A Curriculum of Imagination in an Era of Standardization
A Curriculum of Imagination in an Era of Standardization

Author: Robert Lake

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1623962676

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A Curriculum of Imagination in an Era of Standardization In A Curriculum of Imagination in an Era of Standardization: An Imaginative Dialogue with Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire, a volume in Landscapes of Education [Series Editors: William H. Schubert, University of Illinois at Chicago & Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University], Robert Lake explores with the reader what is meant by imagination in the work of Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire and their relevance in an era of increasingly standardized and highly scripted practices in the field of education. The author explores how imagination permeates every aspect of life with the intent to develop capacity with the readers to look beyond the taken-for-granted, to question the normal, to develop various ways of knowing, seeing, feeling, and to imagine and act upon possibilities for positive social and educational change. The principal aspect of the work illustrated in this book that distinguishes it from other work is that an “imaginary” dialogue between Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire runs through the book using actual citations from their work. Each chapter starts with such a dialogue interspersed with the works of others and the author’s critical autobiographical reflections. With a brief overview of the socio-cultural evolution of imagination from pre-literate times to the present, the author explores some of the current iterations of imagination including the eugenics movement and “dark” imagination, sensing gaps and creative/critical imagination, metaphors as the language of imagination and empathy as social imagination. Reflecting upon emerging tensions, challenges, and possibilities curriculum workers face in such an era of standardization, the author calls for a curriculum of imagination. After providing a brief overview of the socio-cultural evolution of imagination from pre-literate times to the present, the author looks at some of the current iterations of imagination, including the eugenics movement and “dark” imagination, sensing gaps and creative/critical imagination, metaphors as the language of the imagination, and empathy as social imagination. All of these ideas are then incorporated in a curriculum of imagination that is envisioned through Joseph Schwab’s four commonplaces of curriculum followed by a discussion of emerging tensions, issues and possibilities for praxis and scholarship in present and future inquiry.

A Curriculum of Imagination Beyond the Walls of Standardization
A Curriculum of Imagination Beyond the Walls of Standardization

Author: Robert Lewis Lake

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13:

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Author's abstract: This dissertation is a theoretical inquiry into ways of seeing, knowing, and learning that are frequently excluded in this present climate of standardized practices in the field of education. In this study, I explore how imagination permeates every aspect of life experience and helps develop personal and political awareness in students to look beyond what they take for granted, to question the normal, and to develop various ways of knowing, seeing, feeling, and acting upon positive social and educational change in an era of accountability. This is accomplished by tracing the historical and contemporary evolution of the concepts of imagination and metaphor and, in specific terms, how they make possible the creation of personal meaning and agency. An imaginary dialogue based on actual quotations from Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire serves as the theoretical framework for the inquiry, with the researchers commentary interspersed at various points in the conversation. The study also explores the connection between eugenics and the origin of standardized testing and the practice of tracking in the United States during the twentieth century. By reflecting on my own experience as a student, teacher, and researcher, I look for ways to describe the roles of imagination in naming, being, and transforming private and public worlds. Applications and connections to practice are described in a variety of settings, ranging from the use of multiple forms of literacy in content area studies to the use of literature and media to enhance understanding of the other. I also focus on the significance of sensing gaps and perceiving the unanswered, the unfinished, and the unjust in ways that passionately move us beyond the taken-for-granted and the status quo in the present system of official knowledge and contrived practices of classroom accountability.

Maxine Greene and the Pedagogy of Social Imagination
Maxine Greene and the Pedagogy of Social Imagination

Author: Hannah Spector

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-12-18

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1351014811

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Devoted to and inspired by the late Maxine Greene, a champion of education and advocator of the arts, this book recognizes the importance of Greene’s scholarship by revisiting her oeuvre in the context of the intellectual historicity that shaped its formation. As a scholar, Greene dialogued with philosophers, social theorists, writers, musicians, and artists. These conversations reveal the ways in which the arts, just like philosophy and science, allow for the facilitation of "wide-awakeness," a term that is central to Greene’s pedagogy. Amidst contemporary trends of neoliberal, one-size-fits-all curriculum reforms in which the arts are typically squeezed out or pushed aside, Greene’s work reminds us that the social imagination is stunted without the arts. Artistic ways of knowing allow for people to see beyond their own worlds and beyond "what is" into other worlds of "what was" and "what might" be some day. This volume demonstrates Maxine Greene’s profound ability to illuminate the importance of the artistic world and the imaginary for development of the self in the world and for encouraging a "wide-awakeness" reflective of an emerging political awareness and a longing for a democratic world that "is not yet." This book was originally published as a Special Issue of The Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies.

