© 2008 - The Drama Centre Malta , All rights reserved.

CREATIVITY WITHIN THE EDUCATION SECTOR

"Creativity is a national income"


Joseph Beuys, artist and intellectual
The School for Social Research, New York


"The more prescriptive a curriculum, the greater the need
to be explicit about creativity and not leave it to chance"

Curriculum Design Council, UK

The European Background

Culture, cultural rights and the challenges of education are currently high priorities on the agenda of the European Union and its corollary institutions. The challenges of shaping education on creative input in an enlarged Europe was the title of an international convention held in Bruges in November 2002, for which the present writer was a participant. An emphasis was made on Knowledge Europe, a concept that focuses attention on European diversity, different cultures and identities. The 25+ structure of the enlarged EU, it was argued at the Bruges colloquium, needs the support of creativity in education, from a specifically European standpoint, where quality, openness, equity, mobility and recognition are not just abstracts, but realities.

The Maastricht Treaty

With the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the role of creative culture was given an official place in European integration. It is one of the EU's current policy priorities to build a strong network of cultural initiatives through education initiatives (Tempus, Alban) and youth-actions (Euro-Med).

Creativity and the Cultural Heritage

Given the importance that Europe is placing on the exploration of cultural heritage in respective countries and regions, policy-makers in the education sector are emphasising the urgent need to develop human resources and in particular to promote creativity, adaptability and better powers of communications. New approaches are identified, and these include broader conceptions of young people's creative input, the promotion of self-esteem through creative work and the skills and aptitudes needed for an expanding, changing Europe. Creative and cultural education are fundamental to meeting these objectives.

There are important correlatives to creative production. Creative achievement is easily recognizable in the arts, but it is being argued that a country is equally in need of creativity in all other fields, including the sciences and business. It is therefore essential to rethink creative education, to evaluate the purposes, methods and scale of education in the light of emerging circumstances.

The Creative Industries

There is a subset of intellectual activity that is related to what is now being known as �the cultural industries, a term that in Malta, unfortunately, has not yet gained currency. Such industries include advertising, architecture, arts, antiques, crafts, design, publishing, digital art, designer fashion, film, TV-production, leisure software and radio. Another evolving sector is that related to community performance.

In Britain, to give an indication of the scale of growth, the culture industries now employ 1.7 million people and generate no less than 60 billion sterling pounds each year. In one decade (1992-2002), the culture industries in the UK have grown by 34%. Educationists in Britain are arguing that such a growth is very significant for offering opportunities for the creative abilities of young people.

Democratic Definition of Creativity

There is now a European movement to consider other aspects of creativity, detached from the traditional notion that creativity necessarily involves exceptional talent. While education must certainly nurture exceptional talent, other considerations are identifying creativity in its democratic definition. In such a view, all people are capable of creative achievement and a democratic society should provide opportunities for everyone to succeed according to their own strengths and abilities. This approach not only involves children and young people but also creates alliances with parents, local councils and other social stakeholders.

The Brussels Conference for Ministers of Education and Culture (2003) announced that it is expected that the Council of the European Union would soon adopt a Resolution on the horizontal aspects of culture. This would target, in particular, the increase of synergies with other sectors and Community actions. The Resolution would also stress "the exchange of good practices in relation to the social and economic dimensions of culture".

It is now widely being accepted that schools need no longer be sole traders in education. Different partners should be encouraged to contribute in different fields of expertise. Schools should explore and invent practical ways of developing the use of their abilities for creative and cultural education.

It should be a main objective for schools to enrich and extend the experience of their students and the wider social community. It should be made possible for schools to establish links with cultural organisations and to have specific policies related to cultural and creative activity. There should be coordination between schools and artists, arts organisations and the formal and informal sectors of education.

Creativity and the Maltese Curriculum

The workshops and proceedings Report on Malta's National Curriculum (NC) take a broad view of creativity. The Report advises that creativity should not be restricted to the expressive arts but it should be seen as a crucial agent in stimulating every aspect of the process of learning and teaching. The Report proposes action plans for the promotion of creativity at school, class and education system levels, as well as evaluation instruments.

The position papers contained in the NC Proceedings Report (The National Curriculum on Its Way, 2000) describes creativity as �the soul of the family of bodies called school subjects.

It also stresses the factors that are negatively affecting creativity in Malta's schools, among which: rigid time-tabling, formal class management protocol, syllabus overload, prohibition of children to take ownership of learning, lack of or inadequate resources, emphasis on summative assessment, emphasis on competition and external rewards and teachers lack of self-confidence.

In spite of the emphasis laid on creativity and self-expression throughout workshops and proceedings related to the NC, the list of themes or subject-areas for grouping the targets of the NC Strategic Plan (2001) does not include a Target (or Focus) Group to deal specifically with Creativity. The list does include, however, a Target Group for Schools as Community Centres.

Creativity within & outside the Curriculum

It is clear that there should be a strong "political" will to face the challenges of disseminating successful models of curriculum organisation that promotes creative and cultural development in schools, both within and between the "main" subjects.

It is important to develop non-statutory guidance for creative teaching, a strategy that should involve the Division of Education and the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Immediate attention should be given to the creation of a pool of expertise, in the form of a national task force, to develop short, medium and long-term strategies, which should be put into effect without further delay.

Pilot projects in creative activity, reaching out also to the community are in dire need of attention and should involve local councils as logical partners.

Existing Structures

The Division of Education within the Ministry of Education has several structures that function formally in the fields of cultural creativity. These include the School of Art, the Drama Centre, the School of Music, the Youth Service Organisation within the Department of International Students' Relations, Channel 22, the Department of Adult Education and Further Studies and the Institute of Creative Design within MCAST. Late in 2006, the Minister responsible for Education announced that there will be a "merger" involving the Malta Drama centre, the School of Music and the School of Art.

The Drama centre is quite well placed for this change, as it has, over the past few years, moved from strict linear drama training to a wider spectrum related to the performing arts. The Centre now offers, besides pure drama techniques, training in choral singing, musical theatre, costume design and manufacture, physical theatre character dance and contemporary dance.


MARIO AZZOPARDI