Educational Poetics

Educational research and poetics are often not included in the same conversation. Educational Poetics: Inquiry, Freedom and Innovative Necessity is one of the only texts to explore the possibilities of linking these domains to develop an emergent form of inquiry. Such an inquiry utilizes our human potential to go beyond the seductive force of everyday commonsense to consider and put into place alternative perspectives that are often hidden from view. These alternative perspectives, in turn, help create the ability to free ourselves from mental slavery as we change in inventive ways, a form of innovative necessity.

Time for Educational Poetics address a discussion of today’s philosophy of education and educational research: educational poetics is not limited to a theoretical construction, but rather focuses on creative, imaginative and poetic experience, to being recreated in the teaching-learning process.

Reveals the neglected mode of knowing and learning, from Socrates to the middle ages and beyond, that relies more on the integrated powers of sensory experience and intuition, rather than on modern narrow scientific models of education.

Of all the writings on theory and aesthetics—ancient, medieval, or modern—the most important is indisputably Aristotle’s Poetics, the first philosophical treatise to propound a theory of literature. In the Poetics, Aristotle writes that he will speak of comedy—but there is no further mention of comedy. Aristotle writes also that he will address catharsis and an analysis of what is funny. But he does not actually address any of those ideas. The surviving Poetics is incomplete. Until today. Here, Walter Watson offers a new interpretation of the lost second book of Aristotle's Poetics. Based on Richard Janko’s philological reconstruction of the epitome, a summary first recovered in 1839 and hotly contested thereafter, Watson mounts a compelling philosophical argument that places the statements of this summary of the Aristotelian text in their true context. Watson renders lucid and complete explanations of Aristotle’s ideas about catharsis, comedy, and a summary account of the different types of poetry, ideas that influenced not only Cicero’s theory of the ridiculous, but also Freud’s theory of jokes, humor, and the comic. Finally, more than two millennia after it was first written, and after five hundred years of scrutiny, Aristotle’s Poetics is more complete than ever before. Here, at last, Aristotle’s lost second book is found again.

This handbook presents and critiques predominant and emergent traditions of Educational Action Research internationally. Now a prominent methodology, Educational Action Research is well suited to exploring, developing and sustaining change processes both in classrooms and whole organisations such as schools, Departments of Education, and many segments of universities. The handbook contains theoretical and practical based chapters by highly respected scholars whose work has been seminal in building knowledge and expertise in the field. It also contains chapters exemplifying the work of prominent practitioner and community groups working outside universities. The Editors provide an introduction and conclusion, as well as an opening chapter which charts the historical development of action research and provides an analysis of its underlying theories. The handbook is organized into four sections, each beginning with a short introduction: - Action research methodology: diversity of rationales and practices - Professional: Knowledge production, staff development, and the status of educators - Personal: Self-awareness, development and identity - Political: Popular knowledge, difference, and frameworks for change This is a key resource for scholars and graduate students at doctors and masters levels, as well as school leaders and administrators. Susan Noffke is Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign and co-editor with R.B. Stevenson of Educational Action Research (Teachers College Press, 1995). She taught at the primary school level for a decade, and has led masters and doctoral level courses in action research for the past 20 years. She continues to work with many collaborative projects with schools and school districts. Bridget Somekh is Professor of Educational Research at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is a founder editor of the Educational Action Research journal and has been a co-ordinator of the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN) for many years. She is co-editor of Research Methods in the Social Sciences (SAGE: 2005) and author of Action Research: a Methodology for Change and Development (Open University Press: 2006).

For more than three decades Michael Apple has sought to uncover and articulate the connections among knowledge, teaching and power in education. Beginning with Ideology and Curriculum (1979), Apple moved to understand the relationship between and among the economy, political and cultural power in society on the one hand "and the ways in which education is thought about, organized and evaluated" on the other. This edited collection invites several of the world's leading education scholars to reflect on the relationships between education and power and the continued impact of Apple's scholarship. Like Apple's work itself, the essays will span a range of disciplines and inequalities; emancipatory educational practices; and the linkage between the economy and race, class and gender formation in relation to schools.

Of all the writings on theory and aesthetics - ancient, medieval, or modern - the most important is indisputably Aristotle's "Poetics", the first philosophical treatise to propound a theory of literature. The author offers a fresh interpretation of the lost second book of Aristotle's "Poetics".

Poetry can be both political and pedagogical. It is utilised in a variety of ways in research to enhance, critique, analyse, and express different voices. Poetry, Method and Education Research brings together international scholars to explore issues as diverse as neoliberalism, culture, decolonising education, health, and teacher identities. A key strength of the book is its attention to poetry as a research method, including discussions of "how to" engage with poetry in research, as well as including a range of research poems. Poetry is thus framed as both a method and performance. Authors in this book address a wide variety of questions from different perspectives including how to use poetry to think about complex issues in education, where poetry belongs in a research project, how to write poetry to generate and analyse "data", and how poetry can represent these findings. This book is an essential resource for students and researchers in education programmes, and those who teach in graduate research methods courses.