The discursive construction of the concept of creativity in Australian education policy and practice

Multiple and conflicting truths are simultaneously being told about creativity in Australian and global contexts: creativity is related to improvisational free-play and also to academic rigour, both about self-expression and about very specific economic outcomes, situated in collaborative contexts but also in the exploitation of others. This thesis takes a Foucauldian genealogical approach to relate the construction of truth and knowledge about creativity in Australia to the conditions of possibility that inhere in education policy and practice. Three sites are foregrounded to conduct this analysis. The first is a range of policy documents, four specific to the Australian context and one global, where I use Foucault’s concept of homo economicus to analyse how neoliberal conditions establish a competition and productivity-oriented version of creativity. I indicate how there is a silence about alternative accounts of self-expression and of the indeterminacy of creative outcomes in these policies. Secondly, I focus on the school institution and analyse interviews conducted with seven teachers in an Australian high-school music department (two interviews with each teacher). I draw on Foucault’s idea of disciplinary power to argue that the conditions of normalisation and surveillance in the school institution construct creativity as a quantifiable entity. However, such conditions undermine discourses of ambiguity and unconventionality. Finally, the third point of analysis is one individual’s subjectivity. Using Foucault’s concepts of ethical self-formation, parrhesia and counter-conduct, I analyse practices undertaken by a teaching deputy-principal in the construction of his subjectivity, and consider how these practices co-opt and counter neoliberalised and disciplined inflections of creativity. The account of the power/knowledge relationship presented here adds to the literature on creativity in the Australian context, for example, to respond to the question of whether or not creativity can be taught and assessed. Additionally, the thesis addresses a need for more research that brings Foucault’s perspectives and concepts into dialogue with empirical data in pursuing contemporary education questions. Finally, guided by a broader and more capacious interpretation of policy, this thesis contributes to the field of policy studies by identifying nuanced patterns of co-option, countering and enactment between policy texts and teachers’ practices in a specific school context.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Gormley, Kevin

• ethical self-formation
• Foucault
• neoliberalism
• Australia
• creativity
• education policy
• Australian education

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/

Language dc:language

EN

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/3185

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/57782