Educating for Creativity: Vision, Values and Leadership

This thesis aims to contribute to our understanding of the current position of creativity in British schools and the impact of policy. The research develops this discussion by providing fresh insight into head teachers' attitudes towards creativity, an area that has received little attention to date. The premise for this thesis is that there remains a lack of critical focus, not only on the definition of creativity, but also on the purpose of education itself. Arguably, progress in the discipline of education is currently restricted by a lack of attention to educational values, the philosophical underpinnings of the educational institution, and to those aspects of schooling that cannot easily be assessed. In assessing these issues, previous research is explored and semi-structured interviews utilised to search for continuity and discontinuity in the participants’ responses. The thesis does not seek to create generalizations; rather to build understanding.

One finding is that creativity continues to sit more comfortably amidst traditional ‘creative’ disciplines like the arts. Another is that, while head teachers were aware of the need to create appropriate conditions for creative growth, they considered it a complement to academic processes such as critical reasoning and subject knowledge. It was not statutory or policy guidance, but their own personal creativity and vision for the future that helped them cope with the challenges posed by the wider political and educational environment and which prompted them in turn to look for better ways to nurture creativity in their pupils.

Here, creativity is found to be more multi-faceted than anticipated, with two different forms of creativity co-existing and aimed at fulfilling the needs of pupils with different abilities. In this sense, this thesis subsequently argues that there is a risk creativity could, in fact, increase inequalities by widening the disparity in educational results, rather than fulfilling the democratic ideal.