Recently much attention has been paid to creativity in education, reflecting wider concern with creativity in general. The creative industries are a hugely successful part of our economy and ministers have pledged to ‘make Britain the world’s creative hub’. However, with this focus on creativity has come a degree of confusion: the creativity of the classroom is not necessarily the creativity desired by prospective employers in creative industries.

Furthermore, the means by which creativity has conventionally been judged, particularly in the public realm, have come to be challenged. This has significant implications for the way that creative production is seen, particularly in education.

In creating a product,we express opinions and publicise parts of our identities; when we view cultural or creative work,we can engage with those of others. Cultural and creative production is therefore a very powerful force that will be vital, from the schoolroom to the way that we engage with other cultures in general.

This pamphlet argues that young people will need the capacity to link creativity to meaning in their own terms in ways that allow them to match production and products to purpose and audience. As creativity becomes central to the workplace and social lives alike, young people will need the skills to navigate between different expectations of their creative work. Creative education must give young people the essential reflective and editorial skills to combine the multiple perspectives on value that they will encounter.