Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Creative leadership: a new category or more of the same?

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 43; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00220620.2011.586493

1478-7431

Pat Thomson,

Creativity in Education and Neuroscience

Abstract New categories of leadership are continually being invented. Because the ways we think are productive of the ways in which we act, it is important to hold these rhetorical innovations to account. This paper focuses on the latest of these categories – creative leadership. Mobilising a Foucauldian notion of 'discourse' I deconstruct the notion of creative leadership as it has recently been represented in five published texts. I suggest that the interpretation on offer has a determinist view of the future, ignores the history of debates about creativity, offers creativity as a generic skill and underestimates what it is that teachers and leaders might need to do in order to work creatively. I show that the notion of creative leadership on offer is strongly connected with that of creative learning, and put the 'recipe' offered by one set of texts into conversation with a body of empirical evidence about what is happening in schools that aim to promote creative learning. I argue that what is evident from the dialogue between the texts and the empirical studies is that it is pedagogical leadership that is absent but is actually most required, embedded in leadership/management principles and practices that promote social justice. Keywords: leadershipdeconstructioncreativity Notes 1See for example, Jane Henry, Creative Management and Development (London: Sage, 2006); Chris Bilton, Management and Creativity. From Creative Industries to Creative Management (London: Continuum, 2007). 2Pat Thomson, Christine Hall, and Ken Jones, Creative School Change: Final Report (London: Culture, Creativity and Education, 2010). Also available on http://www.artsandcreativityresearch.org.uk. 3See http://www.creative-partnerships.com/about/schools-of-creativity. 4Michel Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1972/1995, ed. and trans. R. Sheridan); see also 'Politics and The Study of Discourse', in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 53–72. 5See for example, Nancy Hartsock, 'Foucault on Power: A Theory for Women?', in Feminism/Postmodernism, ed. Linda Nicholson (London: Routledge, 1990), 157–75; Paul Patton, 'Foucault's Subject of Power', Political Theory Newsletter 6, no. 1 (1994): 60–71; Jana Sawicki, 'Feminism, Foucault, and the "Subjects" of Power and Freedom', in Feminist Interpretations of Foucault, ed. Susan Hekman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 159–78; David Hoy, 'Foucault and Critical Theory', in The Later Foucault, ed. Jeremy Moss (London: Sage, 1998), 18–32. 6See for example, Pat Thomson and Sally Wellard, Get a Grip on Research: Critical and Postcritical Approaches (Geelong: Deakin University Press, 1999). 7Morwenna Griffiths, Educational Research for Social Justice: Fairly Different (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1998). 8Morwenna Griffiths, Educational Research for Social Justice. Getting Off the Fence (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2003). 11Bill Lucas, Power up your Mind. Learn Faster, Work Smarter (London: Nicolas Brealey Publishing, 2001), 38, cited in Louise Stoll and Julie Timperley, 'Creative Leadership Teams. Capacity Building and Succession Planning', Management in Education 23, no. 1 (2009): 12–18. 9Sir Ken Robinson chaired the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCE) which produced a widely cited report, All Our Futures (Sudbury: HMSO, 1999). 10Ibid., 29. 12Harris cites John West-Burnham, 'Creative Leadership' (paper presented at the International Symposium on the Art of Creative Leadership, Bali, February 2008). 13See for example, Anna Craft, 'Early Years Education in England and Little c Creativity: The Third Wave?', Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving 13, no. 1 (2003): 49–58. 14Debates about creativity have a long history, see Elena Belfiore and Oliver Bennett, The Social Impact of The Arts: An Intellectual History (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), and cover multiple disciplinary perspectives and epistemological traditions, for example, see Tudor Rickards, Mark Runco, and Susan Moger, eds., The Routledge Companion to Creativity (New York: Routledge, 2009). 15Shanjukta Banaji and Andrew Burn, Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature (London: Creative Partnerships, Arts Council England, 2007). 16For example, see Kieran Egan, Children's Minds, Talking Rabbits and Clockwork Oranges (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999); Julian Sefton Green and Rebecca Sinker, eds., Evaluating Creativity: Making and Learning by Young People (London: Routledge, 2000); Anna Craft, Bob Jeffrey, and Mike Leibling, Creativity in Education (London: Continuum, 2001); Alan Cropley, Creativity in Education and Learning (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001); Avril Loveless, Literature Review in Creativity, New Technologies and Learning (Bristol: NESTA Futurelab, 2002). 17This is a position consistently critiqued by futurists, see for example, Mattias Hojer and Lars-Goran Mattson, 'Determinism and Back-Casting in Future Studies', Futures 32, no. 7 (2000): 613–34. 18See Michael Peters, Simon Marginson, and Peter Murphy, Creativity and the Global Knowledge Economy (New York: Peter Lang, 2008). 19Nikolas Rose, Governing the Soul. The Shaping of the Private Self (Free Association Books: London, 1999). 20There is ongoing debate and evidence about this phenomenon, see for example, Judyth Sachs, 'Teachers' Professional Identity: Competing Discourses, Competing Outcomes', Journal of Education Policy 16, no. 2 (2001): 149–61; Ian Stronach, Brian Corbon, Olwen McNamara, Sheila Stark, and Tony Warne, 'Towards an Uncertain Politics of Professionalism: Teacher and Nurse Identities in Flux', Journal of Education Policy 17, no. 1 (2002): 109–38; Susan Lasky, 'A Sociocultural Approach to Understanding Teacher Identity, Agency and Professional Vulnerability in a Context of Secondary School Reform', Teaching and Teacher Education 21, no. 8 (2005): 899–916. 