Author Description

The idea of this small book has resulted from a series of educational projects and activities I have been working on for the community since the Covid-9 pandemic. One of them was a project called ETUF: Empowering Teachers for an Uncertain Future, funded by the Australian government in the Aus4Skills programme for teachers. Working with and observing them during the project, I learned that many teachers lacked various skills to master themselves. Then I thought about their students and how they would be guided to develop. I was glad that we initiated and implemented the ETUF project, though it was on a small scale. Then, when I moved to Birmingham City University, UK, as a Professor of Business Education post Covid pandemic. Birmingham city where I live, is the third largest city in the UK. I want to do something for some deprived communities to help people to stand on their feet. However, I struggle with how I should approach and work with those people when I am an outsider. By accident, I had a conversation with a colleague at my University, Dr Matin Glynn. He told me that apart from being a lecturer, he also worked as an artist and writer. He wrote rap, poems and comedies to transfer research ideas into performing arts. It was a eureka moment for me. It triggered my language background. It woke up my recent research on language performativity in the digitalisation era. It reminded me of my teenage when I wrote poems and short stories for local newspapers. I realised the power of performing art, language and music and thought: why don't I integrate them into business education to change people's thoughts, behaviours and then their lives? The book comprises a collection of 20 verses I wrote with help from technology on a series of critical skills, such as critical thinking, systems thinking, or design thinking for people's development in the age of digitalisation. I hope school teachers, their students and young people out there will know about and master t