Higher education for sustainable development (ESD) seeks educational transformation to empower learners and enable positive sustainability action. However, ESD discourse often underemphasizes creativity in ESD learning and educator practice. Recent research in creativity studies has examined relational dynamics of socially-situated processes that produce novelty, and how creative actions and artifacts may drive contextual change. Studies of creativity in education have also accelerated in the twenty-first century, offering insights into practices which support creative task performance and learner development. This theoretical literature review explores how connecting these fields could enhance ESD's effectiveness. By overlaying frameworks from sociocultural creativity and ESD competencies, we discover that the 'competencies paradigm' in ESD aims to structure learners' creative action. Further, we find that educator choices may stimulate or inhibit learner creative development, and educator creativity may be crucial for reshaping higher education to deliver more effective ESD. The review offers a definition of creative ESD practice and argues that supporting the creative development of educators is an unexplored leverage point for transforming higher education toward sustainability. By connecting sociocultural creativity theory, ESD competency literature, and educator practice, we hope to stimulate further research and practice innovation relating to creative dynamics and processes in ESD.
Robertson et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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