Teaching Philosophy

Curiosity, Empathy, and Social Innovation

Kathy H. Zhou approaches teaching as a practice of care, collaboration, and critical engagement. Grounded in critical making and speculative design frameworks, her classrooms are participatory spaces where students take initiative, share responsibility, and support one another through peer-to-peer learning and collective inquiry. Students are encouraged to become co-creators of knowledge—not just passive recipients but active contributors to a shared intellectual and creative environment.

Zhou invites students to connect personal narratives with broader cultural systems, using project-based learning, socially engaged art, and interdisciplinary methods to help them take creative risks and imagine alternative futures.

She views every problem as an invitation for exploration, dialogue, and transformation. Her pedagogy centers on empathy, ethical reflection, and critical dialogue, guiding students toward conceptually rich and socially responsive practices.

Whether facilitating workshops, organizing community collaborations, or developing classroom games like Fall of Artica, Zhou helps students grow into curious thinkers, thoughtful makers, and engaged citizens—creative individuals equipped to navigate change and shape the world with purpose.