- Title
- Early childhood national educational frameworks and teachers' beliefs about creativity: a comparative study of Australia and Iran
- Creator
- Ba Akhlagh, Somayeh
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This thesis presents an in-depth investigation of cross-cultural differences evident in early childhood education policy and teaching beliefs as they relate to creativity. An initial review of eight national policy documents drawn from Eastern (Iran, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore) and Western countries (Australia, New Zealand, France and UK) provided a context with regard to similarities and differences between Eastern and Western cultures’ conceptualisation of creativity. For a deeper understanding of these policies and to trace the cultural influences evident in them, the policy documents and a sample of early childhood teachers in Iran (Eastern culture) and Australia (Western culture) were studied. This qualitative research framed within an interpretivist/constructivist paradigm aims to better understand the world of human experience. Understanding creativity in these two diverse cultures was informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theories, since creativity is related to human social life and it is impossible to develop children’s creativity without considering social and cultural influences. In reviewing the literature for this study, the three interlocking themes of ‘early childhood’, ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’ were explored. The literature demonstrated that the themes of ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’ are complex concepts and researchers view each from a range of perspectives. Of these perspectives, this research selected Hofstede’s cultural model for comparing and contrasting Iranian and Australian cultures. With reference to creativity, the literature combined with this study’s research focus, indicated that four perspectives (psychology, education, sociocultural and art) would best explore the concept in the two countries. To examine how creativity is conceptualised in the early childhood education environment in the sociocultural contexts of Iran and Australia, this study utilised the two methods of document analysis and semi-structured interview. The results revealed that, in both countries, early childhood education policy documents and teachers mostly share a common concept of creativity; that is, they conceptualise creativity as a thinking process that is represented through creativity dispositions. However, there were very clear, culturally influenced differences between teacher practices in the two countries; namely, Iranian teachers mostly used a teacher-directed approach to teaching creativity focused on collective creations of children, while Australian teachers utilised a child-centred approach focused on creativity as the individual work of each child. This study and its findings present an opportunity to examine new approaches in early childhood education, including policies and the role of teachers in developing creativity in the early childhood years. A significant implication of this study is its call for policy makers and teachers to factor in cultural differences in developing children’s creativity. The study contributes to the knowledge on developing creativity in the early childhood environment through showing that cultural differences are important considerations in this endeavour for policy makers, educational providers and teachers in the early childhood environment.
- Subject
- early childhood education; teachers' beliefs; creativity; Australia; Iran; culture
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1427296
- Identifier
- uon:38527
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Somayeh Ba Akhlagh
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 17 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 418 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |