The Book

How might universities better equip students to understand contemporary challenges, imagine alternative responses to them and work together to bring these into being? My book Creative Universities: Re-imagining Education for Global Challenges and Alternative Futures (Bristol University/Policy Press, 2021) proposes pedagogical ideas and practices to address this question and reimagine the role of higher education in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on examples from across disciplines and educational contexts, it explores how my critical-creative pedagogy can help students engage critically and constructively with complex global issues. Below I introduce the book's content, share reviews, interviews with like-minded educators and practical teaching resources to support more experiential, participatory and challenge-led approaches to teaching and learning. There are also journal articles, blog posts and podcasts.

Chapter Summaries

CHAPTER 1
Invitation

The first chapter begins with my personal teaching journey and a description of the research process, then lays out the book’s key concepts of creativity, imagination, hope and alternatives to present my core arguments. It concludes with proposing a ‘generative theory’ that opens up pedagogical spaces of possibilities.

Reviews

Keri Facer

Professor of Educational and Social Futures, University of Bristol

This thoughtful, critical and creative book opens up a wealth of directions for reimagining universities. It is a cornucopia of ideas for designing a new educational practice adequate for a world facing profound environmental, economic and social disruption.

Ronald Barnett

Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London

This book is written with a passion for the students and their learning and a passion for higher education that exhibits hope for a different world. It is a book that is full of life and that will surely enliven most of its readers.

Craig Hammond

Liverpool John Moores University

Schwittay argues for the creation of alternative educational and social futures through the design of new learning environments; the development of student curiosity, introspection and imagination; prototyping activities and the taking of creative risks. This is a timely, important and optimistic book – a conceptual and practical antidote to the challenges of our times.

María Garcia Alvarez

Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

This book is a must read for any professional working in education. It is refreshing, revealing and for those working on sustainable development and global challenges, a call for hope and rethinking the pedagogical approach to our teaching.

Book Reviews

Adult Education Quarterly

LSE Review of Books

PRISM

The Journal of the European Honors Council

Learning and Teaching

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

In this section I share teaching materials related to the activities described in my book. I hope you will experiment with them in your own classrooms.