Creativity in School: emancipation or instrumentalization?

Abstract

In this theoretical essay, creativity and the so-called creativity in school are approached from a critical perspective. For a broad theory, creativity is regarded as a central value in contemporary culture. The point that unites these varied theoretical currents concerns an alleged overcoming of the status of labor toward what is called immaterial labor. In this context, the production of humans takes place in the movement of subjectivity itself in its complexity. In addition, the school, as a place of training, must, according to this new historical framework, respond to the new reality and prepare students to be creative. Both propositions, however, ignore the fact that neither labor is absent from the so-called creative activities nor creativity is foreign to labor. Thus, the current proposals for creativity in school show the same inconsistency as those that support the idea of immaterial labor: they ignore the fact that creativity is a component of social dynamics, that labor is still the foundation of the most diverse social practices, including, of course, the so-called creative activities.