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Understanding creativity in an Asian school context: Korean teachers’ perspectives
Thinking Skills and Creativity 33 (2019) 100573
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Understanding creativity in an Asian school context: Korean teachers’ perspectives Kyunghee So, Yaeji Hu
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Department of Education, Seoul National University, 1, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, South Korea
A R T IC LE I N F O
ABS TRA CT
Keywords: Creativity Creative teaching Asian culture Korean education Teachers’ perspective
This paper examines how creativity, which originated in the Western context and expanded worldwide, is interpreted and accepted by teachers in Korea, and analyzes the relationship between creativity education and the Korean sociocultural background. Accordingly, the following research questions are addressed: 1) How do Korean teachers conceptualize creativity in education, and what does it mean to them, and 2) what qualities do Korean teachers associate with creative teaching and creative teachers? Data were collected in interviews with ten middle school teachers. The results indicate that Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity and creative teaching is partially aligned with Western notions, and that Western notions of creativity are also transformed and filtered by the unique Korean context regarding Confucianism and the college entrance-oriented school culture. In conclusion, the concept of creativity in education is constructed based on the sociocultural context in which creativity is actually practiced.
1. Introduction Creativity education has recently emerged as an international issue, and discourse on the subject is one of the main forces driving education reforms globally. South Korea has also emphasized creativity as a key agenda item in education policy since the 1990s. This global interest in creativity is likely to render it universally applicable to all cultures (Craft, 2003). However, understandings of the meaning of creativity education can vary according to social context (Reilly, Lilly, Bramwell, & Kronish, 2011). Although the widely accepted meaning of creativity is based on Western values and ideas, it can be transformed or limited in different cultural contexts (Cheng, 2011; Craft, 2003; Niu & Kaufman, 2013). Creativity is likely to be understood and practiced in different ways in Asian countries, as they are culturally different from the West (Kwang & Smith, 2004; Wu & Albanese, 2010). These differing cultural influences on creativity call for further exploration of the unique meaning and practice of creativity education in a specific sociocultural context. Much previous research has investigated cultural differences in creativity education between the East and West. Some studies have compared features of creativity education between the two cultures from the Western perspective (Kim, Lee, Chae, Anderson, & Laurence, 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004), while others identify an Asian concept of creativity or characteristics of creativity education that is comparable to the Western concept (Cheng, 2011; Forrester & Hui, 2007; Niu & Kaufman, 2013; Wu & Albanese, 2010). However, since these studies view the East and the West as opposing cultural extremes, they do not sufficiently reveal the diverse and complex processes of how the Western concept of creativity has been infused into Asian culture. Teachers in Korea have recently begun to implement creativity education in their classrooms according to directives from the
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Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K. So), [email protected] (Y. Hu).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.100573 Received 10 September 2018; Received in revised form 30 May 2019; Accepted 6 June 2019 Available online 07 June 2019 1871-1871/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Korean government. In the meantime, they have formed their own understanding of creativity and creative teaching. Hence, examining the ways in which these teachers understand creativity may reveal how the Western concept of creativity can be conceptualized in East Asian cultures. Therefore, this study examines how creativity, which originated in the Western context and expanded worldwide, is interpreted and accepted by teachers in Korea, and analyzes the relationship between creativity education and the Korean sociocultural background. Accordingly, the following research questions are addressed. 1) How do Korean teachers conceptualize creativity in education, and what does it mean to them? 2) What qualities do Korean teachers associate with creative teaching and creative teachers? 2. Theoretical background 2.1. Sociocultural approach to creativity in education As a result of globalization, many countries are coming to share a common language for articulating educational perspectives, problems, and solutions through international discourses (Hartley, 2003). In line with this trend, education reforms aimed at fostering creativity prevail globally; cultivating creativity has become a dominant discourse for education reforms in many countries. As a result, creativity can be perceived as a universally applicable concept, regardless of diverse social and cultural backgrounds (Craft, 2003). However, dominant discourses on creativity have been criticized as culturally biased, as they have been developed based on Western values (Jeffrey, 2006). Values and practices of creativity differ among cultures (Reilly et al., 2011). With this in mind, previous studies on creativity have focused on identifying different perspectives on creativity in Eastern and Western cultures. One frequently discussed difference between the East and West is individualism versus collectivism. In Eastern cultures, unlike the West where uniqueness and individual freedom are highly valued, one’s sacrifice for the community is taken for granted (Craft, 2003). This notion of collectivism is derived from Confucianism, which prioritizes social harmony and group interest over the interest of each individual (Mrnarević, 2011). Thus, in the West, one’s internal characteristics and novelty are considered a form of creativity, while in the East, the social and moral aspects of creativity gain more attention (Reilly et al., 2011; Zhou, Shen, Wang, Neber, & Johji, 2013). The hierarchy of human relationships is also a distinctive feature of Eastern culture (Cheng, 2011). One of the five moral disciplines of human relationships in Confucianism emphasizes that hierarchical relationships between the young and the old are necessary to maintain a proper society. Consequently, unlike in the West where equal rights and treatment between individuals is valued, in the East, showing respect to elders is considered desirable and natural (Kim, 2007). This culturally different perspective on authority and hierarchical order is also reflected in the understanding of creativity. In the West, inconformity or denying the norm is considered creative, whereas in the East, it is viewed as a deviation that threatens the social order (Zhou et al., 2013). Moreover, a “long-term orientation” has been cited as an interesting feature of Eastern culture. An important virtue taught by Confucius, this orientation emphasizes preparation for long-term goals over immediate happiness (Cheng, 2011). This may serve as an explanation of the patience and endurance exhibited by Asian students, who are used to delaying their current happiness for future goals such as entering selective universities. In general, such students are eager to acquire subject knowledge that will help them prepare for college entrance exams rather than enjoying the pleasure of creative learning activities (Cheng, 2011). In short, Eastern creativity as discussed in previous research is grounded in the Confucian tradition. Accordingly, in Asian schools, the focus tends to be more on the social and moral aspects of creativity, and on teaching creativity in connection with social norms, exam preparation, and school subjects. 2.2. Teachers’ perceptions of creativity in education Understanding how teachers perceive creativity and creative teaching is significant in creativity education because creative teaching relies on teachers’ perception and understanding of creativity and ability to support creativity education (Cropley, 2001; Jeffrey & Craft, 2004). Furthermore, as teachers’ perceptions of creativity are formed in the concrete context of schools, reflecting the school’s sociocultural background, studying such perceptions may illuminate the effect of contextual features on understanding creativity education (Liu & Lin, 2014; Mullet, Willerson, Lamb, & Kettler, 2016). Previous studies have revealed that although some teachers consider creativity an innate talent possessed by a few gifted children (Myhill & Wilson, 2013; Zbainos & Anastasopoulou, 2012), the majority of teachers tend to regard creativity as an ability that can be learned and developed (Odena & Welch, 2009; Turner, 2013; Vedenpää & Lonka, 2014). In particular, they understand creativity as a cognitive skill. Previous research indicates that most teachers relate creativity to the following skills: problem-solving, divergent thinking, novel and unique thinking, applying and inventing, artistic expression, and imaginative power (Aljughaiman & MowrerReynolds, 2005; Odena & Welch, 2009). Teachers also view creativity as an ability related to particular school subjects or fields. For instance, they believe creativity to be more pertinent to art and science than to other subjects or fields (Tanggaard, 2011). These teachers’ perceptions diverge from the argument that creativity should be developed through a cross-curricular approach (Craft, 2003; National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education [NACCCE], 1999). In addition, these perceptions differ based on cultures. For example, contrary to general perceptions, teachers in China regard literature to be unrelated to creativity (Zhou et al., 2013); this may be due to the fact that literature is typically taught through rote memorization in Chinese classrooms. In addition, teachers associate creativity with certain attitudes or personal traits. For example, some teachers describe creative 2
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traits as stubborn, impulsive, and not listening to others’ opinions (Kim et al., 2011; Mullet et al., 2016). However, teachers’ evaluations of such attitudes differ by culture; for example, Korean and Chinese teachers normally consider such attitudes bad behavior, whereas teachers in North America do not (Kim et al., 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004). Likewise, for most teachers, creativity is an ability or attitude the majority of students can cultivate through education. However, the meaning of these abilities and attitudes and their evaluations differ according to teachers’ cultures. Meanwhile, teachers are likely to perceive creative teaching as involving diverse student-centered activities (Huang & Lee, 2015). They may think that creative teaching entails encouraging students’ imaginations, diverse approaches, and out-of-the-box thinking by using ingenious and interesting methods to transmit learning contents (Turner, 2013). In particular, the following activities tend to be regarded as creative teaching: debating, poster-making, role-playing, visual aids, writing news reports, flashcard games, pretending to be in a different place, and cooking (Turner, 2013). In some cultural contexts, teachers’ creative teaching skills may be regarded as creative teaching rather than promoting students’ creativity (Huang & Lee, 2015). 