Creative Practices in the Observation of Everyday Life
Universities have changed over the past forty years that I have been teaching. We see more and more hybridized course offerings that build bridges across various disciplines. The same kind of process is evident in the hiring practices of research-oriented
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8. CREATIVE PRACTICES IN THE OBSERVATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE The Crack in the Door That Invites a Creative Vision
Universities have changed over the past forty years that I have been teaching. We see more and more hybridized course offerings that build bridges across various disciplines. The same kind of process is evident in the hiring practices of researchoriented departments of psychology. In “the old days” we hired new faculty either in social/personality/developmental, cognitive/learning, or physiological psychology. Nowadays, to get a job in social psychology at a major university in Canada your “brand” has to sound something like “neuro-cognitive-social” or you will not get anywhere near a short list. The same goes for prospective graduate students who need to fit the narrowly defined, programmatic, and grant-driven interests of faculty. What is shaping this change in the academic landscape and how does it impact creativity? Do we put the blame on “globalization” which, in this case, has to do with eliminating barriers (read as “redundancy”) between structures for the purpose of enhancing efficiency? Is this a reflection of modernity with an emphasis on cutting-edge problem-solving? Or, as one of my recently nearly retired colleagues, said to me a couple of years back: “Gerry. It’s no longer about ideas. It’s all about toys.” I am not writing this piece from the perspective of a neo-romantic, anti-science humanist or some other kind of curmudgeon who is long in the academic tooth. Quite the opposite. My goal, as a researcher, is to link the sciences with the humanities and integrate mainstream theories about emotion and aesthetics in a complementary manner (see Cupchik, 2016). But this article is not about me or other professors as researchers. Rather, my focus is on creative teaching and learning practices which help my students find niches in an age of globalization that is sustained by the internet. And who are these students? The sample space of students at these universities has changed radically over the years. As I like to tell my colleagues from universities in the United States and Europe, “I teach more students with more first language backgrounds and from more places than you have ever seen or heard of!” And I should add the simple demographic fact that, in many cases, they are the first generation in their families to enter a university. This places an extra burden on their shoulders. So what can I do to help these students when only a generation ago, and no doubt still today, their parents were told that they could not get this or that job because they “lacked Canadian experience”. J. B. Cummings & M. L. Blatherwick (Eds.), Creative Dimensions of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century, 91–98. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
G. C. CUPCHIK
Here is my prescription for helping students overcome the hidden boundaries of globalization and ethnic or racial provenance. My approach reflects a combination of what we called “gorilla theatre” back in the 1960s and plain old pragmatic wisdo
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