A Comparative Study of Creativity Education in Primary Schools of England Finland: Lessons for Iran

Fostering creative people have become one of the modern goals of advanced educational systems. While the need for creativity in the new millennium is more obvious, the education systems of advanced societies can teach pivotal lessons to other countries. The purpose of this research was to investigate the experiences of England and Finland in teaching creativity in primary schools to provide guidance to Iranian curriculum planners. The selection strategy of the countries studied in this qualitatively comparative study was similarity in social systems, similarity in educational outputs and the level of analysis and observation was macro (country). Data collection method was documentary and data analysis method was John Stuart Mill’s method of agreement and disagreement using Bereday’s regional approach for presenting the findings. The findings indicated that attention to the role and importance of children’s creativity in the England education system has a long history, while Finnish education policymakers, especially in the last two decades, have paid more effort to this issue. Also, while various national documents on creativity have been published in England over the past six decades, Finns have been more pragmatic. Another finding shows that the England’s primary education system is influenced by factors such as subject-oriented, teacher-centered and exam-oriented and therefore has not had much success in creative education, while the Finns have used the school-centered and child-centered approach in teaching creativity. Given the research findings and the social realities of Iran, it seems that curriculum planners for educating creative children should pay more attention to the experiences of Finns. Research findings reveal that curriculum planners in Iran need special attention to Finnish experiences to raise creative children.