The power of creative learning through the arts: Economic imperative or social good?

Abstract

This article uses data generated through qualitative methods and discourse analysis to explore how ‘creative learning’ is articulated in the current educational context in Wales. The research focused on the Arts and Wellbeing in Education (AWE) professional learning programme for primary and secondary schools, delivered by ‘Arts Champions’ through one of the Regional Arts and Education Networks. The Networks were created to support the Welsh Government / Arts Council Wales Creative Learning through the Arts Action Plan (Welsh Government, 2015). The analysis applies a poststructural framework, influenced by the work of Foucault, to examine the circulating discourses around the ‘benefits’ and ‘value’ of creative learning, and the arts. The discussion reveals the underlying structures and ideological project that in/form the policy context, and the resultant practice. The findings describe how the Welsh Government rhetoric describes a broadly democratic, economic value of the arts, while the case study Network D emphasises the benefit of the arts as a ‘social good’. Within this context, AWE functions as a local revolution extending, enhancing and personalising the ‘social good’ so that the benefits centre on wellbeing through mindful approaches to creativity, the value of which is decided by the individual.