Education is the cornerstone of a knowledge-based society, one that encompasses the principle of life-long learning and currently two significant policy discourses are at the centre of this principle. An international discourse highlights the importance of creativity across economic, industrial, government and educational arenas. It notes that creativity is eminently suited to the multiple needs of life in the 21st century, which calls for skills of adaptation, flexibility, initiative, and the ability to use knowledge on a different scale than has been realised hitherto. However, there is also a global interest in raising educational achievement levels to benefit future economic development by increasing the skills base and having an educated workforce who fit the requirements of the knowledge economy and an emphasis on performance-based assessment is a major strategy of this policy. The policy has been linked to the creation of a culture of performativity. This is a technology, a culture and mode of regulation that employs judgements, comparisons and displays as means of incentive, control, attrition and change based on both material and symbolic rewards and sanctions where the performances of individual subjects or organisations serve as measures of productivity, displays of ‘quality’ or ‘moments’ of promotion or inspection. As such they stand for, encapsulate or represent the worth, quality or value of an individual or organisation within a field of judgement. ‘ Another example of this global policy influence is the establishment of ‘The Organisation for Economic Development’ (OECD), which reports on education in their Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The 3-yearly reports compare levels of achievement in more than forty five countries so that others can learn from successful programmes and practices and develop a convergent approach to the raising of standards. In short, two complex related policy agendas are discernable in ‘the heat and noise of reform’ and their manifestation in policies, programmes and practices in Europe is the focus of this proposal. The two policies relating to creativity and performance – are significant for international research because they both include values that aim to benefit, individuals and national social and economic policies, policies that could be seen as contradictory as creativity is characterised as embodying innovation, imagination and collaboration and performativity is characterised as instrumental, conformist and competitive yet both have the interests of the economy and the individual at heart. The focus for this symposium is the field of education where, to a greater or lesser extent across international contexts, the policies outlined above and the national and local policies connected with them have a significant influence. Within the educational field, the bulk of empirical evidence shows that there is a tension between the two, and although there is some evidence that these tensions are resolvable, so far there is little evidence of a positive relationship between the two, such as the inclusion of assessment of learner creativity. In this symposium we present international research that explores the extent of these policies, programmes and practices and the balance between them, the tensions between them and the impact on educational subjects of these policies in different European countries.

Ethnographic Methodology and Policy Analysis. Empirical studies of schools and schooling in a wide range of educational settings.

The symposium will explore performativity and creativity policies across Europe. The various papers will explore the dilemmas, tensions and constraints raised by these policies for educational actors in the various settings.