The ‘wicked’ problem of developing critical understanding in Creative Writing students

ABSTRACT

The UK subject benchmark statement states that ‘Creative Writing [C.W.] is a diverse and still developing subject […] underpinned by a growing body of research and pedagogical thinking’ (QAA 2016, http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-Creative-Writing-16.pdf) and as such writers who teach, and teachers who write, are actively engaging in reflective practice to try to bridge the gap between what has previously been viewed as a solitary and perhaps ‘mysterious’ practice, and what is now demanded in terms of theoretical and critical knowledge of that practice by students. As a writer and teacher of writing, I have become aware of similarities between Problem Based Learning (P.B.L.) and the praxis approach I use. Seeking out literature on this connection, however, has revealed that while many other disciplines (English/History/Sociology) are using C.W. as a P.B.L. tool, it is little discussed within the subject itself. This study is the first tentative stage in a wider consideration of whether openly exploring creative writing acts and actions as a series of problem-solving exercises can help students further understand their own creative practice, and develop not only their creative work but also their ability to reflect and analyse their practice through academic research.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedagogy
• problem based learning
• reflective practice
• praxis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Philippa Holloway is a writer and academic from North Wales, currently teaching at Edge Hill University while undertaking doctoral research. Her short fiction has been published in Ascent and the Scythe Prize Anthology (USA), Communion and Bukker Tillibul (AUS), New Contrast (SA), Litro and the Fish Prize Anthology, and will appear as a Nightjar chapbook shortly (UK). She won third place in the Fish Publishing Prize for Short Stories 2017 and has been shortlisted for writing awards, including the H.E. Bates Competition 2016 and the Waterstones/Sunderland Short Story Award 2016. Her creative non-fiction entry, ‘Energy Crisis – A Memoir of Summer’, was highly commended in the 2015 New Welsh Writing Awards (New Welsh Reader #108). Following this she was commissioned to curate a special feature for the New Welsh Reader (#111), entitled ‘Power in the Land?’ based on collaborative research between herself, a group of local poets and the X10 Power in the Land art collaboration. She has recently begun travel writing after a research trip to Ukraine and the site of the Chernobyl disaster.

ORCID

Philippa Holloway http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3330-6909