TikTok as a contemporary literary space in Palestinian higher education: empowering students’ creative thinking of fiction

ABSTRACT

This study explores the transformative potential of TikTok as a contemporary literary space that empowers students’ creative thinking within the context of Palestinian higher education. It focuses on a group of 76 students who enrolled in the Novel & Short Story course in the English Department at a Palestinian university during the second term in 2022. By employing a Piagetian theoretical framework and a quantitative research approach through the utilization of a web questionnaire, the research demonstrates how the power of TikTok can be harnessed to inspire and construct a vibrant literary community in Palestinian higher education. In this community, students are positioned as active heroes in their TikTok videos where their interactive practices increase intellectual discussions, productive in-class performance, and collaborative reflection. Famed in a positive light, the research findings show that a sustained communal engagement with novels and short stories via digital spaces not only cultivates effective modes of creative thinking among participants but also provides original and practical orientations of teaching and learning in the Palestinian academic community. The possible digital understanding of literary texts beyond the conventions of institutionalized pedagogy provokes a future where students become creative thinkers and contributors to the world of fiction.

KEYWORDS:

• TikTok
• literature
• higher education
• Palestine
• creative thinking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohammed Hamdan

Dr. Mohammed Hamdan has a PhD in comparative transatlantic literature from the University of Lancaster, UK and currently works as an associate professor of Anglo-American literary studies. His main research interests include nineteenth-century material culture, gender studies, literary translation and comparative studies on exile, landscape and national identity in modern Palestinian fiction. His articles on various subjects of literary criticism appear in Interactive Learning Environments, English Academy Review, Babel: International Journal of Translation, Journal of Gender Studies, Comparative American Studies, English Studies, National Identities and many others.

Aya Al-atrash

Aya Al-atrash has an MA in methods of teaching English as a foreign language from the College of Humanities and Educational Sciences at An-Najah National University, Palestine. She is currently interested in doing research on the use of technology in education, autonomous learning and ChatGPT-assisted learning.