Transforming higher education through trickster-style teaching

This article utilizes theoretical inquiry to examine the need for transforming conventional, industrial-scientific, higher education curriculum and pedagogy. In recognition of the scale and urgency of the changes necessary to embrace the sustainability movement at all levels of education, the author presents the trickster archetype as a theoretical and practical framework for educational transgression and transformation. The case is made for embracing trickster-style teaching techniques to revolutionize educational approaches and to help educators, students, and educational theorists to more readily adapt to the ecological, social, and economic challenges that humanity currently faces. The author proposes that the urgency and importance of the changes that need to occur in higher education necessitate unconventional pedagogical methods, such as those embedded within the trickster archetype, to facilitate pluralistic modes of inquiry and transdisciplinary problem solving. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.