Editorial: Perspectives on creative pedagogy: exploring challenges, possibilities and potential

Internationally, the first decade of the 21st century was characterised by growth in creativity research and creative classroom practice (e.g. Einarsdottir, 2003; Cremin, Burnard and Craft, 2006; Beghetto and Kaufman 2007; Sawyer, 2010). In England, the Creative Partnerships initiative increased the attention paid by researchers, policy makers and practitioners to creativity in schooling, and an interest in creative learning at the primary phase developed (e.g. QCA, 2005; Galton, 2008; Bragg, Manchester and Faulkner, 2009; Thomson and Hall, 2007; Craft and Chappell, 2009). Whilst recognition of the role and nature of creativity and interest in creative pedagogical practice has grown, tensions persist at several levels, particularly in accountability cultures, where international comparisons such as PISA and PIRLS frame and shape policy, practice and curricula. This Special Issue, planned with Anna Craft before her untimely death, responds to this context and draws together the work of a number of eminent scholars of creativity and creative pedagogies. It offers diverse perspectives from Colombia, Denmark, England, France, Poland, Hong Kong, and the USA and highlights differences as well as similarities across cultural contexts. Individually and collectively, the authors, framed by their own stances on creativity, reveal both the complexities and the possibilities of creative pedagogies. While some focus more upon conceptual challenges, others examine classroom practice, both teachers and visiting artists, and identify difficulties as well as potential. Most pay attention to both teacher and learner orientations, exemplified by Dezuanni and Jetnikoff‘s (2011:265) assertion that creative pedagogies involve ‘imaginative and innovative arrangement of curricula and teaching strategies in school classrooms’ to develop the creativity of the young