ABSTRACT
CREATIVITY IS GAINING a foothold in our schools after many years of being banished to the shadows. Government documents such as All Our Futures (NACCCE 1999) and Excellence and Enjoyment (DfES 2003) respond to policy-makers’ recommendations that ‘human resources’ need to be developed urgently and that what is needed in the twenty-first century is a workforce that can respond to policies that ‘promote creativity, adaptability and powers of communication’ (p. 29). To this end, approaches are needed that will emphasise motivation and high self-esteem. All Our Futures defines creativity as an ‘imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value’ (p. 29). It goes on to state that creative processes require ‘freedom and control’; the freedom to experiment and the control of skills, knowledge and understandings’ (NACCE 1999).
