Creativity and Democracy in Education ─ Practices and politics of learning through the arts

The struggles to establish more democratic education pedagogies has a long history in the politics of mainstream education, prominent interventions by radical education theorists into this conflict, such as Dewey and Freire, have been well documented over the years, and often the ascendancy of ethics and social justice in education have been accompanied by the expansion and status of creative arts disciplines and their practices in mainstream and higher education. The history of this symbiotic relationship is recounted in this book to provide a framework for the exploration of the political significance of contemporary creative practices and their place in a selection of case studies on projects exploring democratic emancipation.

In this book Jeff Adams and Allen Owen explore creativity conceptually, historically and metaphorically within a variety of UK and international contexts, and in each case consider its relationship to notions of democracy in education. The book seeks to explore how democratic educational models survive under the neoliberal hegemony, and specifically the new democratic pedagogical practices that have developed through the creative disciplines, in response and as a resistance to corporatisation and marketization.

The book concludes by reconsidering the theories, practices and the ideals that were once to considered to be foundational for education: democratic education, education for a just society, and social mobility; ideas that were at the foundation of the welfare states in Western nations, for which creative, imaginative expressions through the arts were once considered to be as essential and as basic as our more modern educational obsessions with entrepreneurial, technocratic knowledge and competition. The book will interest postgraduate students, researchers, teachers and academics, especially those interested in arts and creative education, teacher education, cultural studies, and political theory.

Jeff Adams is Professor of Education at the University of Chester, and Principal Editor of theInternational Journal of Art and Design Education. His current research is into creativity in pedagogy, doctoral study and professional development, and contemporary art practices in education.

Allan Owens is Professor in Drama Education University of Chester and National Teaching Fellow. His practice and research centre are concerned with the professional and social applications of drama and theatre with a particular interest in the use of process drama to create spaces for dialogue both within and between disciplines and cultures.