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.

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.

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.

This book describes a different approach to teacher education designed to create "carriers of the torch"--teachers who have a sense of efficacy and the attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to teach students from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. Through her examination of teacher change and teacher education in two countries--the United States and South Africa--the author proposes new ways to prepare teachers for a rapidly changing global society.

This book embraces the idea of listening to and learning from students. Although many educational theorists have long argued that incorporating children’s perspectives about teaching and curriculum has the potential for increasing students’ interest and participation in learning, their radical perspectives are still ignored or dismissed in theory and practice. Through featured essays, historical excerpts, and provocative poetry, this collection provides research literature and inquiry ideas that ought to be part of educational debates, policy discussions, and decision makings. Articulated through thoughtful prose and discerning analysis, youth, teachers, and scholars featured in this collection illuminate the power and promise of not only listening to and learning from students, but also acting upon the insights of students. This book calls for the 21st century educational workers--teachers, educators, parents, community workers, administrators, and policy makers--to perceive students as massive reservoirs of knowledge that invigorate possibilities for teaching, learning, and curriculum in the contested educational landscape.

Multiliteracies: Beyond Text and the Written Word emphasizes literacies which are, or have been, common in American culture, but which tend to be ignored in more traditional discussions of literacy—specifically textual literacy. By describing multiliteracies or alternative literacies, and how they function, we have tried to develop a broader understanding of what it means to be literate in American culture. The 39 topical essays/chapters included in this work represent a sampler of both old and new literacies that are clearly at work in American culture, and which go beyond more traditional textual forms and models. Multiliteracies: Beyond Text and the Written Word asks: How is the experience of students changing outside of traditional schools, and how do these changes potentially shape the work they do, how they learn, and the lives they lead in schools and less formal settings? This work assumes that our increasing diversity in a postmodern and increasingly global society brings with it demands for a broader understanding of what it means to be literate. Multiliteracy “literally” becomes a necessity. This work is a guidebook to the new reality, which is increasingly so important to schools and the more general culture.

Based on a large-scale international study of teachers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Ontario, and New York, this book illustrates the ways increased use of high-stakes standardized testing is fundamentally changing education in the US and Canada with a negative overall impact on the way teachers teach and students learn. Standardized testing makes understanding students' strengths and weaknesses more difficult, and class time spent on testing consumes scarce time and attention needed to support the success of all students—further disadvantaging ELLs, students with exceptionalities, low income, and racially minoritized students.

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.

Imagination is the Source of Creativity and Invention This series of essays has been collected expressly to bring readers new ideas about imagination and creativity in education that will both stimulate discussion and debate and also contribute practical ideas for how to infuse our daily classrooms with imaginative activities. In a world that values creative innovation, it is distressing that our schools are dominated by an educational paradigm that pays too little attention to engaging the imagination and emotions of students in the curriculum and the worlds challenges that the curriculum is designed to prepare students to meet. The ability of children to think creatively, to be innovative, enterprising, and capable, depends greatly on providing a rich imagination-based educational environment. It is only when we consider the imagination a vital component of our lives and one of the great workhorses of learning that we recognize the importance of adding the imaginative to the study of the affective, cognitive, and physical modes of our development. Doing so fills a gap that has led to incomplete accounts of childrens development, their subsequent learning needs, and indeed, how to fulfill these needs in educational environments. This discussion, about the importance of imagination and creativity in education, has been taken up by researchers and educators around the world. It is represented here by writings from authors from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Japan, and Romania. In the first part of this book these authors explore and discuss theories of development, imagination, and creativity. In the second part they extend these theories to broader social issues such as responsible citizenship, gender, and special needs education, to new approaches to curriculum subjects such as literacy, science, and mathematics, and to the educational environment of the museum.

This book explores the ways in which education impacts labor markets. Specifically, the contributions in this book indicate that the future of labor is creative, socially aware and inter-disciplinary while identifying the changes and innovations needed in our educational systems to meet this demand. Due to an increasing automatization (robotic manufacturing), the character of labor and work in general will change dramatically in the near future. This will be the case not only in the western countries, but also in the larger emerging economies in Asia, for example China and India. While societal environments, economy and the character of labor are increasingly in a process of dramatic changes, the educational systems and the leading principles of research about labor and employment are not changing adequately. Cross-disciplinary (inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary) thinking and learning is not the main focus of our educational systems. Consequently, the systems of academic research follow and apply disciplinary or even sub-disciplinary strategies, avoiding cross-disciplinary research approaches, and not supporting inter-disciplinary academic career models. This book introduces such strategic models to better prepare the next generation of workers for the new knowledge economy, and the future of democratic societies.