Creative anxiety. A conceptual history of creativity in education

Over the last few decades, creativity has become a central preoccupation in society. Its conceptualization as a universal force for harmony and economic prosperity is accompanied by the fear that it is insufficiently promoted, declining or even at risk of disappearing. The marriage between creativity and education, in particular, is portrayed as an unhappy one. This PhD argues that the anxiety surrounding creativity forms a constitutive element of its conceptualization: for creativity to emerge as a core value in our societies, the human imagination had to be redefined as both an ideal and a problem. This particular conceptualization has been driven in part by an internal educational dynamic: contrary to what is often claimed, the educational discourse on creativity predates its emergence as a scientific construct.

As explained in the first chapter, the dissertation uses a methodology based on the tenets of conceptual history and the work of Bruno Latour. It is based on various sources, with a special focus on educational books and magazines written by and for teachers. The different chapters explore several aspects of the conceptualization of creativity.

Chapter 2 describes how, until the late 18th century, the attitude toward the imagination was ambiguous. This began to change during the 19th century, first in very specific social circles: avant-garde artists, inventors, educational reformers. In Chapter 3, it is argued that Froebelian educators introduced the term creativity as a reference to the central beliefs and aims of the movement. This turned the imagination into a particularly important but fragile human capacity. Later educational reformers continued to regard the imagination as a site for educational intervention. Chapter 4 explores how anxiety and competition played a role in the scientific construction of the concept of creativity. Chapter 5 argues that the Child Art Movement, by introducing the notion of free expression, created new expectations and engendered a new forms of internal discipline. Chapter 6 describes how the term creativity was appropriated within afterwar catholic education and argues that it was used to transform the educator’s anxiety about social change into a concern for the personal mental capacities of children.

Instead of liberating an inner source of energy, the thesis argues, the discourse on creativity added an extra layer of knowledge about the child and created new ways to control its inner life. The school did not surrender to the imagination, but the imagination has been educationalized. Since creativity was conceptualized as natural and unforced, this only increased the fears for its disappearance.