Creative Expression in Professional Development

Educational theorists have long touted the developmental benefits of engaging in creative endeavors, such as photography, creative writing, and so forth, yet few professional development programs incorporate creative expression into their curricula. This article briefly reviews the work of Fromm, Marcuse, Jung, and Heron to explore possible justifications and explanations of the developmental and organizational benefits that are possible from creative expression. This article argues that a unifying premise of these theorists is that creative expression promotes autonomy. It concludes by providing an example of how a pedagogy utilizing creative expression can meet immediate learning objectives in addition to the longer term outcome of increased autonomy and discusses how such pedagogies can be incorporated into professional development programs. [Publisher's text]