3. Methods 3.1. The Korean context and participants The Korean government has consistently emphasized the development of creativity as part of key education reforms since the 1990s. To accomplish this, it has recently institutionalized a new system called the “Exam-free Semester”—one semester in the threeyear middle school period in which exams do not occur—which has been implemented in all middle schools since 2016. The Examfree Semester is part of the transformation of Korean education intended to help students develop their dreams and talents, as it has been found that students currently exhibit low levels of interest, confidence, and happiness due to excessive competition and examoriented education, even though Korean students demonstrate high academic achievement. Thus, the Exam-free Semester aims to relieve students of the burden of exams so that they can identify their dreams and talents, and to vitalize various hands-on programs in schools such as exploring future careers (Ministry of Education, 2013). To achieve these aims, schools and teachers are required to develop flexible curricula and change the traditional class format into one based on student participation. This is a case study of teachers in Korea. The participants of the study were ten middle school teachers with experience in creative teaching in the Exam-free Semester. As middle school teachers gain experience in creative teaching through implementing the Examfree Semester, they were considered appropriate participants for this study, which intended to investigate teachers’ perspectives of creativity and creative teaching. Of the teachers recommended by schools, those who agreed with the purposes and methods of the study were selected to participate. Among the 10 participants, 7 had less than 5 years of teaching experience and 3 had 10 to 20 years of experience. Their ages varied from late-twenties to mid-forties; 9 of them were female. Three of the teachers teach Korean, two teach science, and each of the remaining five teachers teaches math, English, ethics, physical education, and music, respectively. To preserve anonymity, pseudonyms are used to refer to the participants in the following sections. 3.2. Data collection Before meeting the teachers, the researchers designed an interview protocol that concerned several main themes such as the conceptualization of creativity, the value of creativity in school education, and characteristics of creative teaching and creative teachers. Questions were developed around these themes, which provided the framework for the interview. The interviews began by asking the teachers to discuss their casual thoughts about creativity. The teachers were asked open-ended questions such as “What comes to mind when you think of creativity?” Furthermore, they were asked not to limit their answers to an educational context. Next, they were requested to explain the meaning or necessity of creativity education. We asked questions such as “Do you believe creativity is needed in education?” and “What do you think is the meaning of teaching creativity in schools?” Moreover, we asked them about their understanding of the meaning of creative teaching and the qualities of creative teachers, asking them to provide answers based on their own or their fellow teachers’ experiences. Each participant was interviewed either once or twice for approximately 30 min to 2 h at a time. As the interviews were usually conducted in an empty classroom or school library after school, the overall atmosphere was relatively quiet and calm. All interviews were audio-recorded with the official consent of the participants, following appropriate research ethics, and were transcribed for data analysis. 3.3. Data analysis The collected data were inductively analyzed through a multi-stage coding strategy (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). In the initial stage, utilizing the open coding strategy, each researcher read through the transcripts, highlighting phrases and clauses related to creativity or creative teaching and taking notes on brief summaries and keywords of each highlighted element. We then grouped repeatedlyemerging contents and keywords based on similarities and developed codes to represent each category. Axial coding was utilized in the second round; we performed constant comparative analysis and analyzed the inter-relationships of codes. Finally, we generated over-arching themes that encompass the related codes. As a result, the notion of creativity was categorized into five themes and creative teaching was categorized into four themes. The themes, codes, and interview examples are shown in Tables 1 and 2. In order to secure trustworthiness, throughout the initial stage of coding, the researchers regularly met to compare the codes they developed and to reach an agreement on the definition of each code. In addition, during the entire coding process, we consistently 3
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Table 1 Conceptualizing creativity: Themes and examples of codes and interviews. Themes
Examples of codes
Examples of interviews
Breaking the mold
Novelty Uniqueness Different from others or existing things Living with others Related to character-building education Having an open mind regarding differences Attitudes for mutual respect Qualification of competent person in society Social skills Ability to solve global problems Impetus for development of science and technology Helpful in memorizing and understanding subject contents Brilliant thinking related to subject knowledge Combining existing things Utilizing things Applying things to one’s situation
“I think that creativity means having a special or different idea from others in any field.” (Teacher Sujin)
Something moral
Something socially useful
Based on subject knowledge
Applying existing things
“It is like learning how to accept different ways of thinking.” (Teacher Haeun)
“Without creativity, we might have lived like we did in primitive times.” (Teacher Jin)
“It (creativity) should be drawn from the concepts and knowledge covered in class.” (Teacher Sera) “…creativity is rather related to how to utilize these things appropriately.” (Teacher Sangyoon)
Table 2 Conceptualizing creative teaching: Themes and examples of codes and interviews. Themes
Examples of codes
Examples of interviews
Improving students’ attitudes and interest
Provoking students’ interest and curiosity Motivating students to study Students’ active attitudes in class Diverse hands-on activities
“When they think ‘Oh, this is new!’ their curiosity arises. This motivates them to study.” (Teacher Sujin)
Encouraging students’ participation
Promoting divergent and selfdirected thinking
Creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere
Minimizing teachers’ intervention Solving problems by oneself Expanding opportunities for communicating with classmates Promoting divergent thinking Asking open-ended questions Allowing students to ask questions freely Creating a casual atmosphere Allowing students to engage in diverse ways of learning Caring about students
“I think you can make classes more creative when you let kids participate, like making something by themselves rather than just transmitting the learning contents.” (Teacher Sujin) “… giving students a problematic situation and letting them solve it by themselves. I think this kind of class is related to creativity.” (Teacher Dayoung)
“I told them to organize their notes in whatever way they want.” (Teacher Juhee)
crosschecked the codes and themes produced by each researcher. When the codes differed among researchers, raw data were reexamined and the appropriateness of the categories was discussed until a consensus was reached. In doing so, the researchers adjusted categories and strived to find better themes that would effectively represent the key ideas of each category, thereby improving the validity of the analysis. Furthermore, through a member-checking process (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), we validated the interpretations of data and clarification was obtained from the participants where necessary. After confirming the categories and themes, we explored the sociocultural characteristics that were related to each category and theme. Ultimately, we intended to interpret the social, cultural, and educational contexts that affect Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity education. The first author of this study has participated extensively in the development of the Korean national curriculum and has been teaching at universities for over 20 years. The second author has been conducting research at a university for over 5 years. In addition, we have been conducting research projects that identify the characteristics of creativity in the Korean context for the past 2 years. Therefore, our data interpretation not only reflects previous research on creativity, but also, in part, the researchers’ personal knowledge and experience about the educational atmosphere and culture of Korea. 4. Results 4.1. Conceptualization of creativity 4.1.1. Breaking the mold Teachers who participated in this study most frequently mentioned “breaking the mold” and “novelty” when conceptualizing 4
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creativity. They consider creativity as different from existing things or general ways of thinking; they stated that it contrasts with the “conventional,” the “universal,” and an organized “system or frame.” For instance, Sujin, an English teacher, defined creativity as follows. I think that creativity means having a special or different idea from others in any field. It also looks creative when you use teaching methods that are different from those used by everyone else. As in Western countries, creativity is perceived as something new, novel, and unique in Korea (Niu & Kaufman, 2013). Undoubtedly, cultural differences do exist; for example, Western culture gives more weight to novelty and uniqueness than Eastern culture (Mrnarević, 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004; Zhou et al., 2013). Thus, “breaking the mold,” which reflects teachers’ conceptualization of creativity, may be a universal understanding. 4.1.2. Something moral Korean teachers do not only associate creativity with acting or thinking in a novel and unique way. In their opinion, it should also include an attitude that is helpful for harmonizing and living with others, and accordingly, should be taught in connection with “character-building education.” For example, Haeun, who teaches Korean, said that students realize “you are not the only one in this world” by learning creativity. She elaborated as follows. I believe it is sort of a first step to learn creativity to realize what they have not thought of through talking with their friends. (…) It is like learning how to accept different ways of thinking. As seen above, Korean teachers seem to connect creativity with teaching desirable attitudes in relationships. This view corresponds with that of previous research, which shows that when evaluating a creative product, novelty and uniqueness receive more attention in the West, while in the East, moral aspects are considered more important (Reilly et al., 2011; Zhou et al., 2013). This Eastern cultural viewpoint is also reflected in the Confucian ideal of a creative person, who has an open mind and high standards of morality, or in the fact that the primary purpose of schooling in both Korea and China is educating students to be moral people (Kwang & Smith, 2004; Niu & Kaufman, 2013). Likewise, Korean teachers’ conceptualization of creativity as “something moral” appears to rest on these Eastern cultural values. 4.1.3. Something socially useful Korean teachers’ conceptualization of creativity tends to center on its usefulness in society; they believe that creativity is an essential skill for students’ future careers. As society requires consistent change and innovation and youth unemployment emerges as a serious social problem, creativity is considered a primary requisite for students to become competent and competitive workers in the future. In this sense, Minsu, a PE teacher, explained creativity in school education. Considering that this society keeps seeking novelty, students should start learning creativity naturally in schools so that later on, they can become competent people in society. Meanwhile, creativity is also regarded as useful for society as a whole. For Jin, a math teacher, creativity contributes to social progress and solving social problems. Without creativity, we might have lived like we did in primitive times. (…) I believe we need some kind of creative thinking skills to solve problems like environmental pollution and global warming. These interviews illustrate that for teachers in Korea, creativity is useful both for individuals and the society to which they belong. This is consistent with the results of previous studies that have found that Eastern culture tends to emphasize the social aspects of creative people, such as their social influence, status, and contribution to society, rather than their personal and internal aspects, such as their sense of humor or aesthetic insights (Niu & Kaufman, 2013; Zhou et al., 2013). This also coincides with previous research that shows that Eastern culture focuses on the usefulness of creative products rather than how interesting or novel they are (Zhou et al., 2013). Here, Korean teachers’ conceptualization of creativity as “something socially useful” reflects the interest in the practical use of creativity in the Eastern society. 4.1.4. Based on subject knowledge The participants of this study view creativity as being related to school subjects. They think that it is undesirable to link creativity only with uniqueness. Sera, a music teacher, expressed her discomfort with such perspectives and mentioned that authentic creativity is the ability to use subject knowledge properly. It feels like it is regarded to be creative even when kids say something preposterous or ridiculous. (…) Creativity is more than just being unusual. It should be drawn from the concepts and knowledge covered in class. Moreover, most participants agreed that creativity is helpful in studying subject knowledge. Jin explained how fostering creativity in her class helped enhance her students’ memorization abilities and their application of the learning contents. I think kids do better in the next class when they are allowed to think and talk about the contents among themselves, rather than when teachers tell them everything. In this way, they seem to understand the concepts better and more in depth. This understanding of creativity indicates that teachers in Korea have made a connection between creativity and school subjects. 5
