Tracking creativity and creative learning: traversing a troubled terrain

Abstract

Since the mid 1990s, there has been growing recognition by policy-makers and commentators that learner creativity is an extremely important aim for education. There is evidence in higher education that universities are inclined to appropriate the term 'creative' because it has social cachet and on university websites creativity usually appears in tandem with 'innovation'. This suggests that universities are following a business perspective, with creativity helping to lure buyers and sellers to the marketplace. In the context of schooling, while lip-service is paid to the idea of creativity and creative learning by politicians, critical learning and thinking seem to predominate in school syllabi. This research set out to challenge the rhetoric and I contend that transformation in students' learning occurs when teachers understand what is required to teach creatively so that they can foster creativity and creative learning in their classrooms. Because of the contested nature of the creativity field, this is a troubled terrain and one that is worthy of investigation.