The SAGE Guide to Curriculum in Education
The SAGE Guide to Curriculum in Education

Author: Ming Fang He

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2015-06-05

Total Pages: 971

ISBN-13: 1506300669

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The SAGE Guide to Curriculum in Education integrates, summarizes, and explains, in highly accessible form, foundational knowledge and information about the field of curriculum with brief, simply written overviews for people outside of or new to the field of education. This Guide supports study, research, and instruction, with content that permits quick access to basic information, accompanied by references to more in-depth presentations in other published sources. This Guide lies between the sophistication of a handbook and the brevity of an encyclopedia. It addresses the ties between and controversies over public debate, policy making, university scholarship, and school practice. While tracing complex traditions, trajectories, and evolutions of curriculum scholarship, the Guide illuminates how curriculum ideas, issues, perspectives, and possibilities can be translated into public debate, school practice, policy making, and life of the general public focusing on the aims of education for a better human condition. 55 topical chapters are organized into four parts: Subject Matter as Curriculum, Teachers as Curriculum, Students as Curriculum, and Milieu as Curriculum based upon the conceptualization of curriculum commonplaces by Joseph J. Schwab: subject matter, teachers, learners, and milieu. The Guide highlights and explicates how the four commonplaces are interdependent and interconnected in the decision-making processes that involve local and state school boards and government agencies, educational institutions, and curriculum stakeholders at all levels that address the central curriculum questions: What is worthwhile? What is worth knowing, needing, experiencing, doing, being, becoming, overcoming, sharing, contributing, wondering, and imagining? The Guide benefits undergraduate and graduate students, curriculum professors, teachers, teacher educators, parents, educational leaders, policy makers, media writers, public intellectuals, and other educational workers. Key Features: Each chapter inspires readers to understand why the particular topic is a cutting edge curriculum topic; what are the pressing issues and contemporary concerns about the topic; what historical, social, political, economic, geographical, cultural, linguistic, ecological, etc. contexts surrounding the topic area; how the topic, relevant practical and policy ramifications, and contextual embodiment can be understood by theoretical perspectives; and how forms of inquiry and modes of representation or expression in the topic area are crucial to develop understanding for and make impact on practice, policy, context, and theory. Further readings and resources are provided for readers to explore topics in more details.

Sensuous Curriculum
Sensuous Curriculum

Author: Walter S. Gershon

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2019-07-01

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1641135832

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The sensuous is the human experience, unfolding our everyday experiences and articulating our affects. Without sensory information, we could neither know nor be. This is because we gain information through our senses and interpret that information as perceptions, the sociocultural frames used to analyze that input. This is the case regardless of how a sensorium is constructed, a more limited Western five senses model for example. It is also the case no matter how senses are defined, they ways they are expressed, or the ways in which they are understood to function. Further, because there are often greater differences between members within a particular group than divergences between groups, how one attends to and acts in light of sensory information is always a polyphonic tapestry constructed on the warp of the sociocultural and the weft of individualism. Education, the transfer of information between people, animals, things, and ecologies, is therefore a sensory endeavor. Sensuous curriculum is one means of describing this deeply layered intersection of educational ways of being and knowing. In many ways inverting how questions of curriculum are often framed, Sensuous Curriculum: Politics and the Senses in Education foregrounds how sensory understandings are forms of educational, relational politics. Bringing the depth and complexity of sensory studies firmly into curriculum and foundational studies of education, contributors to this volume address this educational and political intersection from a wide variety of theoretical and practical perspectives that are always embodied and material. Approached in an academic yet accessible manner, Sensuous Curriculum addresses key questions about what it means to educate and the ideas and ideals render those understandings sensible. This variety, depth, and accessibility combine to make Sensuous Curriculum an important resource for those interested in critical studies of the senses in educational ecologies and holistic education. It is a text as at home in theory and methods doctoral courses as it is in undergraduate courses for preservice teachers and will be of interest to those searching for rich ways to conceptualize education outside of a standards-centric perspective. Praise for Sensuous Curriculum: "This collection engages and challenges readers to think more deeply about questions of curriculum in connection to the sensuous in ways not typically considered, existing multi-dimensionally in transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross- disciplinary work. This compelling, intellectually stimulating, exhilarating volume is a canonical contribution everyone must study." Theodorea Regina Berry Professor and Chair, African American Studies College of Social Sciences, San Jose State University "Dr. Gershon’s edited collection, Sensuous Curriculum: Politics and the Senses in Education, makes the case for corrective action. By exploring the sensory as human experience, curriculum, and political, the authors of this volume offer iterations and variations for interrupting the ignor(anc)es of the sensorium in education and the body in making sense." M. Francyne Huckaby Associate Dean, TCU School of Interdisciplinary Studies Professor, Curriculum Studies, TCU College of Education & Center for Public Education "I thoroughly enjoyed sensing this book. This collection defies the conventional popular trends that sit inside the classic curriculum vinyl on our bookshelves. And in Aokian fashion, Walter Gershon has successfully brought together an ensemble of curriculum scholars who dare us to improvise and replay the possibilities and limitations of educational research as a tantalization of our senses. The research put forth in this collection not only promises to the break barriers of our thinking, but also makes significant contributions to and beyond post-humanism, new materialism, curriculum and affect theory. All serious scholars—artists, teacher educators, teachers, graduate students, community activists—of curriculum studies will want to purchase a copy of this carefully, crafted, curated sensuous collection. Without reservation...put the needle on their record, cause I am one of their biggest fans." Nicholas Ng-A-Fook Professor, Director of Teacher Education, Indigenous Teacher Education Co-Director of the Réseau de Savoir sur l’Equité/Equity Knowledge Network Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa

