Call for Papers – Special Issue: Creativity in Higher Education: Beyond the Classroom
Creativity. Theories – Research – Applications invites submissions to a special issue on Creativity in Higher Education: Beyond the Classroom,
Guest editors
Paula Álvarez-Huerta (Mondragon University, Spain)
Margaret Mangion (University of Malta, Malta)
About the journal
Creativity. Theories – Research – Applications is an interdisciplinary forum for the study of human creativity, from everyday to eminent forms, bringing together education, psychology, sociology, aesthetics and other fields. It also welcomes methodological debate and promotes dialogue between different theoretical and research traditions.
The journal operates under a Diamond Open Access model: there are no article processing charges (APCs) for authors and no access fees for readers. In addition, authors of accepted papers receive free proofreading before publication.
Rationale
Creativity has become one of the most consequential concepts in contemporary higher education. It appears in graduate attribute frameworks, policy agendas and employer surveys as a capability that universities are expected to cultivate (Jackson et al., 2006; World Economic Forum, 2025). Yet research in this area remains uneven. Much of it centres on learner outcomes, such as creative self-beliefs, engagement and their links to critical thinking (Álvarez-Huerta et al., 2021, 2022; Egan et al., 2017). Far less of it examines the conditions under which creativity is enabled or constrained.
This special issue treats creativity as a social, cultural and institutional phenomenon, in line with sociocultural and systems perspectives that locate creative action in relationships, artefacts and fields rather than in the individual alone (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Glăveanu, 2013; Glăveanu et al., 2020).
We invite contributions that both expand and highlight more in-depth understandings of how we perceive and interpret creativity in higher education. We are particularly interested in perspectives that move beyond dominant frameworks. These include work that resists reducing creativity to an instrument for employability or an outcome to be measured. They also include work willing to sit with uncertainty as a generative condition (Beghetto, 2021), asking not only what creativity is, but what it makes possible (Glăveanu, 2020).
Beyond the individual student
A central aim is to broaden the positioning of creativity beyond the individual student. Studies of creativity in higher education have frequently focused on learners, while conceptions of creativity held by academics and the pedagogies they adopt remain less explored (Kleiman, 2008; McWilliam & Dawson, 2008). Much of the picture is still unclear: what creativity looks like beyond the classroom, how institutional conditions shape it, and what structural forces define its boundaries.
We therefore welcome contributions that address creativity across the full range of voices in higher education: students, faculty, administrators and institutions themselves. We also welcome transmethodological approaches that challenge established research paradigms and open new ways of knowing about creativity in higher education.
Forces beyond the classroom
Creativity in higher education is shaped by forces that exceed the classroom. These include funding structures, research cultures and internationalisation agendas. They include the conditions of academic labour (Gill, 2009) and the languages in which knowledge is produced and disseminated (Lillis & Curry, 2010).
This special issue does not seek merely to add to existing literature on creativity in higher education. It seeks to reorient that literature towards the systemic, the structural and the possible. We invite contributions willing to ask uncomfortable questions, to challenge inherited categories, and to imagine what a genuinely creative higher education might look like and what it would take to bring it into being.
Indicative themes
We welcome conceptual and empirical contributions (qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods) engaging with, but not limited to, the following themes:
1. Creativity and institutional culture in higher education.
2. Creative pedagogies beyond the arts and design disciplines.
3. The role of language, translation and knowledge dissemination in shaping creative possibility.
4. Creativity, precarity and academic labour.
5. Digital environments, generative AI and the remaking of creative practice.
6. Methodological innovation in researching creativity in higher education.
Submission guidelines
Important: when submitting your manuscript, please state clearly that it is intended for the Special Issue on Creativity in Higher Education: Beyond the Classroom. Select the special issue option indicating Higher Education in the submission system where available, and mention it in your cover letter. Manuscripts not identified in this way may be handled as regular submissions.
Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal's Editorial Manager system. They must follow the journal's Guide for Authors, including:
▪ Full papers of no more than 8,000 words, double-spaced.
▪ An abstract of no more than 250 words, structured for research papers, and up to six keywords.
▪ References and citations in APA style.
▪ Author information and notes on contributors on separate pages.
▪ A Declaration of Generative AI Use at the end of the manuscript.
▪ A statement that the paper has not been published or accepted for publication elsewhere.
Publication in this special issue is free of charge: there are no APCs, the issue is fully open access, and accepted papers receive free proofreading.
All submissions will undergo the journal's standard peer-review process. Informal enquiries about the fit of a proposed contribution are welcome and can be sent to the guest editors.
Important dates
Submission of full manuscripts 1 January until 1 April 2027
Guest editors
Margaret Mangion, University of Malta, Malta contact:
Paula Álvarez-Huerta, Mondragon University, Spain contact:
References
Álvarez-Huerta, P., Muela, A., & Larrea, I. (2021). Student engagement and creative confidence beliefs in higher education. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 40, Article 100821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100821
Álvarez-Huerta, P., Muela, A., & Larrea, I. (2022). Disposition toward critical thinking and creative confidence beliefs in higher education students: The mediating role of openness to diversity and challenge. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 43, Article 101003. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2022.101003
Beghetto, R. A. (2021). There is no creativity without uncertainty: Dubito ergo creo. Journal of Creativity, 31, Article 100005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yjoc.2021.100005
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Implications of a systems perspective for the study of creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 313–335). Cambridge University Press.
Egan, A., Maguire, R., Christophers, L., & Rooney, B. (2017). Developing creativity in higher education for 21st century learners: A protocol for a scoping review. International Journal of Educational Research, 82, 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.12.004
Gill, R. (2009). Breaking the silence: The hidden injuries of neo-liberal academia. In R. Flood & R. Gill (Eds.), Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections (pp. 228–244). Routledge.
Glăveanu, V. P. (2013). Rewriting the language of creativity: The Five A's framework. Review of General Psychology, 17(1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029528
Glăveanu, V. P. (2020). The possible: A sociocultural theory. Oxford University Press.
Glăveanu, V. P., Hanchett Hanson, M., Baer, J., Barbot, B., Clapp, E. P., Corazza, G. E., Hennessey, B., Kaufman, J. C., Lebuda, I., Lubart, T., Montuori, A., Ness, I. J., Plucker, J., Reiter-Palmon, R., Sierra, Z., Simonton, D. K., Neves-Pereira, M. S., & Sternberg, R. J. (2020). Advancing creativity theory and research: A socio-cultural manifesto. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(3), 741–745. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.395
Jackson, N., Oliver, M., Shaw, M., & Wisdom, J. (Eds.). (2006). Developing creativity in higher education: An imaginative curriculum. Routledge.
Kleiman, P. (2008). Towards transformation: Conceptions of creativity in higher education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45(3), 209–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703290802175966
Lillis, T., & Curry, M. J. (2010). Academic writing in a global context: The politics and practices of publishing in English. Routledge.
McWilliam, E., & Dawson, S. (2008). Teaching for creativity: Towards sustainable and replicable pedagogical practice. Higher Education, 56(6), 633–643. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9115-7
World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/
