Concepts of creativity operating within a UK art and design college (FE/HE) with reference to Confucian heritage cultures: perceptions of key stakeholders

Abstract

Cultural norms determine where creative ideas and products arise and how they are judged; yet despite the prevalence of literature on creativity, ambiguity persists about global understandings of the concept. The internationalisation of higher education has resulted in multicultural classrooms that provide opportunities for intercultural communication and creative collaborations yet risk misunderstandings and cultural essentialism. There is a lack of empirical research into student learning in art and design and even less that takes cultural contexts into account.

The main methodological models that have emerged since the mid twentieth century endorse an understanding of creativity as an internal cognitive function. As the majority of intercultural creativity research is based on assumptions about individual and collective societies the antipathy between creativity and conformity has been perpetuated. The literature reveals multiple functional definitions of creativity operating in the UK and a value paradox between Western and non-Western models of creativity.

Using semi structured interviews with stakeholders in a UK art and design college as well as analysing institutional documents, the research investigates how previous teaching and learning experiences impact the understanding, teaching, practice and assessment of creativity in a multicultural environment with particular reference to Confucian heritage cultures.

The study explores individual and societal level themes and concludes that contemporary creativity cannot be separated from cultural context and proposes a model of intercultural creativity in concurrence with confluence models combining a number of individual and cultural factors. Creativity is conceived as the fusion of individual creative potential with a favourable social context manifested in a collaborative learning culture. Recommendations are made with regard to the necessity of raising intercultural awareness amongst students and lecturers.