21There is a history of trenchant critique of generic skills, see for example, Terry Hyland and Steve Johnson, 'Of Cabbages and Key Skills: Exploding the Mythology of Transferable Skills in Post-School-Education', Journal of Further and Higher Education 22, no. 2 (1998): 163–72; Johnathan Payne, 'The Unbearable Lightness of Skills: The Changing Meaning of Skill in UK Policy Discourses and Some Implications for Education and Training', Journal of Education Policy 15, no. 3 (2000): 353–69. 22Frank Coffield, 'A Tale of Three Little Pigs: Building the Learning Society with Straw', Evaluation & Research in Education 12, no. 1 (1998): 44–58. 23Pat Thomson and Ethel Sanders, 'Creativity and Whole School Change: An Investigation of English Headteachers' Practices', Journal of Educational Change 11, no. 1 (2010): 63–83. 24Louise Stoll and Julie Timperley, 'Creative Leadership: A Challenge of Our Times', School Leadership & Management 29, no. 1 (2009): 65–78. 25This is detailed in Stoll and Timperley, 'Creative Leadership Teams'. 26There is considerable detail however in other works by Harris, see for example, A. Harris, S. James, J. Gunraj, P. Clarke, and B. Harris, Improving Schools in Exceptionally Challenging Circumstances. Tales From the Frontline (London: Continuum, 2006); Alma Harris, Distributed School Leadership. Developing Tomorrow's Leaders (London: Routledge, 2008). 27Ken Jones and Pat Thomson, 'Policy Rhetoric and the Renovation of English Schooling: The Case of Creative Partnerships', Journal of Education Policy 23, no. 6 (2008): 715–27. 28Michael Fullan, The Moral Imperative of School Leadership (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2003); D. Hopkins, Every School a Great School (Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGrawHill, 2007). 29See for example, Mel Ainscow and Mel West, eds., Improving Urban Schools: Leadership and Collaboration (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2006). 30For example, see Michael Bottery, Education, Policy and Ethics (London: Continuum, 2000); R. Starratt, Centering Educational Administration. Cultivating Meaning, Community, Responsibility (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003); Susan Banks, Ethics, Accountability and the Social Professions (Hampshire: Palgrave, 2004). 31Thomson, Hall, and Jones, Creative School Change: Final Report. 32Pat Thomson, Whole School Change: A Review of the Literature, 2nd ed. (London: Creativity, Culture and Education, 2010). 33Michael Young, The Curriculum of the Future: From the New Sociology of Education to a Critical Theory of Learning (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 1998). 34See Robin Alexander, ed., Children, Their Worlds, Their Education. Final Report and Recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review (London: Routledge, 2009). 35A metaphor often used by the late Garth Boomer. 36See the classic text by Jean Anyon, 'Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work', Journal of Education 162, no. 1 (1980): 67–92 and the update by Pat Thomson, Christine Hall, and Ken Jones, 'Maggie's Day: A Small-scale Analysis of English Education Policy', Journal of Education Policy 25, no. 5 (2010): 639–56. 37Robin Alexander, Culture and Pedagogy. International Comparisons in Primary Education (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000). 38This is a point consistently made by researchers, see Pat Tunstall and Caroline Gipps, 'Teacher Feedback to Young Children in Formative Assessment: A Typology', British Educational Research Journal 22, no. 4 (1996): 389–404; and a decade later, Mark Priestley and Daniela Syme, 'Formative Assessment for All: A Whole-School Approach to Pedagogic Change', The Curriculum Journal 16, no. 4 (2005): 475–92. 39Judy Ireson and Sue Hallam, Ability Grouping in Education (London: Paul Chapman, 2001); Jeanie Oakes, Keeping Track. How Schools Structure Inequality (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005). 40Pat Thomson, School Leadership: Heads on the Block? (London: Routledge, 2010). 41For example see Roger Slee, Gaby Weiner, and Sally Tomlinson, eds., School Effectiveness for Whom? Challenges to the School Effectiveness and School Improvement Movements (London: Falmer, 1998); Martin Thrupp, School Improvement: An Unofficial Approach (London: Continuum, 2005). 42This summary is based on an analysis of the case studies presented by Terry Wrigley, Pat Thomson, and Bob Lingard, eds., Changing Schools: Alternative Approaches to Make a World of Difference (London: Routledge, in press). 43See http://www.artsandcreativityresearch.org.uk. 44See Sue Swaffield and John MacBeath, 'School Self-evaluation and the Role of a Critical Friend', Cambridge Journal of Education 35, no. 2 (2005): 239–52. 45Pat Sikes and Anthony Potts, eds., Researching Education from the Inside (London: Routledge, 2008). 46Pat Thomson, Chris Day, Robert Curtis, and William Beales, 'Change Leadership Case Studies'. Unpublished manuscript commissioned by NCSL (2009). 47Thomson, Hall, and Jones, Creative School Change: Final Report. 48For a history of Reggio Emilia see Carolyn Edwards, Leila Gandini, and George Forman, eds., The Hundred Languages of Children. The Reggio Emilia Approach. Advanced Reflections (Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing, 1998). 49Norma Gonzales, Luis Moll, and Cathy Amanti, Funds of Knowledge (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005). 50James Beane, Curriculum Integration. Designing the Core of Democratic Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1997). 51Martin Haberman, Star Principals. Serving Children in Poverty (Indianapolis, IN: Kappa Delta Pi, 1999).