Creativity in Crisis: Re-envisioning Higher Education in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Abstract

In the spring of 2022, we (a teacher–educator from the USA and a Kachin graduate research assistant) interviewed 14 participants from Myanmar who were engaging in an unprecedented educational re-imagining during the Spring Revolution following the 2021 military coup that gripped the county. Three preliminary findings of our study focus on creativity in crisis in higher education, which we categorized as actors, actions, and procedures, or who, what, and how. ‘Who’ refers to actors and their creativity in forming new alliances among inter-ethnic and inter-generational educators and activists to remake education. ‘What’ refers to creativity in content in addressing inequity and ‘fake history’ in the national curriculum. ‘How’ addresses creativity in the delivery of education in the midst of extreme challenges and opposition. This look into the way crises can lead to creativity in education, with a focus on higher education, presents a unique opportunity to witness how grassroots actors in Myanmar are seeking to transform higher education in a ‘radical bureaucratic overhaul,’ as one participant put it, making it more inclusive, critical, and just.