Teachers’ perceptions of creativity in education: A componential-sociocultural analysis

• Teachers' perceptions of creativity are primarily structured by the social environment, which serves as a central reference point for evaluating motivation, openness, and knowledge. • Motivation and openness were perceived as highly generative only when embedded in positive environments, but in negative contexts, their influence diminished sharply. • Knowledge gained prominence primarily in negative or unsupportive environments, where it may function as a safer and more legible indicator of creative potential. This study investigates how teachers perceive creativity in educational settings by examining the relative weighting of its core components. Drawing on componential theories of creativity and sociocultural perspectives, an experimental vignette methodology was employed with 115 teachers from Brazil and Portugal, who evaluated classroom scenarios systematically manipulating motivation, knowledge, openness to experience, and the social environment. Bayesian multilevel analysis revealed that teachers’ perceptions were context-dependent rather than simply additive. Motivation and openness were perceived as generative primarily in supportive classroom environments; in negative or unsupportive contexts, their influence diminished sharply. In contrast, knowledge gained prominence in negative environments, suggesting a compensatory evaluative function when exploratory behavior is perceived as risky. In addition, integrating individual- and sample-level analyses provided clear evidence of the non-ergodic nature of teachers’ creativity perceptions: although shared trends emerged at the sample level, individual teachers relied on heterogeneous evaluative models. Together, these findings demonstrate that the value attributed to creativity components is relational and context-sensitive, underscoring the need to conceptualize creativity in education as a systemic phenomenon shaped by both sociocultural frameworks and individual characteristics.