Harvard alumni, actress and producer Yara Shahidi delivered a powerful presentation covering the impact of blending conflicting spaces of interest.
With a challenging schedule fixed with a combination of social studies, African American studies and an entertainment career, Shahidi’s Ted Talk, ‘Let Curiosity Lead’ (TED, 2024), contributed to the idea that we should strive to integrate students’ interests and curiosities into education.
Integrating curiosity and interests into the curriculum is a powerful way to enhance the learning experience. Unfortunately, we are often told there is ‘no symbolic relationship between the two worlds’, Shahidi continues to explain that she was often searching for an ‘and but kept getting presented in an either-or’ (TED, 2024). Commonly students use universal examples like these to pause their curious trails of thought while studying undergraduate courses. Furthermore, students tend to struggle to retain attention and commitment towards their unit work because of predetermined project routes.
Similarly thinking back to when I was an undergraduate student, I frequently struggled to communicate with my tutors because of module boundaries and limiting feedback. It often led me to feel as though my interests outside of class were incompatible with education and had to continuously ask for permission to explore or prove its relevancy. This contributed to numerous hurdles in completing my degree.
Carole Morrison (Head of Social Purpose in the Curriculum) hosted a curriculum intervention workshop, which I attended in hopes of combining findings to understand student engagement and attrition.
While interrogating the question, ‘What are your intellectual interests?’, I focused on a definition which involved having a developed and deepened knowledge of a specific topic unlike low-maintenance hobbies, which require a period of investment. However, fellow alumni shared how their interpretation of ‘intellectual interests’ alluded to the idea that there is a hierarchy which can in turn help facilitate the suppression of curiosity in the curriculum.
While at first, I didn’t see an issue with the phrase ‘intellectual interest’, upon reflection it made me think that there is a privileged experience in education where certain avenues of exploration are valued and accepted to conduct research and develop projects on and others experience more pushback.
Why should there be a hierarchy of our curiosity and interests?
Who decides that?
As a visiting practitioner teaching 16-18-year-olds who are transitioning into higher education, I encounter challenges in helping students integrate their personal identity with their educational pursuits. Many students tend to view education as a separate entity rather than an integral part of their personal growth and development. We can see how this can affect their journey in education while they struggle to prioritise a ‘side hustle’ or focus on a degree they are not connecting with. Additionally, students struggle to use their degrees and don’t know how to use their interests in the working world.
In conclusion, participating in this workshop has helped me to consider a perspective to view and apply in my own role.
The importance of creating informative and supportive environments to help students not only see the avenues they can take in higher education and after to pursue a career but literally see avenues within their modules and blend worlds together. We must prioritise student’s feedback.
There can be value in letting curiosity and interests lead.
Key words:
epistemology in education (the whys)
ontology (guiding)
Vimeo (2020), UAL Assessment Criteria. Available at: https://vimeo.com/366757019
Wikipedia (2024), Criticism of schooling. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_schooling
Padlet (2024), What are your intellectual interests? Available at: https://artslondon.padlet.org/cmorrison60/1x-what-are-your-intellectual-interests-xz9z3qooq1kie3xv
Wikipedia (2024), Curiosity killed the cat. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_killed_the_cat
Let Curiosity Lead | Yara Shahidi | TED (TED, 2024) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xBpkc7-w3A&t=204s