Secondary teachers’ conceptions of creative thinking within the context of environmental education

Creative thinking in Environmental Education (EE) remains greatly under researched topic.
Research on teachers’ conceptions of creative thinking within EE context is also limited,
although their role in facilitating creative thinking in students is well documented. The
small-scale qualitative study presented here investigates Greek secondary teachers’
conceptions of creative thinking in EE. Empirical data were collected based on nonstructured
interviews with 20 secondary teachers with diverse backgrounds and subject expertise.
Among the findings of the study is that participants view creative thinking as a
thinking process that can or should be enhanced within the context of EE. All four key
components identified in the literature in definitions of creativity – process, person, product,
and context – are present in participants’ conceptualizations, with the most prevalent
being that of process. Teachers conceptualize creative thinking as an inherent component of
environmental problem-solving; they claim that EE pedagogy offers a favourable environment
within which it can be nurtured; and they attribute ethical dimensions to it by pairing
creativity with social and ecological responsibility. The participants’ frames of thinking
about creativity support the views of scholars who emphasize the links between EE and
creative thinking and connections with broader theoretical approaches that currently dominate
research on creativity. The study provides a starting point for further research
on creative thinking within the context of EE.