Cultural mismatch and creativity in arts education

Culture has been found to impact upon creativity, which is valued as ‘a motor of economic and social innovation’ in a world that is experiencing rapid cultural changes and increasing cultural diversity. Recent research has given attention to the problem of cultural mismatch in education, with studies showing that children’s success at school depends on the extent to which the knowledge, background and values of their families match the school’s values and priorities. The greater the mismatch between the two cultures, the less likely the children would benefit from schooling. When schools fail to effectively address the mismatch, social inequalities and academic failure are perpetuated. But the problem is not confined to home versus school cultures, and can be present in other kinds of mismatches such as western-eastern cultures and traditional-popular cultures. This article discusses this problem in the context of creative education and the advent of prosumerism.

文化對創造力的影響已為人發現，在文化迅速轉變和文化多元性遞增的世 界，創造力被視為「經濟和社會革新的原動力」。最近研究已關注到教育 方面文化錯配的問題， 並且有研究顯示，孩子在學校的成功，取決於家庭的 知識、背景和價值，跟學校的價值和優先次序觀念的吻合程度。兩者文化之 間的差異越大，孩子於教育的得益可能越少。當學校不能有效地正視這種錯 配，社會不平等和學術失敗便永遠存在。但問題不僅出現於家庭文化與學校 文化之間，也可以是存在於其他方面的錯配，例如東方與西方文化、傳統與 流行文化。本文就創意教育的環境及產消主義的出現，探論這個問題。