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This echoes previous studies showing that students in Hong Kong perceive creativity as an effective means of understanding science content knowledge (Cheng, 2011). However, considering that this interview dealt with the perspectives of middle school teachers, their conceptualization of creativity can be partly attributed to the subject-oriented culture of secondary schools in Korea, in which teachers typically teach only one or two subjects. Teachers thus often aim to cultivate creativity in connection with the subjects they teach. Furthermore, as the importance of college entrance exams is overemphasized in Korea, teachers who participated in this study need to justify to parents that fostering creativity would not hinder students from studying school subjects. For these reasons, it seems that their conceptualization of creativity is closely related to the subjects they teach. 4.1.5. Applying existing things For Korean teachers, creativity does not only mean “making something out of nothing” or showing great originality. They believe that it also indicates applying what one has learned in a certain situation. Although creativity is regarded to be related to something new, teachers also consider creativity to be finding connections or combinations between existing things. Sangyoon, a science teacher, views creativity as follows. I thought creativity was making something that had never existed before, but there are already too many things in this world. Thus, creativity is rather related to how to utilize these things appropriately. I want students to develop that type of creativity. As presented above, the teachers perceive the contextual application, minor variation, and new connections of existing things as a form of “newness.” These responses are in line with previous studies indicating that in the East or in highly hierarchical societies, “adaptive creativity”—which is related to devising an effective means for a given purpose—is more common than “innovative creativity”—which is pertinent to risk-taking and radical change (Cheng, 2011). However, regardless of cultural differences between the East and West, most teachers tend to conceptualize creativity as a new application of existing things (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999). This is due to the universal characteristic of school education that values all students’ learning processes through applying existing things to different situations rather than creating something new. This conceptualization of creativity as “applying existing things” is not an exclusive feature of the East; it is a common point of the West as well due to the school context. 4.2. Conceptualization of creative teaching 4.2.1. Improving students’ attitudes and interest For teachers in Korea, creative teaching includes improving students’ attitudes and interest. While traditional teaching methods are considered boring and difficult for students, making them “sleepy” or “lethargic” in classes, creative teaching is viewed as joyful, playful, and able to “awaken students” and instill curiosity in them during classes. Sujin tried to articulate how students’ attitudes change when she teaches creatively. When teachers study and try new things, kids also react to this. When they think, “Oh, this is new!” their curiosity arises. This motivates them to study. It happens especially when you conduct classes creatively. Teachers in Korea think that creative teaching makes learning enjoyable, in contrast to the instructor-led classes that are predominant in the country. This perception conflicts with East Asian culture, which dichotomizes “work/study” and “play” (Kim, 2007). In Confucianism, patience and efforts for a future goal are highly valued, while playfulness is not considered significant (Cheng, 2011). This dichotomy has been further reinforced as it has been attributed to the success of rapid industrialization and economic growth in East Asia (Kim, 2007). Nevertheless, in contrast to the belief that studying is naturally difficult and strenuous, the participants in this study believe that creative teaching includes fun and interesting elements. 4.2.2. Encouraging students’ participation Students’ active participation is regarded as the core element of creative teaching by Korean teachers. For instance, interviewees stated that they start and finish class with independent work and encourage students to find information on the Internet by themselves. They explained how this differs from a teacher-centered or conventional class styles. This is well-illustrated in Sujin’s quote. I think you can make classes more creative when you let kids participate in class, like making something by themselves, rather than just transmitting the learning contents. (…) Teaching English through just telling them “what is what” is completely different from letting them actually use English. For most participants, creative teaching involves allowing students to develop hands-on experiences and participate in active communication. Their conceptualization of creative teaching contrasts typical classes in Asian countries, in which teachers mainly talk and students remain silent, following hierarchical relationships and emphasizing virtue of humility (Kim, 2007; Kim et al., 2011). Instead, participants’ conceptualization corresponds with universal concepts of creative teaching (Huang & Lee, 2015). In this sense, Korean teachers’ notions of creative teaching as “encouraging students’ participation” is closer to universal or Western ideas than the Eastern traditional teaching styles with which they are more familiar. 4.2.3. Promoting divergent and self-directed thinking When asked to define creative teaching, the participants mentioned giving students an opportunity to examine topics from various angles and think independently. For instance, providing open-ended questions leading to diverse answers and encouraging students 6
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to think in their own ways were noted as features of creative teaching. The teachers contrasted these features with “drilling in” testtaking strategies or finding predetermined answers. Dayoung illustrated these features using an example from her Korean class. For example, writing novels or poems is like giving students a problematic situation and letting them solve it by themselves. I think this kind of class is related to creativity. Additionally, teachers in Korea understand that creative teaching encourages students to develop their own thinking through facilitating discussions among classmates and allowing them to search for information on their own. Here, the teachers highlighted that a teacher’s role should be “minimized” and limited to “proposing various problems” or “suggesting solutions in an indirect way.” However, this conceptualization of creative teaching is inconsistent with traditional teaching styles in Korea or the East. In Confucian education, contents must be memorized, not modified (Kim, 2007). This view is reinforced by Korea’s college entrance exam-oriented culture, in which rote memorization of the given answers receives a higher score (Kim, 2005). In this sense, the participants’ conceptualizations of creative teaching differ from the dominant teaching culture in Korea and Asia. 4.2.4. Creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere The participants of this study largely agreed on the importance of the class atmosphere in creative teaching in addition to teaching methods. They explained that creative teaching is closely connected to creating a casual atmosphere that fosters students’ autonomous activities. Essentially, teachers should be considerate of and permissive with their students, not prescriptive. Juhee, an ethics teacher, said that for creative teaching, she tries to allow students to learn in diverse ways in her class. I handed out worksheets I made, but instead of asking my students to take notes, I let them try studying in their own ways. They could draw pictures or create a mind map or just summarize the contents. (…) I told them to organize their notes in whatever way they wanted. Creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere entails adjusting the physical conditions of the classroom and guiding students’ school lives. Dayoung illustrated this by describing a fellow teacher she finds creative. She is very creative and sort of permissive with her students. In her classroom, all the desks are pushed forward and half the room is empty so that her students can play freely. This non-authoritarian and casual atmosphere of creative teaching differ from the formal and heavy atmosphere and prescriptive attitude of teachers in Asian culture. In the hierarchical relationship between teachers and students in Asia, teachers often give instructions to students and try to control and manage them, while students are expected to comply and respect their teachers (Kim et al., 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004). Thus, students can barely make decisions by themselves regarding their learning or raise questions about what their teachers say (Cheng, 2011; Kim, 2007). Although this casual and permissive atmosphere is not typical in Korean classrooms, the teachers regard it as necessary for students’ creativity, and thereby conceptualize creative teaching in connection with the non-authoritarian atmosphere that is more common in the West. 5. Discussion The results of this study indicate that Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity and creative teaching does not come from the unconditional acceptance of Western ideas, nor is it biased toward Korean traditional culture. While their conceptualizations are similar to or related to the Western idea in part, they have distinctive features. 5.1. Shared concepts of creativity This study has identified two concepts of creativity that are shared in both Korea and Western culture: “breaking the mold” and “applying existing things.” First, “breaking the mold” indicates that novelty and originality are the key aspects of creativity in Korea. Even though novelty and originality are more valued in the West than in the East (Zhou et al., 2013), this study revealed that teachers in Korea perceive them as important aspects of creativity. This result is consistent with the previous studies highlighting that both the East and the West regards these concepts as part of creativity (Niu & Kaufman, 2013). “Applying existing things” is also part of the common conceptualization of creativity in Korea and the West. This shared conceptualization may be due to the unique characteristics of school education that are common across cultures. It coincides with the argument that schools should cultivate “everyday” or “democratic” creativity, namely a “little creativity” for all students, not the “big creativity” for a few gifted ones (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999). These conceptualizations of creativity by teachers in Korea seem to reflect the general understanding of creativity. 5.2. Pursuing the Western idea of creative teaching This study also reveals that teachers in Korea tend to pursue Western teaching styles. This is present in the participants’ four conceptualizations of creative teaching: “improving students’ attitudes and interest,” “encouraging students’ participation,” “promoting divergent and self-directed thinking,” and “creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere.” All these themes, which are more common in the West, were praised by most participants in this study. Contrary to the conceptualizations of creative teaching, teaching and learning in Korea are often characterized by a hierarchical 7
