The importance of creativity and innovation is widely recognized in policy discussions across Europe. In particular, schools are identified as having a key role to play in fostering and developing the creative and innovative capacities of children for further learning and working life (Cachia, Ferrari, Ala-Mutka & Punie, 2010). While creativity can be conceptualized in different ways (ibid), it is often described as a ‘skill’ that teachers have the power to develop in young people (Cachia et al., 2010; Gibson, 2005). Across European schools there is huge potential for creative learning and innovative teaching (cf. ICEAC study). However, there is little research evidence relating to creativity IN action within contemporary classrooms at a European level, or the pedagogies that support and/or hinder the creative process (Cachia et al., 2010).
This paper draws on findings from a small-scale SCoTENS-funded project focusing on creativity in action in primary and post-primary classrooms in Ireland, North and South. The Creative Classrooms in Ireland – Insights from Imaginative and Innovative Teaching in Ireland’ (CCIT-Ireland) Project explored how teachers and school leaders perceive ‘creative classrooms’ in Irish primary and post primary classrooms, north and south. The CCIT-Ireland project makes reference to a framework being developed for DG Education and Culture by the JRC-IPTS Information Society Unit, Seville - the Scale Creative Classroom (Scale CCR) project - around how trans-sectoral creative classroom practices can be scaled-up in a sustainable and meaningful manner. The CCIT-Ireland project aims to contribute to this work by identifying and case-capturing good creative pedagogy practice in Ireland, north and south.
Our research questions were framed as follows:
- How do teachers and school leaders perceive the nature of creative classrooms and their defining pedagogies?
- What is the role of intangibles in these pedagogies and how do they impact on the inter-relationships between pedagogy, technology, school infra-structure and systemic innovative practice?
- What are the complexities of mapping creative classroom pedagogies?
In the context of education, creativity may be conceptualized as a transversal and cross-curricular skill or an ability to make unforeseen connections and to generate new and appropriate ideas. (Cachia et al., 2010; Ferrari et al., 2009). It is argued that creativity can be developed in everyone and teachers and educational actors have the power to release the creative potential in learners (Cachia et al, 2010; Ferrari et al, 2009). Creative learning is based on learner empowerment and learner centeredness (Ferrari et al, 2009 p. iii). It is any learning which involves increasing understanding, developing new awareness and focusing on thinking skills (cf. ICEAC Study). In other words, it is the opposite of the reproductive experience. (ibid). Teachers who are ‘themselves creative’ are the ones who ‘create the best conditions for enabling pupils or students to become creative’ (Tanggaard, 2011, p. 220; Ferrari et al, 2009). Creative learning requires innovative teaching (Ferrari et al, 2009 p. iii). In the SCALE CCR study (2011-2013), the term ‘creative’ refers to the innovation of learning and teaching practices through technologies that support, among other areas, collaboration, active learning and personalization (Bocconi, Kampylis, & Punie, 2012, p. 7). This is an inquiry into how creativity and innovation can be encouraged, sustained and up-scaled in European education settings, supported by the affordances of digital technologies, where appropriate.
