Crisis pedagogy in creative writing: Emergency, expedience, hindsight, reckoning

Markle, Adrian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-2466 and Moore, Marshall ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0638-0828 (2023) Crisis pedagogy in creative writing: Emergency, expedience, hindsight, reckoning. In: The Power of Storytelling in Teaching Practices: Narratives from Hong Kong and Afar. Routledge, UK/World. ISBN 9781032252605

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Abstract / Summary

This chapter will examine pedagogical practices in creative writing classes, especially regarding pastoral care, in Hong Kong up to, during, and immediately after the interval of civil unrest and societal trauma that erupted because of the 2019 protests, and will contrast those with the approaches someone from outside of the territory might have used under relatively normal circumstances. Drawing on existing scholarship around the creative writing workshop as well as trauma research, we will reflect on in-the-moment pedagogical interventions during the crisis vis-a-vis the benefit of hindsight and the perspective of an impartial educator/practitioner unconnected to the territory and those events. The protests served as an inflection point from which it was necessary to adapt our pedagogical practices quickly as the violence began to escalate, and then adapt them again when teaching moved online for the duration of the fall 2019 semester. This became a forerunner to the pandemic-related lockdowns, and there is further relevance to other crises unfolding today. While it may be argued that creative writing is not intended to be a therapeutic intervention per se, ample research highlights the tendency of students’ personal concerns, fears, and issues to manifest both in their storytelling and in the workshop environment. Given the political and environmental circumstances we find ourselves in, these manifestations are sure to become increasingly common, thus increasing the importance of having a narratively and theoretically informed pedagogical response in place for them.

Item Type:	Book Section
ISBN:	9781032252605
Subjects:	Education History, Geography & Environment Communication > Creative Writing
Courses by Department:	The School of Communication
Depositing User:	Adrian Markle
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2024 11:02
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2024 14:28
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/5343

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