five-year Australian study where pre-service primary and secondary teachers were encouraged to enhance their creativity through the development of ethnographic operatic performances. The creativity focus of this project was the important aspect of risk-taking and daring. The methodological basis for the study is ethnographic and narrative methods of enquiry were employed. Rather than learning ‘about’ curriculum and pedagogy, participants were encouraged to learn ‘through’ action and involvement. A new conceptualization of performance pedagogy is provided as well as a discussion of two different interpretations of performativity. A research narrative about the development of the ethnographic operatic performances is told and the implications for creativity in education are discussed. Introduction The origins of the study described in this article begin with an interest in epistemology and with a teaching innovation inspired by Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory (1983). It subsequently evolved into a research project around the development of ethnographic operatic performances 1 involving a particular aspect of creativity—risk-taking and daring—which led to a new conceptualization of performance pedagogy. The study is located within a core pedagogy and curriculum subject within a general education course for primary and secondary teachers. Three hundred pre-service education students participated in this program during the period 2001–2005. Essentially students creating ethnographic operatic perfor- mances to explore their narratives. The key element from opera was the singing of the text, and it was ethnographic because the performers exposed their struggle with becoming a teacher. Discussion about this risk-taking and daring aspect of creativity is presented together with two interpretations of ‘performativity’ and consideration of the learning of pre-service education students. The ‘arias of learning’ of the title *Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, 3010 Victoria, Australia. Email: j.white@ unimelb.edu.au Cambridge Journal of Education Vol. 36, No. 3, September 2006, pp. 435–453 ISSN 0305-764X (print)/ISSN 1469-3577 (online)/06/030435-19 # 2006 University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education DOI: 10.1080/03057640600866049