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and teacher-centered atmosphere, rote memory, hard work, and preparation for college entrance exams. As discussed above, these characteristics are based on Confucianism and the culture of the competitive college entrance exams in Korea. For instance, the hierarchical relationship between teachers and students reflects the right order between the young and the old in Confucianism; thus, students’ conformity to teachers’ directions is taken for granted (Cheng, 2011; Kim, 2005). Furthermore, delaying immediate joy and enduring difficulties in preparing for exams demonstrates the “long-term-oriented” philosophy of Eastern society (Cheng, 2011). Despite the cultural unfamiliarity of Western teaching styles, the teachers participating in this study presented a desire to change traditional Asian teaching styles and follow Western teaching methods to enhance students’ creativity. Some expressed discomfort or anxiety regarding cultural differences. Nevertheless, they fundamentally believe that teaching styles founded on Western values should be an ideal model for creative teaching in order to overcome the current college entrance exam-oriented school culture and to foster students’ creativity. The Korean government also urges teachers to promote creative teaching through education reforms. Likewise, many Asian countries set creativity as a goal of their education reforms, criticizing traditional teaching methods. For example, educational reforms in China aim to change traditional education to improve the creativity of Chinese students and society as a whole (Wu & Albanese, 2010). Hong Kong has also integrated creativity into educational reforms and is striving to modify its traditional teaching style by changing the teachers’ traditional roles from subject teachers to facilitators of learning (Forrester & Hui, 2007). These changes are expected to help students go beyond acquiring subject knowledge and develop aptitudes and uniqueness. 5.3. Adjusting creativity to Korean school culture It seemed that the participants in this study tried to adjust the concept of creativity to Korea’s distinctive college entrance examoriented school culture. Conceptualizing creativity to be “based on subject knowledge” shows the teachers’ efforts to link creativity with test preparation and subject knowledge acquisition. The teachers stated that creativity is helpful for studying subject contents, and students’ creativity can be acknowledged only when it is grounded in or relevant to the subject contents covered in class. This seems to be a strategy that Korean teachers have adopted since it is very important that they help their students prepare for college entrance exams. In Korea, entering a prestigious college is an honor not only for the students themselves but also for their family and school. As this is believed to be guaranteed by high scores from college entrance exams, the significance of the tests is not surprising (So & Kang, 2014). This exam-oriented school culture in Korea requires teachers to prioritize helping their students master subject contents through traditional teaching skills, such as rote memory or drilling (Kim, 2007). Consequently, creativity education, which encourages students to find diverse answers and ask questions, is considered to conflict with or be irrelevant to exam preparations in Korea (Kim, 2005, 2007). In fact, some interviewees of this study have heard parents’ complaints opposing creativity education and students’ concerns regarding exams. Under these circumstances, teachers may have to choose between practicing creativity education and preparing students for college entrance exams. In short, teachers conceive of creativity in connection to their subject knowledge to reduce resistance and conflicts when accepting the Western idea of creativity. 5.4. Restricting conceptualization of creativity The participants in this study were uncomfortable with some aspects of the Western understanding of creativity, and conceptualized creativity as “moral” and “socially useful.” The teachers agree that schools should cultivate students’ creativity including qualities like “novelty” and “uniqueness,” which are all close to the Western concepts of creativity. However, the teachers found these qualities insufficient and believed that they should be restricted through certain standards. This view of creativity is consistent with previous research indicating that Asians emphasize moral aspects of creativity grounded in social norms rather than novelty or uniqueness (Mrnarević, 2011). In China, a truly creative person must have noble and great characteristics to become a role model in society (Niu & Kaufman, 2013); Chinese parents send their children to school to develop a moral perspective, not simply to acquire basic literacy (Kwang & Smith, 2004). This is also reflected in the new concept of “creativitycharacter education,” which is one of the main goals of recent Korean education reforms, juxtaposing creativity and character. This reform shows that the creativity in focus in this reform does not conflict with the emphasis on morality in Korean culture. “Creativitycharacter education” intends to cultivate competent people who can create new values as well as live together with others (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2009). This means that in Korean culture, schools are expected to educate their students to become both creative and considerate of others. In this sense, the participants in this study conceptualized creativity reflecting cultural moral concerns. 6. Conclusion This study aimed to examine how creativity, which originated in the Western context and expanded worldwide, is interpreted and accepted by teachers in Korea, and analyzes the relationship between creativity education and the Korean sociocultural background. To this end, the study investigated how Korean teachers view creativity and creative teaching. The research findings reveal that Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity does not completely differ from the Western idea, nor does it fully comply with it. Some aspects of creativity developed in the Western context are universally applicable, regardless of cultural backgrounds: these are “breaking the mold” and “applying existing things.” On the other hand, Korean teachers tend to adjust the Western idea of creativity to Korean school culture through the lens of Confucian values and an exam-oriented school culture. 8
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This study suggested interesting points in terms of the cultural and contextual aspects of creativity through interviews with ten teachers in Korea. The ten interviewees of this study might not fully represent Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity education, which might hamper the generalizability of the results of this study. In spite of this limitation, this study provides meaningful implications. First, this study concretely demonstrates how the Western concept of creativity can be transformed and re-conceptualized in different cultural contexts through presenting Korean teachers’ abundant conceptualizations of creativity that are formed in their teaching practices. Consequently, this study is expected to contribute to enriching discourses on sociocultural approaches to creativity. Second, this study reveals both commonalities and differences in sociocultural approaches to creativity between the East and West, whereas previous studies focus on differences. In particular, this study found that common conceptualizations of creativity in educaton can be partially achieved due to the unique characteristics of school education that are common across cultures. This result will contribute to understanding the convoluted sociocultural context of creativity education. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015S1A5A2A01011798). References Aljughaiman, A., & Mowrer-Reynolds, E. (2005). Teachers’ conceptions of creativity and creative students. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 39(1), 17–34. Cheng, V. M. (2011). Infusing creativity into Eastern classrooms: Evaluations from student perspectives. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 6(1), 67–87. Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Craft, A. (2003). The limits to creativity in education: Dilemmas for the educator. British Journal of Educational Studies, 51(2), 113–127. Cropley, A. J. (2001). Creativity in education & learning: A guide for teachers and educators. Psychology Press. Forrester, V., & Hui, A. (2007). Creativity in the Hong Kong classroom: What is the contextual practice? Thinking Skills and Creativity, 2(1), 30–38. Hartley, D. (2003). Education as a global positioning device: Some theoretical considerations. Comparative Education, 39(4), 439–450. Huang, X. H., & Lee, J. C. K. (2015). Disclosing Hong Kong teacher beliefs regarding creative teaching: Five different perspectives. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 15, 37–47. Jeffrey, B. (2006). Creative teaching and learning: Towards a common discourse and practice. Cambridge Journal of Education, 36(3), 399–414. Jeffrey, B., & Craft, A. (2004). Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity: Distinctions and relationships. Educational Studies, 30(1), 77–87. Kim, K. H. (2005). Learning from each other: Creativity in East Asian and American education. Creativity Research Journal, 17(4), 337–347. Kim, K. H. (2007). Exploring the interactions between Asian culture (confucianism) and creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 41(1), 28–53. Kim, K. H., Lee, H. E., Chae, K. B., Anderson, L., & Laurence, C. (2011). Creativity and confucianism among American and Korean educators. Creativity Research Journal, 23(4), 357–371. Kwang, N. A., & Smith, I. (2004). The paradox of promoting creativity in the Asian classroom: An empirical investigation. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 130(4), 307–332. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Liu, S. C., & Lin, H. S. (2014). Primary teachers’ beliefs about scientific creativity in the classroom context. International Journal of Science Education, 36(10), 1551–1567. Ministry of Education (2013). The basic plan for exam-free semester in secondary schools. Seoul: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2009). Development of human resources through harmonizing creativity and consideration: Basic plan of creativity-character education. Seoul: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Mrnarević, P. (2011). Creativity–vice or virtue?: A study of different visions of creativity. Politička Misao, 48(04), 7–25. Mullet, D. R., Willerson, A., Lamb, K. N., & Kettler, T. (2016). Examining teacher perceptions of creativity: A systematic review of the literature. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 21, 9–30. Myhill, D., & Wilson, A. (2013). Playing it safe: Teachers’ views of creativity in poetry writing. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 10, 101–111. National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) (1999). All our futures: Creativity, culture and education. London: Department for Education and Employment. Niu, W., & Kaufman, J. C. (2013). Creativity of Chinese and American cultures: A synthetic analysis. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 47(1), 77–87. Odena, O., & Welch, G. (2009). A generative model of teachers’ thinking on musical creativity. Psychology of Music, 37(4), 416–442. Reilly, R. C., Lilly, F., Bramwell, G., & Kronish, N. (2011). A synthesis of research concerning creative teachers in a Canadian context. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(3), 533–542. So, K., & Kang, J. (2014). Curriculum reform in Korea: Issues and challenges for twenty-first century learning. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 23(4), 795–803. Tanggaard, L. (2011). Stories about creative teaching and productive learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 34(2), 219–232. Turner, S. (2013). Teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions of creativity across different key stages. Research in Education, 89(1), 23–40. Vedenpää, I., & Lonka, K. (2014). Teachers’ and teacher students’ conceptions of learning and creativity. Creative Education, 5, 1821–1833. Wu, J. J., & Albanese, D. (2010). Asian creativity, chapter one: Creativity across three Chinese societies. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 5(3), 150–154. Zbainos, D., & Anastasopoulou, A. (2012). Creativity in Greek music curricula and pedagogy: An investigation of Greek music teachers’ perceptions. Creative Education, 3(1), 55–60. Zhou, J., Shen, J., Wang, X., Neber, H., & Johji, I. (2013). A cross-cultural comparison: Teachers’ conceptualizations of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 25(3), 239–247.
