Creative Classroom Issue 2: In the Field
Research in education, sociology, and psychology consistently shows that uncertainty and anxiety can disrupt the process and outcomes of learning. In a time when ongoing uncertainty threatens the motivation, methods, and places of learning, how have we learned and how can we learn better?
In the second issue of the Creative Classroom, the editorial team curated four articles from authors who creatively navigate through the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and gain creative learning experience in the field. A barbershop at the street corner, a virtual classroom, a metropolitan city, and a rural township become the authors’ learning space. Learning comes from trusted peers and familiar settings as much as it comes from random acquaintances and serendipitously found places. The pandemic disrupts traditional models of learning, but it also encourages us to develop new lenses and approaches to learning.
In When a Sociology Student Enters a Barbershop, Leiyi Lin encountered and experienced the sociology of public discourse as he vicariously participated in a conversation with the barber and other customers prompted by a TV program at a Vienna barbershop.
In Beyond the Caves of Solitude: The Gift of Mining Together, Haitian Ma shared her experience of forming a deeper understanding of comparative literature by learning together with her peers in a virtual classroom as a graduate student at Oxford University, UK.
In Three Phases of My Self-Taught Photography Experience, Xinyi Qu shares her journey of learning photography by learning from master photographers, taking city walks, and initiating interactive and playful projects with friends in the city of Shanghai.
In Facilitating Media Literacy Education in a Rural High School in China, Jiannan Shi reviewed his experience of promoting media literacy education in a rural high school in China as he facilitated dialogues and initiated an experimental magazine club.
Instead, with this curated set of voices, stories, reflections, and images, we want to invite our readers to join these reflexive dialogues about how we can learn creatively and meaningfully in the field, that is, outside traditional classroom settings. We thank the authors for candidly sharing these snippets of their learning journeys and we hope you will enjoy these stories! Sincerely,
The Creative Classroom Editorial Team
Editorial Team
Yanyue Yuan is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Shanghai. Yanyue conducts research on the teaching of design thinking, creative learning in informal settings, and intergenerational learning.
Emily Tsiang is an Associate Professor at NYU Shanghai and design researcher at Stanford’s Center for Innovation & Design Research.
Sam Li is a Management Ph.D. student at NYU Stern researching social innovation. She is also a proud NYU Shanghai alum.
