Do Saudi Arabian Educational Policies Determine the Promotion of Creativity with Gifted Students?

Abstract

Educational policy plays a pivotal role in influencing educational practices in schools and can help promote creativity. In Saudi Arabia, however, few studies have focused on the analysis of these educational policies or on how they promote creativity with gifted students. Given that all schools in Saudi Arabia follow the educational policies issued by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and schools do not have separate educational policies or implementation documents to promote creativity, these policies could have a greater influence than in other countries where guidance is provided to schools on implementing national education policies. This study aimed to understand how the promotion of creativity is expressed for gifted students in Saudi Arabia by analysing educational policies issued by the MoE. To inform and guide the analysing of data, a 3Ps framework (Press, Process, and Person) was synthesised and used in the study. The findings identified two major gaps in the Saudi educational documents regarding gifted education for secondary school students. The first gap was the lack of a clear definition of creativity and giftedness, the relationship between creativity and giftedness, and the contradictions in defining creativity and giftedness. The second gap in these documents was a lack of detail about implementation mechanisms that could benefit teachers in schools. This study, therefore, suggests adding another (P) to the 3Ps framework for improvement, that is, promoting creativity in the educational context needs to include Policy, leading to four embedded circles of (P):  Policy, Press, Process, and Person.