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Thinking Skills and Creativity journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tsc
Understanding creativity in an Asian school context: Korean teachers’ perspectives Kyunghee So, Yaeji Hu
T
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Department of Education, Seoul National University, 1, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, South Korea
A R T IC LE I N F O
ABS TRA CT
Keywords: Creativity Creative teaching Asian culture Korean education Teachers’ perspective
This paper examines how creativity, which originated in the Western context and expanded worldwide, is interpreted and accepted by teachers in Korea, and analyzes the relationship between creativity education and the Korean sociocultural background. Accordingly, the following research questions are addressed: 1) How do Korean teachers conceptualize creativity in education, and what does it mean to them, and 2) what qualities do Korean teachers associate with creative teaching and creative teachers? Data were collected in interviews with ten middle school teachers. The results indicate that Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity and creative teaching is partially aligned with Western notions, and that Western notions of creativity are also transformed and filtered by the unique Korean context regarding Confucianism and the college entrance-oriented school culture. In conclusion, the concept of creativity in education is constructed based on the sociocultural context in which creativity is actually practiced.
1. Introduction Creativity education has recently emerged as an international issue, and discourse on the subject is one of the main forces driving education reforms globally. South Korea has also emphasized creativity as a key agenda item in education policy since the 1990s. This global interest in creativity is likely to render it universally applicable to all cultures (Craft, 2003). However, understandings of the meaning of creativity education can vary according to social context (Reilly, Lilly, Bramwell, & Kronish, 2011). Although the widely accepted meaning of creativity is based on Western values and ideas, it can be transformed or limited in different cultural contexts (Cheng, 2011; Craft, 2003; Niu & Kaufman, 2013). Creativity is likely to be understood and practiced in different ways in Asian countries, as they are culturally different from the West (Kwang & Smith, 2004; Wu & Albanese, 2010). These differing cultural influences on creativity call for further exploration of the unique meaning and practice of creativity education in a specific sociocultural context. Much previous research has investigated cultural differences in creativity education between the East and West. Some studies have compared features of creativity education between the two cultures from the Western perspective (Kim, Lee, Chae, Anderson, & Laurence, 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004), while others identify an Asian concept of creativity or characteristics of creativity education that is comparable to the Western concept (Cheng, 2011; Forrester & Hui, 2007; Niu & Kaufman, 2013; Wu & Albanese, 2010). However, since these studies view the East and the West as opposing cultural extremes, they do not sufficiently reveal the diverse and complex processes of how the Western concept of creativity has been infused into Asian culture. Teachers in Korea have recently begun to implement creativity education in their classrooms according to directives from the
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Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K. So), [email protected] (Y. Hu).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.100573 Received 10 September 2018; Received in revised form 30 May 2019; Accepted 6 June 2019 Available online 07 June 2019 1871-1871/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Korean government. In the meantime, they have formed their own understanding of creativity and creative teaching. Hence, examining the ways in which these teachers understand creativity may reveal how the Western concept of creativity can be conceptualized in East Asian cultures. Therefore, this study examines how creativity, which originated in the Western context and expanded worldwide, is interpreted and accepted by teachers in Korea, and analyzes the relationship between creativity education and the Korean sociocultural background. Accordingly, the following research questions are addressed. 1) How do Korean teachers conceptualize creativity in education, and what does it mean to them? 2) What qualities do Korean teachers associate with creative teaching and creative teachers? 2. Theoretical background 2.1. Sociocultural approach to creativity in education As a result of globalization, many countries are coming to share a common language for articulating educational perspectives, problems, and solutions through international discourses (Hartley, 2003). In line with this trend, education reforms aimed at fostering creativity prevail globally; cultivating creativity has become a dominant discourse for education reforms in many countries. As a result, creativity can be perceived as a universally applicable concept, regardless of diverse social and cultural backgrounds (Craft, 2003). However, dominant discourses on creativity have been criticized as culturally biased, as they have been developed based on Western values (Jeffrey, 2006). Values and practices of creativity differ among cultures (Reilly et al., 2011). With this in mind, previous studies on creativity have focused on identifying different perspectives on creativity in Eastern and Western cultures. One frequently discussed difference between the East and West is individualism versus collectivism. In Eastern cultures, unlike the West where uniqueness and individual freedom are highly valued, one’s sacrifice for the community is taken for granted (Craft, 2003). This notion of collectivism is derived from Confucianism, which prioritizes social harmony and group interest over the interest of each individual (Mrnarević, 2011). Thus, in the West, one’s internal characteristics and novelty are considered a form of creativity, while in the East, the social and moral aspects of creativity gain more attention (Reilly et al., 2011; Zhou, Shen, Wang, Neber, & Johji, 2013). The hierarchy of human relationships is also a distinctive feature of Eastern culture (Cheng, 2011). One of the five moral disciplines of human relationships in Confucianism emphasizes that hierarchical relationships between the young and the old are necessary to maintain a proper society. Consequently, unlike in the West where equal rights and treatment between individuals is valued, in the East, showing respect to elders is considered desirable and natural (Kim, 2007). This culturally different perspective on authority and hierarchical order is also reflected in the understanding of creativity. In the West, inconformity or denying the norm is considered creative, whereas in the East, it is viewed as a deviation that threatens the social order (Zhou et al., 2013). Moreover, a “long-term orientation” has been cited as an interesting feature of Eastern culture. An important virtue taught by Confucius, this orientation emphasizes preparation for long-term goals over immediate happiness (Cheng, 2011). This may serve as an explanation of the patience and endurance exhibited by Asian students, who are used to delaying their current happiness for future goals such as entering selective universities. In general, such students are eager to acquire subject knowledge that will help them prepare for college entrance exams rather than enjoying the pleasure of creative learning activities (Cheng, 2011). In short, Eastern creativity as discussed in previous research is grounded in the Confucian tradition. Accordingly, in Asian schools, the focus tends to be more on the social and moral aspects of creativity, and on teaching creativity in connection with social norms, exam preparation, and school subjects. 2.2. Teachers’ perceptions of creativity in education Understanding how teachers perceive creativity and creative teaching is significant in creativity education because creative teaching relies on teachers’ perception and understanding of creativity and ability to support creativity education (Cropley, 2001; Jeffrey & Craft, 2004). Furthermore, as teachers’ perceptions of creativity are formed in the concrete context of schools, reflecting the school’s sociocultural background, studying such perceptions may illuminate the effect of contextual features on understanding creativity education (Liu & Lin, 2014; Mullet, Willerson, Lamb, & Kettler, 2016). Previous studies have revealed that although some teachers consider creativity an innate talent possessed by a few gifted children (Myhill & Wilson, 2013; Zbainos & Anastasopoulou, 2012), the majority of teachers tend to regard creativity as an ability that can be learned and developed (Odena & Welch, 2009; Turner, 2013; Vedenpää & Lonka, 2014). In particular, they understand creativity as a cognitive skill. Previous research indicates that most teachers relate creativity to the following skills: problem-solving, divergent thinking, novel and unique thinking, applying and inventing, artistic expression, and imaginative power (Aljughaiman & MowrerReynolds, 2005; Odena & Welch, 2009). Teachers also view creativity as an ability related to particular school subjects or fields. For instance, they believe creativity to be more pertinent to art and science than to other subjects or fields (Tanggaard, 2011). These teachers’ perceptions diverge from the argument that creativity should be developed through a cross-curricular approach (Craft, 2003; National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education [NACCCE], 1999). In addition, these perceptions differ based on cultures. For example, contrary to general perceptions, teachers in China regard literature to be unrelated to creativity (Zhou et al., 2013); this may be due to the fact that literature is typically taught through rote memorization in Chinese classrooms. In addition, teachers associate creativity with certain attitudes or personal traits. For example, some teachers describe creative 2
