Teachers’ Beliefs About Creativity and Possibilities for its Development in Polish High Schools: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to research teachers’ beliefs about creativity and possibilities for its development in Polish high schools. The study consisted of in-depth interviews. It was conducted with a group of 15 high school teachers, all of whom taught the key subjects (math, Polish and foreign languages) for the final school-leaving examination. The qualitative thematic analysis applied to the collected data revealed eight themes. Each of them concerned the teachers’ understanding of what creativity really is, their attitude towards students’ creative activity at school, aims that they formulated to stimulate their creativity, as well as the role and place of students’ creative activity at school. In addition, the themes referred to actions that had been taken by the teachers to stimulate their students’ creativity and factors that inhibited or stimulated the development of students’ creativity at school. The teachers, who were the subject of the analysis, understood creativity as creative potential, that is, the ability to think independently, to give new and original solutions to all sorts of tasks and problems, as well as creative activity oriented towards everyday innovation. Additionally, the study revealed that there exists a creativity gap between verbal support for developing students’ creativity at school and classroom practice.