The Importance of Creativity in School Culture

The aim of the article is to indicate the need to develop the culture of creativity in schools in order to enable the participants of educational dialogue to fulfil their personal creativity that will help them reach their potential and improve the common good in their community. The article defines the culture of creativity, describes creativity as a personal quality and indicates its importance in the functioning of students and teachers, as well as in the work of school as an organisation. Emphasis is placed on the need to personalise the processes of education, i.e., to accept the innate abilities, creative potential and multiple intelligences of learners, and to enable them to pursue their interests and develop their strengths. The article indicates the need for creating the environment which supports learners’ natural ability to learn and building learning power, which is based on the notion of helping young people to become better learners, cultivating attitudes that enable them to cope with difficulties calmly, confidently and creatively, as well as helping them to build up the mental, emotional, social and strategic resources. Furthermore, the article presents the assumptions of everyday creativity theory, which constitute the fundament of author’s creative life orientations concept. The importance of creative life orientations of teachers and students is shown as necessary for building the culture of creativity in school. The range, character and generalised results of the study on preferences for creative life orientations among teachers are briefly presented, indicating a low level of acceptance for this type of orientation and the dominance of preference for conservative and ambivalent orientations. The role of the teacher’s pedagogical creativity is emphasised as necessary for creating conditions for learner’s creativity and building the culture of creativity in school. Additionally, the article puts emphasis on the need for social acceptance for everyday creativity and acknowledging personal creativity as a value, appreciating it in public sphere, demonstrating its emancipatory value and emphasising its axiological dimension.

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