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traits as stubborn, impulsive, and not listening to others’ opinions (Kim et al., 2011; Mullet et al., 2016). However, teachers’ evaluations of such attitudes differ by culture; for example, Korean and Chinese teachers normally consider such attitudes bad behavior, whereas teachers in North America do not (Kim et al., 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004). Likewise, for most teachers, creativity is an ability or attitude the majority of students can cultivate through education. However, the meaning of these abilities and attitudes and their evaluations differ according to teachers’ cultures. Meanwhile, teachers are likely to perceive creative teaching as involving diverse student-centered activities (Huang & Lee, 2015). They may think that creative teaching entails encouraging students’ imaginations, diverse approaches, and out-of-the-box thinking by using ingenious and interesting methods to transmit learning contents (Turner, 2013). In particular, the following activities tend to be regarded as creative teaching: debating, poster-making, role-playing, visual aids, writing news reports, flashcard games, pretending to be in a different place, and cooking (Turner, 2013). In some cultural contexts, teachers’ creative teaching skills may be regarded as creative teaching rather than promoting students’ creativity (Huang & Lee, 2015). 3. Methods 3.1. The Korean context and participants The Korean government has consistently emphasized the development of creativity as part of key education reforms since the 1990s. To accomplish this, it has recently institutionalized a new system called the “Exam-free Semester”—one semester in the threeyear middle school period in which exams do not occur—which has been implemented in all middle schools since 2016. The Examfree Semester is part of the transformation of Korean education intended to help students develop their dreams and talents, as it has been found that students currently exhibit low levels of interest, confidence, and happiness due to excessive competition and examoriented education, even though Korean students demonstrate high academic achievement. Thus, the Exam-free Semester aims to relieve students of the burden of exams so that they can identify their dreams and talents, and to vitalize various hands-on programs in schools such as exploring future careers (Ministry of Education, 2013). To achieve these aims, schools and teachers are required to develop flexible curricula and change the traditional class format into one based on student participation. This is a case study of teachers in Korea. The participants of the study were ten middle school teachers with experience in creative teaching in the Exam-free Semester. As middle school teachers gain experience in creative teaching through implementing the Examfree Semester, they were considered appropriate participants for this study, which intended to investigate teachers’ perspectives of creativity and creative teaching. Of the teachers recommended by schools, those who agreed with the purposes and methods of the study were selected to participate. Among the 10 participants, 7 had less than 5 years of teaching experience and 3 had 10 to 20 years of experience. Their ages varied from late-twenties to mid-forties; 9 of them were female. Three of the teachers teach Korean, two teach science, and each of the remaining five teachers teaches math, English, ethics, physical education, and music, respectively. To preserve anonymity, pseudonyms are used to refer to the participants in the following sections. 3.2. Data collection Before meeting the teachers, the researchers designed an interview protocol that concerned several main themes such as the conceptualization of creativity, the value of creativity in school education, and characteristics of creative teaching and creative teachers. Questions were developed around these themes, which provided the framework for the interview. The interviews began by asking the teachers to discuss their casual thoughts about creativity. The teachers were asked open-ended questions such as “What comes to mind when you think of creativity?” Furthermore, they were asked not to limit their answers to an educational context. Next, they were requested to explain the meaning or necessity of creativity education. We asked questions such as “Do you believe creativity is needed in education?” and “What do you think is the meaning of teaching creativity in schools?” Moreover, we asked them about their understanding of the meaning of creative teaching and the qualities of creative teachers, asking them to provide answers based on their own or their fellow teachers’ experiences. Each participant was interviewed either once or twice for approximately 30 min to 2 h at a time. As the interviews were usually conducted in an empty classroom or school library after school, the overall atmosphere was relatively quiet and calm. All interviews were audio-recorded with the official consent of the participants, following appropriate research ethics, and were transcribed for data analysis. 3.3. Data analysis The collected data were inductively analyzed through a multi-stage coding strategy (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). In the initial stage, utilizing the open coding strategy, each researcher read through the transcripts, highlighting phrases and clauses related to creativity or creative teaching and taking notes on brief summaries and keywords of each highlighted element. We then grouped repeatedlyemerging contents and keywords based on similarities and developed codes to represent each category. Axial coding was utilized in the second round; we performed constant comparative analysis and analyzed the inter-relationships of codes. Finally, we generated over-arching themes that encompass the related codes. As a result, the notion of creativity was categorized into five themes and creative teaching was categorized into four themes. The themes, codes, and interview examples are shown in Tables 1 and 2. In order to secure trustworthiness, throughout the initial stage of coding, the researchers regularly met to compare the codes they developed and to reach an agreement on the definition of each code. In addition, during the entire coding process, we consistently 3
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Table 1 Conceptualizing creativity: Themes and examples of codes and interviews. Themes
Examples of codes
Examples of interviews
Breaking the mold
Novelty Uniqueness Different from others or existing things Living with others Related to character-building education Having an open mind regarding differences Attitudes for mutual respect Qualification of competent person in society Social skills Ability to solve global problems Impetus for development of science and technology Helpful in memorizing and understanding subject contents Brilliant thinking related to subject knowledge Combining existing things Utilizing things Applying things to one’s situation
“I think that creativity means having a special or different idea from others in any field.” (Teacher Sujin)
Something moral
Something socially useful
Based on subject knowledge
Applying existing things
“It is like learning how to accept different ways of thinking.” (Teacher Haeun)
“Without creativity, we might have lived like we did in primitive times.” (Teacher Jin)
“It (creativity) should be drawn from the concepts and knowledge covered in class.” (Teacher Sera) “…creativity is rather related to how to utilize these things appropriately.” (Teacher Sangyoon)
Table 2 Conceptualizing creative teaching: Themes and examples of codes and interviews. Themes
Examples of codes
Examples of interviews
Improving students’ attitudes and interest
Provoking students’ interest and curiosity Motivating students to study Students’ active attitudes in class Diverse hands-on activities
“When they think ‘Oh, this is new!’ their curiosity arises. This motivates them to study.” (Teacher Sujin)
Encouraging students’ participation
Promoting divergent and selfdirected thinking
Creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere
Minimizing teachers’ intervention Solving problems by oneself Expanding opportunities for communicating with classmates Promoting divergent thinking Asking open-ended questions Allowing students to ask questions freely Creating a casual atmosphere Allowing students to engage in diverse ways of learning Caring about students
“I think you can make classes more creative when you let kids participate, like making something by themselves rather than just transmitting the learning contents.” (Teacher Sujin) “… giving students a problematic situation and letting them solve it by themselves. I think this kind of class is related to creativity.” (Teacher Dayoung)
“I told them to organize their notes in whatever way they want.” (Teacher Juhee)
crosschecked the codes and themes produced by each researcher. When the codes differed among researchers, raw data were reexamined and the appropriateness of the categories was discussed until a consensus was reached. In doing so, the researchers adjusted categories and strived to find better themes that would effectively represent the key ideas of each category, thereby improving the validity of the analysis. Furthermore, through a member-checking process (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), we validated the interpretations of data and clarification was obtained from the participants where necessary. After confirming the categories and themes, we explored the sociocultural characteristics that were related to each category and theme. Ultimately, we intended to interpret the social, cultural, and educational contexts that affect Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity education. The first author of this study has participated extensively in the development of the Korean national curriculum and has been teaching at universities for over 20 years. The second author has been conducting research at a university for over 5 years. In addition, we have been conducting research projects that identify the characteristics of creativity in the Korean context for the past 2 years. Therefore, our data interpretation not only reflects previous research on creativity, but also, in part, the researchers’ personal knowledge and experience about the educational atmosphere and culture of Korea. 4. Results 4.1. Conceptualization of creativity 4.1.1. Breaking the mold Teachers who participated in this study most frequently mentioned “breaking the mold” and “novelty” when conceptualizing 4
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creativity. They consider creativity as different from existing things or general ways of thinking; they stated that it contrasts with the “conventional,” the “universal,” and an organized “system or frame.” For instance, Sujin, an English teacher, defined creativity as follows. I think that creativity means having a special or different idea from others in any field. It also looks creative when you use teaching methods that are different from those used by everyone else. As in Western countries, creativity is perceived as something new, novel, and unique in Korea (Niu & Kaufman, 2013). Undoubtedly, cultural differences do exist; for example, Western culture gives more weight to novelty and uniqueness than Eastern culture (Mrnarević, 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004; Zhou et al., 2013). Thus, “breaking the mold,” which reflects teachers’ conceptualization of creativity, may be a universal understanding. 4.1.2. Something moral Korean teachers do not only associate creativity with acting or thinking in a novel and unique way. In their opinion, it should also include an attitude that is helpful for harmonizing and living with others, and accordingly, should be taught in connection with “character-building education.” For example, Haeun, who teaches Korean, said that students realize “you are not the only one in this world” by learning creativity. She elaborated as follows. I believe it is sort of a first step to learn creativity to realize what they have not thought of through talking with their friends. (…) It is like learning how to accept different ways of thinking. As seen above, Korean teachers seem to connect creativity with teaching desirable attitudes in relationships. This view corresponds with that of previous research, which shows that when evaluating a creative product, novelty and uniqueness receive more attention in the West, while in the East, moral aspects are considered more important (Reilly et al., 2011; Zhou et al., 2013). This Eastern cultural viewpoint is also reflected in the Confucian ideal of a creative person, who has an open mind and high standards of morality, or in the fact that the primary purpose of schooling in both Korea and China is educating students to be moral people (Kwang & Smith, 2004; Niu & Kaufman, 2013). Likewise, Korean teachers’ conceptualization of creativity as “something moral” appears to rest on these Eastern cultural values. 