Chapter 6 - Creativity

Summary

Taking up the aim to foster creativity in school appeals to researchers and theorists from a variety of academic and ideological camps. Although several conceptual, methodological, and pedagogical complexities persist, creativity is targeted for instrumental purposes. Creativity is conceptualized as a skill that needs to be developed and harnessed so that persons can maximize their value for modern contexts. The drive for institutionalizing creativity is largely from global competition, technological innovation, entrepreneurialism, community vitality, and worker competence. The so-called creative fields are associated with economic development and growth, and students must learn to participate in those fields in order to support that growth. The economic benefit of a creative workforce invites the integration of practices to calibrate, measure, and cultivate creativity.