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This thesis identifies and analyses the limitations and effects of the implementation of creative education in primary schools within the Taiwanese context. It explores how the new government formulated and delivered the policy, and how the teachers put creative education into classroom practice. The analysis presented here consists of a critical analysis of the creative education policy agenda, a survey of how three types of respondents (teachers, students, and parents) perceive creativity, and an investigation of the dilemmas faced by teachers and students in developing creativity in the classroom. A number of arguments are presented. Firstly, this thesis highlights that creativity has been redefined as a crucial element for education reform in response to the rise of the knowledge economy in Taiwan. I suggest that this economic-led discourse and the short sighted plan have led to misunderstandings of what creativity means. Regarding strategies for policy delivery, I suggest that the role given to policy-makers and their limited experience in developing proper methods has led to more confusion for the teachers. I also suggest that the development of a more liberal and creative education environment has been constrained by entrenched institutional and socio-cultural limitations. I then indicate how these limitations and school cultures have influenced the respondents‟ perceptions of creativity and of teaching and learning in the classroom. Finally, I suggest that creativity in the classroom involves multiple ways of interaction between all participants. This research makes three contributions. Conceptually, I combine various psychological, educational, and sociological approaches to discussions of creativity. Methodologically, I develop multilayered methods and visual analytical frameworks for researching creative education. Empirically, I provide dynamic stories about the practice of creativity in the classroom within the Taiwanese context. This thesis provides a political and socio-cultural angle from which see the limitations on developing creative education in Taiwan.

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This study investigates education policy since 1970 in Malaysia aimed at achieving national integration across ethnic groups. The approach adopted is critical policy sociology; the study thus utilised historical analysis and semi-structured interviews with 'policy players' across the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia. The analyses are framed by theoretical considerations of ethnicity, nation, nation-building and plural society and the role of education policy in relation to them. The historical analyses demonstrated the ongoing effects of colonial residues in contemporary education policy and the ongoing ethnic-based contestation around the policy and accommodative state strategies utilised. The interview analyses demonstrated the contested nature of the concept of integration, tensions in the application of a bumiputera/non-bumiputera binary in policy, Malay concerns over their rights and economic opportunities, and Chinese and Indian concerns for language and cultural maintenance. The articulated Malay position was one tending towards assimilation and demanding recognition of their status as 'sons of the soil', while the Chinese and Indian stances tended towards multiculturalism. Language of instruction in schooling was shown to be central to these contested ideologies. These ethnic groups also worked with different constructions of the nation. The analyses demonstrated how in Appadurai's (1996) terms the nation (ethnic cultures and languages) and the state (politics and policy) have remained the project of each other in Malaysian education policy aimed at national integration. The analyses also showed how changing global contexts have challenged ethnic politics through the demand for better education for all, irrespective of ethnicity, socio-economic background and urban-rural location. English and Mandarin have taken on different policy salience in education in this global context. Human rights discourses have also to some extent reframed ethnic politics, as has recognition that socio-economic status might be a better focus for education policy for national integration. The research showed that concern for national integration has retained meta-policy status within Malaysian education.

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