4.1.3. Something socially useful Korean teachers’ conceptualization of creativity tends to center on its usefulness in society; they believe that creativity is an essential skill for students’ future careers. As society requires consistent change and innovation and youth unemployment emerges as a serious social problem, creativity is considered a primary requisite for students to become competent and competitive workers in the future. In this sense, Minsu, a PE teacher, explained creativity in school education. Considering that this society keeps seeking novelty, students should start learning creativity naturally in schools so that later on, they can become competent people in society. Meanwhile, creativity is also regarded as useful for society as a whole. For Jin, a math teacher, creativity contributes to social progress and solving social problems. Without creativity, we might have lived like we did in primitive times. (…) I believe we need some kind of creative thinking skills to solve problems like environmental pollution and global warming. These interviews illustrate that for teachers in Korea, creativity is useful both for individuals and the society to which they belong. This is consistent with the results of previous studies that have found that Eastern culture tends to emphasize the social aspects of creative people, such as their social influence, status, and contribution to society, rather than their personal and internal aspects, such as their sense of humor or aesthetic insights (Niu & Kaufman, 2013; Zhou et al., 2013). This also coincides with previous research that shows that Eastern culture focuses on the usefulness of creative products rather than how interesting or novel they are (Zhou et al., 2013). Here, Korean teachers’ conceptualization of creativity as “something socially useful” reflects the interest in the practical use of creativity in the Eastern society. 4.1.4. Based on subject knowledge The participants of this study view creativity as being related to school subjects. They think that it is undesirable to link creativity only with uniqueness. Sera, a music teacher, expressed her discomfort with such perspectives and mentioned that authentic creativity is the ability to use subject knowledge properly. It feels like it is regarded to be creative even when kids say something preposterous or ridiculous. (…) Creativity is more than just being unusual. It should be drawn from the concepts and knowledge covered in class. Moreover, most participants agreed that creativity is helpful in studying subject knowledge. Jin explained how fostering creativity in her class helped enhance her students’ memorization abilities and their application of the learning contents. I think kids do better in the next class when they are allowed to think and talk about the contents among themselves, rather than when teachers tell them everything. In this way, they seem to understand the concepts better and more in depth. This understanding of creativity indicates that teachers in Korea have made a connection between creativity and school subjects. 5
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This echoes previous studies showing that students in Hong Kong perceive creativity as an effective means of understanding science content knowledge (Cheng, 2011). However, considering that this interview dealt with the perspectives of middle school teachers, their conceptualization of creativity can be partly attributed to the subject-oriented culture of secondary schools in Korea, in which teachers typically teach only one or two subjects. Teachers thus often aim to cultivate creativity in connection with the subjects they teach. Furthermore, as the importance of college entrance exams is overemphasized in Korea, teachers who participated in this study need to justify to parents that fostering creativity would not hinder students from studying school subjects. For these reasons, it seems that their conceptualization of creativity is closely related to the subjects they teach. 4.1.5. Applying existing things For Korean teachers, creativity does not only mean “making something out of nothing” or showing great originality. They believe that it also indicates applying what one has learned in a certain situation. Although creativity is regarded to be related to something new, teachers also consider creativity to be finding connections or combinations between existing things. Sangyoon, a science teacher, views creativity as follows. I thought creativity was making something that had never existed before, but there are already too many things in this world. Thus, creativity is rather related to how to utilize these things appropriately. I want students to develop that type of creativity. As presented above, the teachers perceive the contextual application, minor variation, and new connections of existing things as a form of “newness.” These responses are in line with previous studies indicating that in the East or in highly hierarchical societies, “adaptive creativity”—which is related to devising an effective means for a given purpose—is more common than “innovative creativity”—which is pertinent to risk-taking and radical change (Cheng, 2011). However, regardless of cultural differences between the East and West, most teachers tend to conceptualize creativity as a new application of existing things (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999). This is due to the universal characteristic of school education that values all students’ learning processes through applying existing things to different situations rather than creating something new. This conceptualization of creativity as “applying existing things” is not an exclusive feature of the East; it is a common point of the West as well due to the school context. 4.2. Conceptualization of creative teaching 4.2.1. Improving students’ attitudes and interest For teachers in Korea, creative teaching includes improving students’ attitudes and interest. While traditional teaching methods are considered boring and difficult for students, making them “sleepy” or “lethargic” in classes, creative teaching is viewed as joyful, playful, and able to “awaken students” and instill curiosity in them during classes. Sujin tried to articulate how students’ attitudes change when she teaches creatively. When teachers study and try new things, kids also react to this. When they think, “Oh, this is new!” their curiosity arises. This motivates them to study. It happens especially when you conduct classes creatively. Teachers in Korea think that creative teaching makes learning enjoyable, in contrast to the instructor-led classes that are predominant in the country. This perception conflicts with East Asian culture, which dichotomizes “work/study” and “play” (Kim, 2007). In Confucianism, patience and efforts for a future goal are highly valued, while playfulness is not considered significant (Cheng, 2011). This dichotomy has been further reinforced as it has been attributed to the success of rapid industrialization and economic growth in East Asia (Kim, 2007). Nevertheless, in contrast to the belief that studying is naturally difficult and strenuous, the participants in this study believe that creative teaching includes fun and interesting elements. 4.2.2. Encouraging students’ participation Students’ active participation is regarded as the core element of creative teaching by Korean teachers. For instance, interviewees stated that they start and finish class with independent work and encourage students to find information on the Internet by themselves. They explained how this differs from a teacher-centered or conventional class styles. This is well-illustrated in Sujin’s quote. I think you can make classes more creative when you let kids participate in class, like making something by themselves, rather than just transmitting the learning contents. (…) Teaching English through just telling them “what is what” is completely different from letting them actually use English. For most participants, creative teaching involves allowing students to develop hands-on experiences and participate in active communication. Their conceptualization of creative teaching contrasts typical classes in Asian countries, in which teachers mainly talk and students remain silent, following hierarchical relationships and emphasizing virtue of humility (Kim, 2007; Kim et al., 2011). Instead, participants’ conceptualization corresponds with universal concepts of creative teaching (Huang & Lee, 2015). In this sense, Korean teachers’ notions of creative teaching as “encouraging students’ participation” is closer to universal or Western ideas than the Eastern traditional teaching styles with which they are more familiar. 4.2.3. Promoting divergent and self-directed thinking When asked to define creative teaching, the participants mentioned giving students an opportunity to examine topics from various angles and think independently. For instance, providing open-ended questions leading to diverse answers and encouraging students 6
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to think in their own ways were noted as features of creative teaching. The teachers contrasted these features with “drilling in” testtaking strategies or finding predetermined answers. Dayoung illustrated these features using an example from her Korean class. For example, writing novels or poems is like giving students a problematic situation and letting them solve it by themselves. I think this kind of class is related to creativity. Additionally, teachers in Korea understand that creative teaching encourages students to develop their own thinking through facilitating discussions among classmates and allowing them to search for information on their own. Here, the teachers highlighted that a teacher’s role should be “minimized” and limited to “proposing various problems” or “suggesting solutions in an indirect way.” However, this conceptualization of creative teaching is inconsistent with traditional teaching styles in Korea or the East. In Confucian education, contents must be memorized, not modified (Kim, 2007). This view is reinforced by Korea’s college entrance exam-oriented culture, in which rote memorization of the given answers receives a higher score (Kim, 2005). In this sense, the participants’ conceptualizations of creative teaching differ from the dominant teaching culture in Korea and Asia. 4.2.4. Creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere The participants of this study largely agreed on the importance of the class atmosphere in creative teaching in addition to teaching methods. They explained that creative teaching is closely connected to creating a casual atmosphere that fosters students’ autonomous activities. Essentially, teachers should be considerate of and permissive with their students, not prescriptive. Juhee, an ethics teacher, said that for