Scholarly Approaches to Education Practice

Creativity - the process of coming up with original ideas and bringing them into the world - is necessary for innovation in research, teaching and learning. Breaking from the frames that drive our perception requires play, risk, and a tinkering mindset in order to generate a greater volume and breadth of ‘divergent’ ideas more often. 

Creativity is a challenge for many of us in our work because modern institutional and corporate life tends to privilege old habits, the status quo, and rational ways of knowing. There is an institutional pressure to prefer familiar (or ‘validated’) ideas, ‘efficient’ and highly linear processes, and anything that tends to not involve play or getting messy. While obviously, the above elements are necessary for our work - too much ‘mess’ is never a good thing - we also know that innovation and change are non-linear and often not rational.