The importance of a creative curriculum to the United Kingdom’s economy cannot be underestimated. A high growth sector in 2014 it was worth 5.2% of the UK economy and was estimated to be doubling year on year. Conversely, public opinion commonly denounces the education system as killing creativity. If this situation truly exists, that the school system is not teaching the skills necessary for the future of the economy it needs to be rectified. However, as the definitions and measures of creativity are so divergent research is required to define creativity in an educational setting. This will enable future research to create multifaceted measures suitable for measuring and predicting creativity in an educational setting.
Recent research has been conducted as a pilot study to refine the definition of creativity within an educational setting. A total of 6 participants, all had been or were employed in a secondary education setting in the North West of England, were interviewed with a semi-structured design. They were asked about their general perspectives on creativity in education, creativity in relation to their educational subject, and factors that enhance and impede creativity in the classroom. The answers given under interview were analysed using a thematic analysis, due to the flexibility offered by this approach. Three main themes were identified, each of which contained several sub-themes. The three main ones were: Curriculum Constraints, Management Issues, Classroom Environment. This pilot study is currently informing a more diverse study with up to fifty participants and aims within three years to have developed a multifaceted measure suitable for the assessment of creativity in an educational setting.