Honing the Critical Imagination: The Use of Fiction as Case Study to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

This paper presents the pedagogical approach of embedding fiction as case studies within a non-literature course to foster deep learning of subject content and build critical thinking skills. We did this in a postgraduate leadership course, pairing literary works of fiction, such as Sophocles’s Antigone, with academic leadership theory. Although research discusses the value of literature as a teaching tool, few examples show literary works integrated into curricula. We share our experience and observations, along with an original critical-thinking model, to reflect and evaluate how ideas from fictional texts were applied to students’ real-world thinking. By presenting this subject design and our key takeaways on student learning outcomes, we hope to offer other educators a way to craft their own subject design to engage, challenge, and enrich students’ learning experiences.