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The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022

Mark Connolly, Emily Lowthian Orcid Logo, D Rhian Barrance, Charlotte Brookfield

Research Papers in Education, Pages: 1 - 27

Swansea University Author: Emily Lowthian Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/02671522.2025.2610219

Abstract

Creativity has become a key discourse of the 21st century. Because of this, developing a measure of young people’s creative capacity was embedded within PISA 2022. The OECD's approach to creativity is framed within its ‘third-phase’ of policy-making. This differs from previous economist underst...

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Published in: Research Papers in Education
ISSN: 0267-1522 1470-1146
Published: Informa UK Limited 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71593
first_indexed 2026-03-09T10:30:46Z
last_indexed 2026-04-24T07:11:57Z
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spelling 2026-04-23T13:15:07.5251656 v2 71593 2026-03-09 The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022 db5bc529b8a9dfca2b4a268d14e03479 0000-0001-9362-0046 Emily Lowthian Emily Lowthian true false 2026-03-09 SOSS Creativity has become a key discourse of the 21st century. Because of this, developing a measure of young people’s creative capacity was embedded within PISA 2022. The OECD's approach to creativity is framed within its ‘third-phase’ of policy-making. This differs from previous economist understandings through the recognition of imagination; a re-engagement with foundational knowledge; and a melding of neo-vocationalist and humanist ideologies. Using mixed methods – qualitative documentary analysis of planning documents and quantitative analysis of data from the PISA Test – this paper argues that the attempt to bring creativity within the purview of PISA measurement is conceptually and methodologically problematic. The paper’s documentary analysis illustrates that its ‘third phase’ framework is conceptually inconsistent and that its creative thinking measurement is theoretically permissive and, consequently, methodologically fragile. The paper demonstrates how this theoretical inconsistency is reflected in the measurement tools and the data from the PISA Test. Consequently, the paper argues that the data has limited explanatory power and utility for policy-makers and educators. We conclude that attempts to develop an international measure using a composite creativity metric is theoretically incoherent and methodologically unrealisable and that the OECD’s creative thinking measure could be counterproductive for the promotion and fostering of creativity within education. Journal Article Research Papers in Education 0 1 27 Informa UK Limited 0267-1522 1470-1146 Creativity; creative thinking; PISA; OECD; neo-vocationalism; humanism 11 2 2026 2026-02-11 10.1080/02671522.2025.2610219 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee 2026-04-23T13:15:07.5251656 2026-03-09T10:29:06.4484038 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies Mark Connolly 1 Emily Lowthian 0000-0001-9362-0046 2 D Rhian Barrance 3 Charlotte Brookfield 4 71593__36574__7e132ae73d5244b08e911254955fcc09.pdf 71593.VoR.pdf 2026-04-23T12:55:41.7484407 Output 1902782 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
title The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
spellingShingle The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
Emily Lowthian
title_short The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
title_full The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
title_fullStr The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
title_full_unstemmed The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
title_sort The philosophical, methodological and empirical problems in OECD’s approach to creativity within PISA 2022
author_id_str_mv db5bc529b8a9dfca2b4a268d14e03479
author_id_fullname_str_mv db5bc529b8a9dfca2b4a268d14e03479_***_Emily Lowthian
author Emily Lowthian
author2 Mark Connolly
Emily Lowthian
D Rhian Barrance
Charlotte Brookfield
format Journal article
container_title Research Papers in Education
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publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 0267-1522
1470-1146
doi_str_mv 10.1080/02671522.2025.2610219
publisher Informa UK Limited
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Education and Childhood Studies
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description Creativity has become a key discourse of the 21st century. Because of this, developing a measure of young people’s creative capacity was embedded within PISA 2022. The OECD's approach to creativity is framed within its ‘third-phase’ of policy-making. This differs from previous economist understandings through the recognition of imagination; a re-engagement with foundational knowledge; and a melding of neo-vocationalist and humanist ideologies. Using mixed methods – qualitative documentary analysis of planning documents and quantitative analysis of data from the PISA Test – this paper argues that the attempt to bring creativity within the purview of PISA measurement is conceptually and methodologically problematic. The paper’s documentary analysis illustrates that its ‘third phase’ framework is conceptually inconsistent and that its creative thinking measurement is theoretically permissive and, consequently, methodologically fragile. The paper demonstrates how this theoretical inconsistency is reflected in the measurement tools and the data from the PISA Test. Consequently, the paper argues that the data has limited explanatory power and utility for policy-makers and educators. We conclude that attempts to develop an international measure using a composite creativity metric is theoretically incoherent and methodologically unrealisable and that the OECD’s creative thinking measure could be counterproductive for the promotion and fostering of creativity within education.
published_date 2026-02-11T08:11:57Z
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