On the Cusp of Imagination: Rethinking Creative pedagogy
Date & Time: Friday, 16 January 2026 from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Venue: A449, Aditayathorn Building
Conductors: Prof. Dr. Anke Schwittay
On January 16, 2026, Professor Doctor Anke Schwittay led a workshop titled “On the Cusp of Imagination: Rethinking Creative Pedagogy,” offering a practical walkthrough for lecturers aiming to design creative pedagogies. The session focused on discovering innovative ways to blend critique and creativity in teaching, and uncovering strategies that foster imagination and active students’ engagement.
The presentation discussed different ways of teaching students about complex global challenges. The speaker shared observations from her research on how many students became frustrated or cynical when learning about global problems because they often felt that nothing seemed to work. This raised an important question for a teacher: how to foster students' critical thinking while also helping them remain hopeful and imaginative about possible solutions. Her research project at the University of Sussex included interviews, classroom observations, and teaching experiments. The goal was to design teaching methods that help students better understand global issues and think about alternative responses.
This approach is built around four main ideas. First is whole-person learning, where students are encouraged to bring not only their intellectual thinking but also their emotions, experiences, and personal perspectives into the classroom. Second, design and arts-based methods are used to help students explore ideas creatively and work with open-ended questions. Third is praxis, meaning learning through action—students work together on real projects such as mapping campus systems or creating sustainability plans. Finally, the approach emphasizes critical hope, which encourages students to stay aware of real problems while still believing that change is possible.
