Creativity is not an easy phenomenon to define and
hence understand. Perhaps this is partly the reason
why there seems to be ‘issues’ in creativity and
design and technology education. Some
approaches to understanding creativity have
focused on one area, for example the cognitive
approach. There are however, a number of
researchers who suggest that there are many interrelated
factors that seem to contribute towards
understanding creativity. These have become known
as multidisciplinary approaches.
This paper outlines one such approach to creativity,
Csickszentmihalyi’s ‘Systems Perspective’ for
studying creativity. A number of implications and
issues will be explored with respect to the teaching
and learning of creativity in design and technology
(D&T). The teacher it is argued, has a significant
role in increasing the likelihood of creativity in the
D&T classroom.
This paper is limited to a small case study, but seeks
to generate a debate in order to help demystify the
phenomenon of creativity, how it may inform practice
in the D&T classroom, and ultimately increase the
likelihood of creativity for pupils studying D&T
