Imagination For Inclusion

Imagination for Inclusion offers a reconsideration of the ways in which imagination engages and empowers learners across the education spectrum, from primary to adult levels and in all subject areas. Imagination as a natural, expedient, and exciting learning tool should be central to any approach to developing and implementing curriculum, but is increasingly undervalued as learners progress through the education system; this disregards not only imagination’s potential, but its paramount place in informing truly inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. This book presents a new theory of imagination and includes discussion about its application to teaching and learning to increase the engagement of disaffected students and reinvigorate their relationships with curriculum content. Chapters include key ideas and discussion surrounding the benefits of introducing imaginative practices into the classroom for learners from a range of marginalised backgrounds, such as young people with disabilities and adult learners from socio-economically disadvantaged environments. In exploring imagination in the practice of inclusive education, the book includes chapters from researchers and practitioners in education who have fresh ideas about how learners and teachers have benefited from introducing imaginative pedagogies. The diverse collection, featuring writers with backgrounds from early childhood to adult education, will be essential reading for academics and researchers in the fields of education, inclusive education, social policy, professional development, teacher education and creativity. It will be of particular interest to current and pre-service teachers who want to develop inclusive practice and increase the engagement of all students with formal education.

This comprehensive book provides a theoretical understanding of how imagination contributes to effective leadership, as well as practical tools all educational leaders can employ to cultivate their imaginations and the imaginations of others in their communities. To support these goals, book chapters offer multiple perspectives on what imagination is, why it is essential for educational leaders, and how it can be developed. Contributions by leadership scholars and school-based leaders are organized around three themes: exploring possibilities, poetics of memory, and imagination’s role in social justice and equity. Each section opens with a leadership story that shows how a school leader developed and used imagination to create solutions to real problems. Contributors to this volume were invited to read each otherÕs work and share their questions and thoughts. This work can now be used by individuals or within formal or informal learning communities to expand, deepen and, apply concepts. Expanding on Kieran EganÕs theory of Imaginative Education, this book will help current and future leaders employ imagination to make sense of and address the day-to-day challenges they encounter. Book Features: Brings together empirical and conceptual research on imagination’s varied roles in educational leadership.Provides practical strategies and implementable techniques for cultivating leadership imagination. Demonstrates what cognitive tools all leaders can use to deepen their understanding of issues, to emotionally and imaginatively engage their school communities, and to support equity, diversity, and inclusion.Offers easy-to-use activities and guidelines for applying imagination to key leadership processes and practices. Includes “Cultivating Curiosity, Conversation, and Imagination” sections at the end of chapters to stimulate individual reflection and collaborative discussion. Contributors: Laurie Anderson, Sean Blenkinsop, Lori Driussi, Lynn Fels, Mark Fettes, James W. Koschoreck, Dan Laitsch, Craig Mah, Jessica Masterson, Moraimo Machado, Sarah Pazur, Rose Pillay, Tara Preston, Courtney Robertson, Jonathan Sclater, Karen Steffensen, Katie Strom, Zachary D. Thomas, and Kara Mitchell Viesca.

This collection of essays from scholars in eleven countries, centres upon the theory and practice of the use of imagination in education. By bringing together studies covering a wide range of subject matter we trust that the reader will have the opportunity to appreciate both the diversity within the field and the significance of the topics discussed. We hope too that readers will find connections to their own areas of study. The 13 essays present distinct yet converging points of view, whether it be a discussion of the imagination as a virtue, the use of imagination as a means to improve aboriginal education in Northern Canada, or the description of a museum in Brazil in which the imagination of the child is central to the project. Separately, each of the papers identifies and explores a distinct aspect of Imaginative Education; together, they begin to define the breadth and richness of the field. These essays have been selected from papers presented over a period of several years to research symposiums in imagination and education held every summer in Vancouver, Canada under the auspices of the Imaginative Education Research Group in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University.

"This remarkable set of essays defines the role of imagination in general education, arts education, aesthetics, literature, and the social and multicultural context.... The author argues for schools to be restructured as places where students reach out for meanings and where the previously silenced or unheard may have a voice. She invites readers to develop processes to enhance and cultivate their own visions through the application of imagination and the arts. Releasing the Imagination should be required reading for all educators, particularly those in teacher education, and for general and academic readers." —Choice "Maxine Greene, with her customary eloquence, makes an impassioned argument for using the arts as a tool for opening minds and for breaking down the barriers to imagining the realities of worlds other than our own familiar cultures.... There is a strong rhythm to the thoughts, the arguments, and the entire sequence of essays presented here." —American Journal of Education "Releasing the Imagination gives us a vivid portrait of the possibilities of human experience and education's role in its realization. It is a welcome corrective to current pressures for educational conformity." —Elliot W. Eisner, professor of education and art, Stanford University "Releasing the Imagination challenges all the cant and cliché littering the field of education today. It breaks through the routine, the frozen, the numbing, the unexamined; it shocks the reader into new awareness." —William Ayers, associate professor, College of Education, University of Illinois, Chicago

This volume presents ten new essays on the nature of perceptual imagination and perceptual memory. The central questions are: How do perceptual imagination and memory resemble and differ from each other and from other kinds of sensory experience? And what role does each play in perception and in the acquisition of knowledge?

Young people learn most readily when their imaginations are engaged and teachers teach most successfully when they are able to see their subject matter from their pupils' point of view. It is, however, difficult to define imagination in practice and even more difficult to make full use of its potential. In this original and stimulating book, Kieran Egan, winner of the prestigous Grawemeyer award for education in 1991, discusses what imagination really means for children and young people in the middle years and what its place should be in the midst of the normal demands of classroom teaching and learning. Egan uses a bright and witty style to move from a brief history of the ways in which imagination has been regarded over the years, through a general discussion of the links between learning and imagination. A selection of sample lesson plans show teachers how they can encourage effective learning through stimulating pupils' imaginations in a variety of curriculum areas, including maths, science, social studies and language work.

Imagination occupies a central place in philosophy, going back to Aristotle. However, following a period of relative neglect there has been an explosion of interest in imagination in the past two decades as philosophers examine the role of imagination in debates about the mind and cognition, aesthetics and ethics, as well as epistemology, science and mathematics. This outstanding Handbook contains over thirty specially commissioned chapters by leading philosophers organised into six clear sections examining the most important aspects of the philosophy of imagination, including: Imagination in historical context: Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Husserl, and Sartre What is imagination? The relation between imagination and mental imagery; imagination contrasted with perception, memory, and dreaming Imagination in aesthetics: imagination and our engagement with music, art, and fiction; the problems of fictional emotions and ‘imaginative resistance’ Imagination in philosophy of mind and cognitive science: imagination and creativity, the self, action, child development, and animal cognition Imagination in ethics and political philosophy, including the concept of 'moral imagination' and empathy Imagination in epistemology and philosophy of science, including learning, thought experiments, scientific modelling, and mathematics. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of mind and psychology, aesthetics, and ethics. It will also be a valuable resource for those in related disciplines such as psychology and art.