Creativity across-culture: Educators’ perceptions and views

Abstract

Creativity has been discussed in the literature as if it is culture-free. In recent years, creativity researchers have begun to pay more attention to this issue and produced empirical evidence in support of the contention of cultural differences. This paper presents the findings of two such studies. The first investigates the validity of a East-West dichotomy of creativity as propounded by Howard Gardner, with reference to his “Chinese Key”; the second study compares the creativity fostering behaviour of teachers of different ethnicity; and, the third study investigatesthe views of British and Singaporean educators. The findings are discussed for their implication for classroom practices and, in a wider context, the effort of nations to promote creativity in the young.