Meraki: Towards transformative learning in higher education

Reviewed by Kathryn Ananda-Owens, Professor, St. Olaf College on 4/6/26

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Meraki superbly captures the present moment of higher education, in which educators simultaneously have access to a wealth of prior scholarship and reflection on education itself while bearing witness to the disruption AI brings into the 21st-century learning environment. Is it comprehensive? In the spirit of playfulness, openness, creativity, and storytelling with which Nerantzi thinks and writes, yes, absolutely. In the conventional sense of a graduate education text, no. If you approach this text wanting A + B to equal C, you will be disappointed. If you are searching for metacognitive leaps that may jar your brain into new ways of thinking and teaching, Meraki is for you. At the time of this review, the text has no index.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Since the subheading of Chapter 1 is "Towards a Creativity Manifesto," I would like to set the question of authorial bias aside. Nerantzi impeccably cites sources throughout, and I did not encounter any content errors. That said, this text comes across in its current form as deeply personal, even perhaps as a glimpse into stream-of-consciousness journal writing by an expert on creative, inspiring, inclusive teaching. The content is consistently thought-provoking.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is up-to-date for certain, far more so than many educational resources available to faculty and staff today. The text offers the reader multiple frameworks for considering genAI as a tool for educators and students rather than as a crutch. I look forward to seeing how Part 2 develops.

Clarity rating: 5

Nerantzi's authorial voice is accessible, personable, and engaging. Occasionally I encountered vocabulary foreign to me as an academic based in the USA, but this was no bar to comprehension.

Consistency rating: 5

Great consistency overall.

Modularity rating: 4

The text is highly modular. For the most part, any single chapter could be read much like a stand-alone article. Chapter 6 is best understood in the immediate context of Chapter 5, in order to understand Nerantzi's usage of "uncreative" writing.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Within each chapter, topics generally flow readily from one to the next. From chapter to chapter, flow is less evident. If you are familiar with theories of the wave-particle duality of light, you will have no trouble tracking from one section or chapter to the next. Sometimes Nerantzi's writing behaves like a wave, and sometimes it behaves like a particle. Sometimes, concepts flow in a linear manner from one to the next, and sometimes Nerantzi takes us on a quantum leap.

Interface rating: 4

Meraki includes video clips, titled "Voices," that appear designed to complement material in individual chapters As currently formatted, each individual "Voice" clip segues directly into the next one, which leads to presentation of multiple "Voice" clips out of sync with the chapters they are intended to accompany. In one sense, this reflects the spirit of Meraki: readers could be open to happenstance and allow a "Voice" clip encountered prematurely to seed their thoughts when they read the accompanying chapter later on. In another sense, the segues may sow confusion. I as a reader experienced a temporary sense of chaos whenever I forgot to pause a chapter's "Voices" video(s). Display features are otherwise very good.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

The text contains few grammatical errors. Readers open to both creative writing and professional writing will be most comfortable with periodic fluctuations in style and voice.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The book's embrace of transformative learning renders it highly relevant. It would be great to see greater inclusion of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds in the "Voices" clips.

In Chapter 6, Nerantzi writes about a process of amalgamating "to organise my own thinking, keep some of my memories alive, and share with you today with the hope that this output will make you reflect." This is in many respects an excellent distillation of Meraki as a whole. It is not a book I can imagine using as a textbook per se. It is absolutely a book I will be recommending to colleagues for summer reading and reflection. I will be returning to it myself, a chapter at a time, over cups of tea and with my journal at my side. This is an extraordinary book.