The Rhetorics of Creativity: A literature review

Author: Shakuntala Banaji and Andrew Burn with David Buckingham

Institution: Institute of Education, University of London

Full reference: Banaji, S., Burn, A., Buckingham, D (2010) The Rhetorics of Creativity: A literature review. 2nd ed. London: Creativity, Culture and Education.

Summary of key findings

This literature review is an important and original report that surveys the core concept of creativity. It aims to help all those involved in creative programmes develop a more finely nuanced and informed understanding of how we use the term and help us to plan and evaluate creative education activities in a more coherent fashion.

The report takes as its basic premise the notion that the idea of creativity is constructed as a series of rhetorics. Academics, policy-makers and arts educators deploy a range of claims about creativity which emerge from different theories of learning, different contexts, different artistic traditions, different academic or quasi-academic traditions and different policy contexts. Nine rhetorics are identified and briefly explored in the review: creative genius; democratic and political creativity; ubiquitous creativity; creativity as a social good; creativity as economic imperative; play and creativity; creativity and cognition; the creative affordances of technology and the creative classroom.

The review finishes by asking ‘Is creativity an internal cognitive function or an external social and cultural phenomenon; a pervasive, ubiquitous feature of human activity or a special faculty; … an inevitable social good … or capable of disruption … and even anti-social outcomes? And what does the notion of creative teaching and learning imply?’

Methodology

Literature Review

Read the review.