Education is always about the future, and since the future is inherently unpredictable, creativity must be an integral part of the educational process. The COVID pandemic is just one of many planet-sized disruptions, which will stress our already inefficient political, economic and cultural institutions further underscoring the important role of creativity in education.
Much of existing thinking about creativity has viewed it from an internal/cognitive, socially-decontextualized perspective with an inordinate focus on creative individuals. In contrast, our guests argue for recognizing the interconnected and contextual nature of creativity. According to this perspective, creativity is distributed across social, cultural, psychological, temporal and material elements and occurs as a result of interactions between elements, and is not inherent in the elements themselves.
In this session we will discuss how this new understanding of participatory creativity can find roots in education, and through that process empowering and cultivating personal and collective forms of agency for all learners. We will also explore the implications of this reframing for teachers, curriculum designers, policymakers, and researchers interested in developing more equitable approaches towards creative learning experiences. More about our guests after the video.
Our guests
Dr. Vlad P. Glăveanu is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology and Counselling at Webster University Geneva, Associate Professor II at the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology (SLATE), University of Bergen, Norway, Director of the Webster Center for Creativity and Innovation (WCCI) and founder of the Possibility Studies Network (PSN). He edited the Palgrave Handbook of Creativity and Culture (2016) and the Oxford Creativity Reader (2018), co-edited the Cambridge Handbook of Creativity Across Domains (2017) and the Oxford Handbook of Imagination and Culture (2017), authored The Possible: A Sociocultural Theory (Oxford University Press, 2020), Creativity: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Wonder: The Extraordinary Power of an Ordinary Experience (Bloomsbury, 2020), and (co)authored more than 200 articles and chapters in these areas. In 2018, he received the Berlyne Award from the APA Div 10 for outstanding early career contributions to aesthetics, creativity, and the arts.
Edward P. Clapp, Ed.D. is a Principal Investigator at Project Zero interested in exploring creativity and innovation, design and maker-centered learning, contemporary approaches to arts teaching and learning, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. Edward and his colleagues explore these issues with their teacher partners through a variety of different collaborative inquiries around the world. In addition to his work as a researcher, Edward is also a Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Edward’s most recent books include Participatory Creativity: Introducing Access and Equity to the Creative Classroom (Routledge, 2016) and Maker-Centered Learning: Empowering Young People to Shape their Worlds (with Jessica Ross, Jennifer Oxman Ryan, and Shari Tishman, Jossey-Bass, 2016). @edwardpclapp