creative teaching, she tries to allow students to learn in diverse ways in her class. I handed out worksheets I made, but instead of asking my students to take notes, I let them try studying in their own ways. They could draw pictures or create a mind map or just summarize the contents. (…) I told them to organize their notes in whatever way they wanted. Creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere entails adjusting the physical conditions of the classroom and guiding students’ school lives. Dayoung illustrated this by describing a fellow teacher she finds creative. She is very creative and sort of permissive with her students. In her classroom, all the desks are pushed forward and half the room is empty so that her students can play freely. This non-authoritarian and casual atmosphere of creative teaching differ from the formal and heavy atmosphere and prescriptive attitude of teachers in Asian culture. In the hierarchical relationship between teachers and students in Asia, teachers often give instructions to students and try to control and manage them, while students are expected to comply and respect their teachers (Kim et al., 2011; Kwang & Smith, 2004). Thus, students can barely make decisions by themselves regarding their learning or raise questions about what their teachers say (Cheng, 2011; Kim, 2007). Although this casual and permissive atmosphere is not typical in Korean classrooms, the teachers regard it as necessary for students’ creativity, and thereby conceptualize creative teaching in connection with the non-authoritarian atmosphere that is more common in the West. 5. Discussion The results of this study indicate that Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity and creative teaching does not come from the unconditional acceptance of Western ideas, nor is it biased toward Korean traditional culture. While their conceptualizations are similar to or related to the Western idea in part, they have distinctive features. 5.1. Shared concepts of creativity This study has identified two concepts of creativity that are shared in both Korea and Western culture: “breaking the mold” and “applying existing things.” First, “breaking the mold” indicates that novelty and originality are the key aspects of creativity in Korea. Even though novelty and originality are more valued in the West than in the East (Zhou et al., 2013), this study revealed that teachers in Korea perceive them as important aspects of creativity. This result is consistent with the previous studies highlighting that both the East and the West regards these concepts as part of creativity (Niu & Kaufman, 2013). “Applying existing things” is also part of the common conceptualization of creativity in Korea and the West. This shared conceptualization may be due to the unique characteristics of school education that are common across cultures. It coincides with the argument that schools should cultivate “everyday” or “democratic” creativity, namely a “little creativity” for all students, not the “big creativity” for a few gifted ones (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999). These conceptualizations of creativity by teachers in Korea seem to reflect the general understanding of creativity. 5.2. Pursuing the Western idea of creative teaching This study also reveals that teachers in Korea tend to pursue Western teaching styles. This is present in the participants’ four conceptualizations of creative teaching: “improving students’ attitudes and interest,” “encouraging students’ participation,” “promoting divergent and self-directed thinking,” and “creating a non-authoritarian atmosphere.” All these themes, which are more common in the West, were praised by most participants in this study. Contrary to the conceptualizations of creative teaching, teaching and learning in Korea are often characterized by a hierarchical 7
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and teacher-centered atmosphere, rote memory, hard work, and preparation for college entrance exams. As discussed above, these characteristics are based on Confucianism and the culture of the competitive college entrance exams in Korea. For instance, the hierarchical relationship between teachers and students reflects the right order between the young and the old in Confucianism; thus, students’ conformity to teachers’ directions is taken for granted (Cheng, 2011; Kim, 2005). Furthermore, delaying immediate joy and enduring difficulties in preparing for exams demonstrates the “long-term-oriented” philosophy of Eastern society (Cheng, 2011). Despite the cultural unfamiliarity of Western teaching styles, the teachers participating in this study presented a desire to change traditional Asian teaching styles and follow Western teaching methods to enhance students’ creativity. Some expressed discomfort or anxiety regarding cultural differences. Nevertheless, they fundamentally believe that teaching styles founded on Western values should be an ideal model for creative teaching in order to overcome the current college entrance exam-oriented school culture and to foster students’ creativity. The Korean government also urges teachers to promote creative teaching through education reforms. Likewise, many Asian countries set creativity as a goal of their education reforms, criticizing traditional teaching methods. For example, educational reforms in China aim to change traditional education to improve the creativity of Chinese students and society as a whole (Wu & Albanese, 2010). Hong Kong has also integrated creativity into educational reforms and is striving to modify its traditional teaching style by changing the teachers’ traditional roles from subject teachers to facilitators of learning (Forrester & Hui, 2007). These changes are expected to help students go beyond acquiring subject knowledge and develop aptitudes and uniqueness. 5.3. Adjusting creativity to Korean school culture It seemed that the participants in this study tried to adjust the concept of creativity to Korea’s distinctive college entrance examoriented school culture. Conceptualizing creativity to be “based on subject knowledge” shows the teachers’ efforts to link creativity with test preparation and subject knowledge acquisition. The teachers stated that creativity is helpful for studying subject contents, and students’ creativity can be acknowledged only when it is grounded in or relevant to the subject contents covered in class. This seems to be a strategy that Korean teachers have adopted since it is very important that they help their students prepare for college entrance exams. In Korea, entering a prestigious college is an honor not only for the students themselves but also for their family and school. As this is believed to be guaranteed by high scores from college entrance exams, the significance of the tests is not surprising (So & Kang, 2014). This exam-oriented school culture in Korea requires teachers to prioritize helping their students master subject contents through traditional teaching skills, such as rote memory or drilling (Kim, 2007). Consequently, creativity education, which encourages students to find diverse answers and ask questions, is considered to conflict with or be irrelevant to exam preparations in Korea (Kim, 2005, 2007). In fact, some interviewees of this study have heard parents’ complaints opposing creativity education and students’ concerns regarding exams. Under these circumstances, teachers may have to choose between practicing creativity education and preparing students for college entrance exams. In short, teachers conceive of creativity in connection to their subject knowledge to reduce resistance and conflicts when accepting the Western idea of creativity. 5.4. Restricting conceptualization of creativity The participants in this study were uncomfortable with some aspects of the Western understanding of creativity, and conceptualized creativity as “moral” and “socially useful.” The teachers agree that schools should cultivate students’ creativity including qualities like “novelty” and “uniqueness,” which are all close to the Western concepts of creativity. However, the teachers found these qualities insufficient and believed that they should be restricted through certain standards. This view of creativity is consistent with previous research indicating that Asians emphasize moral aspects of creativity grounded in social norms rather than novelty or uniqueness (Mrnarević, 2011). In China, a truly creative person must have noble and great characteristics to become a role model in society (Niu & Kaufman, 2013); Chinese parents send their children to school to develop a moral perspective, not simply to acquire basic literacy (Kwang & Smith, 2004). This is also reflected in the new concept of “creativitycharacter education,” which is one of the main goals of recent Korean education reforms, juxtaposing creativity and character. This reform shows that the creativity in focus in this reform does not conflict with the emphasis on morality in Korean culture. “Creativitycharacter education” intends to cultivate competent people who can create new values as well as live together with others (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2009). This means that in Korean culture, schools are expected to educate their students to become both creative and considerate of others. In this sense, the participants in this study conceptualized creativity reflecting cultural moral concerns. 6. Conclusion This study aimed to examine how creativity, which originated in the Western context and expanded worldwide, is interpreted and accepted by teachers in Korea, and analyzes the relationship between creativity education and the Korean sociocultural background. To this end, the study investigated how Korean teachers view creativity and creative teaching. The research findings reveal that Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity does not completely differ from the Western idea, nor does it fully comply with it. Some aspects of creativity developed in the Western context are universally applicable, regardless of cultural backgrounds: these are “breaking the mold” and “applying existing things.” On the other hand, Korean teachers tend to adjust the Western idea of creativity to Korean school culture through the lens of Confucian values and an exam-oriented school culture. 8
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This study suggested interesting points in terms of the cultural and contextual aspects of creativity through interviews with ten teachers in Korea. The ten interviewees of this study might not fully represent Korean teachers’ understanding of creativity education, which might hamper the generalizability of the results of this study. In spite of this limitation, this study provides meaningful implications. First, this study concretely demonstrates how the Western concept of creativity can be transformed and re-conceptualized in different cultural contexts through presenting Korean teachers’ abundant conceptualizations of creativity that are formed in their teaching practices. Consequently, this study is expected to contribute to enriching discourses on sociocultural approaches to creativity. Second, this study reveals both commonalities and differences in sociocultural approaches to creativity between the East and West, whereas previous studies focus on differences. 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