Options
Creativity across-culture: Educators’ perceptions and views
Citation
Soh, K. C. (1999). Creativity across-culture: Educators’ perceptions and views. In S. P. Loo (Ed.), Proceeds of the MERA-ERA Joint conference 1999: Educational Challenges in the New Millennium (pp. 765-771). Malacca, Malaysia.
Author
Soh, Kay Cheng
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.
Date Issued
December 1999
Description
This paper was published in the 1999 Proceedings of the MERA-ERA Joint Conference held at Malacca, Malaysia from 1-3 December 1999