Cultivating Creativity in Computing Education: A Missed Opportunity?

In response to the increasing digitization of society, the subject “Computing Education” is currently being implemented in 1st–9th grade education in several countries. Teaching children to be (more) creative in their use and understanding of technology is among the key didactic goals in this global effort. We contribute a detailed overview of how creativity is being integrated into Denmark’s specific educational initiative, which is the subject “Technology Comprehension.” By applying thematic analysis to the Danish Ministry of Education’s (Technology Comprehension Curriculum. (2018). [Danish: Laeseplan for forsogsfaget teknologiforstaelse]. Retrieved November 24, 2020 from https://bit.ly/2HU79lo), we expose how creativity is construed in several very different and sometimes even conflicting ways. Such inconsistencies and contradictions make creativity a near-unattainable learning objective, and it inevitably begs the question whether the attempt to cultivate children’s creativity through computing education is in fact a missed opportunity for future-proofing 1st–9th grade education for the twenty-first century. As a call for action, we end by raising three pressing questions that the collective of creativity researchers, education researchers, learning specialists, and education policymakers must attempt to find answers to.