Necessary Spaces
Necessary Spaces

Author: Saundra Murray Nettles

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1623963338

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In Necessary Spaces: Exploring the Richness of African American Childhood in the South, Saundra Murray Nettles takes the reader on a journey into neighborhood networks of learning at different times and places. Using autobiographical accounts, Nettles discusses the informal instructional practices of community “coaches” from the perspective of African American adults who look back on their childhood learning experiences in homes, libraries, city blocks, schools, churches, places of business, and nature. These eyewitness accounts reveal "necessary spaces,” the metaphor Nettles uses to describe seven recurring experiences that converge with contemporary notions of optimal black child development: connection, exploration, design, empowerment, resistance, renewal, and practice. Nettles weaves the personal stories with social scientific theory and research and practical accounts of community-based initiatives to illuminate how local communities contributed human, built, and natural resources to support children’s achievement in schools. The inquiry offers a timely and accessible perspective on how community involvement for children can be developed utilizing the grassroots efforts of parents, children, and other neighborhood residents; expertise from personnel in schools, informal institutions (such as libraries and museums); and other sectors interested in disparities in education, health, and the quality of physical settings. Grounded in the environmental memories of African American childhood, Necessary Spaces offers a culturally relevant view of civic participation and sustainable community development at the local level. Educational researchers and policy makers, pre-service and in-service teachers, and people who plan for and work with children and youth in neighborhoods will find this book an engaging look at possibilities for the social organization of educational resources. Qualitative researchers will find a model for writing personal scholarly essays that use the personal to inform larger issues of policy and practice. In Necessary Spaces, local citizens in neighborhoods across the United States will find stories that resonate with their own experiences, stimulate their recollections, and inform and inspire their continuing efforts to create brighter futures for children and communities.

Reclaiming the Sane Society
Reclaiming the Sane Society

Author: Miri Seyed Javad

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-07-03

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9462096074

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Erich Fromm’s body of work, written more than 50 years ago, was prophetic of the contemporary moment: Increasingly, global society is threatened by the many-headed monster of corporate greed, neo-liberalism, nihilism, extreme fundamentalist beliefs, and their resulting effects on the natural world and the lived lives of people. Fromm clearly warned us of the peril of the misuse of technology and the destructive nature of man’s perverse desire to possess, control and/or destroy. Through his theories of having vs. being, the importance of hope as active resistance, and his notion of freedom as the capacity to love self, and others, Fromm encouraged his readers to cultivate biophilic ways of being in the world that will counter and heal the impending necrophilic plunder of man’s hubris. This multi-authored volume sheds new light on Fromm’s forgotten role in the formation of contemporary thought through an engaging variety of reflexive and historical narratives from fields of sociology, clinical psychology, political science, critical theory of religion and education. Key concepts from his body of work are interpreted and expressed in ways that offer hopeful and humane alternatives to the present global conditions of despair, greed and depersonalization.

The Handbook of Critical Theoretical Research Methods in Education
The Handbook of Critical Theoretical Research Methods in Education

Author: Cheryl E. Matias

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-05-12

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0429614926

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The Handbook of Critical Theoretical Research Methods in Education approaches theory as a method for doing research, rather than as a background framework. Educational research often reduces theory to a framework used only to analyze empirically collected data. In this view theories are not considered methods, and studies that apply them as such are not given credence. This misunderstanding is primarily due to an empiricist stance of educational research, one that lacks understanding of how theories operate methodologically and presumes positivism is the only valid form of research. This limited perspective has serious consequences on essential academic activities: publication, tenure and promotion, grants, and academic awards. Expanding what constitutes methods in critical theoretical educational research, this edited book details 21 educationally just theories and demonstrates how theories are applied as method to various subfields in education. From critical race hermeneutics to Bakhtin’s dialogism, each chapter explicates the ideological roots of said theory while teaching us how to apply the theory as method. This edited book is the first of its kind in educational research. To date, no other book details educationally just theories and clearly explicates how those theories can be applied as methods. With contributions from scholars in the fields of education and qualitative research worldwide, the book will appeal to researchers and graduate students.