Child-initiated play and professional creativity: enabling four-year-olds’ possibility thinking

Influenced by liberal philosophers, for over 200 years Western policies have valued children’s curiosity, imagination, and creativity (Craft, 2010). In England, policy on creativity was cemented with the National Advisory Committee for Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999) advocating ‘democratic’ creativity and cultural education. In the early years, children’s creativity was codified in the Early Years Foundation Stage (DCSF 2008a, 2008b), and in earlier versions of the early years curriculum (eg QCA, 1999, 2000, SCAA, 1996). The double-stranding of creativity (a pervasive strand of ‘creative and critical thinking’ and defined area of ‘creative development’ enabled imaginative provision, much of it involving the cultural sector (eg Bancroft et al, 2008). By 2011, following a change of government, creativity had maintained its place as an important dimension of the early years curriculum. For the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage reinforced a role for creativity as imagination with an inherent role in ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ and acknowledged critical and creative thinking together with active learning and play, as characteristics of young children’s engagement with the world around them (Tickell, 2011a, 2011b). Creativity as possibility thinking