Imagination and Praxis: Criticality and Creativity in Education and Educational Research – serie

Echoes from a Child’s Soul: Awakening the Moral Imagination of Children presents remarkable poetry inspired by aesthetic education methodology created by children that were labelled academically, socially, and/or emotionally at-risk. Many children deemed average or below-grade level composed poetry beyond their years revealing moral imagination. Art psychology and aesthetic methodology merge to portray the power of awakening children’s voices once silenced. The children’s poetry heralds critical and empathic messages for our future. This book proposes an overwhelming need for change in America’s public-school education system so that no child is ignored, silenced, deemed less than, or marginalized.

Echoes from a Child’s Soul: Awakening the Moral Imagination of Children presents remarkable poetry inspired by aesthetic education methodology created by children that were labelled academically, socially, and/or emotionally at-risk. Many children deemed average or below-grade level composed poetry beyond their years revealing moral imagination. Art psychology and aesthetic methodology merge to portray the power of awakening children’s voices once silenced. The children’s poetry heralds critical and empathic messages for our future. This book proposes an overwhelming need for change in America’s public-school education system so that no child is ignored, silenced, deemed less than, or marginalized.

Arts-Based Thought Experiments is a highly visual offering that engages visual arts, photography, poetry, creative non-fiction, memoir and speculative fiction. In this novel book, the authors lean deeply into concepts of the imaginary, and through artful experiments with thought, trouble the tensions between the human, the posthuman and the more than human. In the Anthropocene, with its intractable challenges and cataclysms, engaging posthuman positions when thinking of learning in socioecological terms is paramount to human survival. In this sense, the arts offer creative and critical thought for the possibilities of a post-Anthropocene earth.Contributors are: Raoul Adam, Marilyn Ahearn, William Boyd, Euan Boyd, Adrienne Brown, Shae L. Brown, Teresa Carapeto, Philemon Chigeza, Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, David Ellis, Katie Hotko, Rita L. Irwin, Marianne Logan, Ferdousi Khatun, Alexandra Lasczik, Alys Mendus, Yaw Ofosu-Asare, Maia Osborn, Marie-Laurence Paquette, Jemma Peisker, Ziah Peisker, Adrienne Piscopo, David Rousell, Ben Ryan, Billy Ryan, Lisa Siegel, Helen Widdop Quinton, Thilinika Wijesinghe and Tracy Young.

Arts-Based Thought Experiments is a highly visual offering that engages visual arts, photography, poetry, creative non-fiction, memoir and speculative fiction. In this novel book, the authors lean deeply into concepts of the imaginary, and through artful experiments with thought, trouble the tensions between the human, the posthuman and the more than human. In the Anthropocene, with its intractable challenges and cataclysms, engaging posthuman positions when thinking of learning in socioecological terms is paramount to human survival. In this sense, the arts offer creative and critical thought for the possibilities of a post-Anthropocene earth.Contributors are: Raoul Adam, Marilyn Ahearn, William Boyd, Euan Boyd, Adrienne Brown, Shae L. Brown, Teresa Carapeto, Philemon Chigeza, Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, David Ellis, Katie Hotko, Rita L. Irwin, Marianne Logan, Ferdousi Khatun, Alexandra Lasczik, Alys Mendus, Yaw Ofosu-Asare, Maia Osborn, Marie-Laurence Paquette, Jemma Peisker, Ziah Peisker, Adrienne Piscopo, David Rousell, Ben Ryan, Billy Ryan, Lisa Siegel, Helen Widdop Quinton, Thilinika Wijesinghe and Tracy Young.

In the post-Trump era, the Black lived experience continues to come under assault. Emerging from the suffering imposed on Black bodies comes Black Existential Philosophy, an umbrella term encompassing the multiple depictions of Black life under White subjugation. Whether taking the form of first hand narratives of the lives of enslaved Blacks, the racialized theological discourse of the Nation of Islam, or the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, the works comprising Black Existentialism offer a look into both the world of the racialized Black “Other” as well as the never-ending quest to recapture and reassert Black humanity.In Discovering Black Existentialism, E. Anthony Muhammad documents his personal and academic journey to Black Existentialism. In doing so, the book illuminates the power of curriculum as a shaping agent in the life of an educator and researcher. As a combination of autobiography, theory, and pedagogy, this work gives the reader an intimate view into the developmental arc of a Black Existentialist scholar. This book offers valuable insights to students searching for direction, to researchers attempting to find meaning in their work, and to educators striving to make their pedagogy relevant to the lives of their students.

In the post-Trump era, the Black lived experience continues to come under assault. Emerging from the suffering imposed on Black bodies comes Black Existential Philosophy, an umbrella term encompassing the multiple depictions of Black life under White subjugation. Whether taking the form of first hand narratives of the lives of enslaved Blacks, the racialized theological discourse of the Nation of Islam, or the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, the works comprising Black Existentialism offer a look into both the world of the racialized Black “Other” as well as the never-ending quest to recapture and reassert Black humanity.In Discovering Black Existentialism, E. Anthony Muhammad documents his personal and academic journey to Black Existentialism. In doing so, the book illuminates the power of curriculum as a shaping agent in the life of an educator and researcher. As a combination of autobiography, theory, and pedagogy, this work gives the reader an intimate view into the developmental arc of a Black Existentialist scholar. This book offers valuable insights to students searching for direction, to researchers attempting to find meaning in their work, and to educators striving to make their pedagogy relevant to the lives of their students.

Islands of the Emotional and Moral Imagination is for all those who are on a search for inspiration in their life. If one is dwelling in fear, they may choose not to take this new path. When confronted with the unknown, fear can discourage a chance to seek and find courage, truth, and faith, hidden within.Let us take you on a journey to the islands. Step into our currach weaving through the waves. You will find comfort when one of the islands becomes visible through the mist. You will be introduced to our friends as we step off on the islands to explore a wonder of mystery awaiting our curious hearts and minds. We will be delighted with new aesthetic experiences, growing closer in wisdom of the divine imagination.Let us weave the threads from life’s memories into a tapestry of ideas and possibilities. Breathe in and out each memory that surfaces from the deep shadowed regions of your mind, heart, and soul. Feel the toss of your life’s waves, as unexplained storms are remembered, always knowing that an island of hope will appear on your soul’s horizon.

Islands of the Emotional and Moral Imagination is for all those who are on a search for inspiration in their life. If one is dwelling in fear, they may choose not to take this new path. When confronted with the unknown, fear can discourage a chance to seek and find courage, truth, and faith, hidden within.Let us take you on a journey to the islands. Step into our currach weaving through the waves. You will find comfort when one of the islands becomes visible through the mist. You will be introduced to our friends as we step off on the islands to explore a wonder of mystery awaiting our curious hearts and minds. We will be delighted with new aesthetic experiences, growing closer in wisdom of the divine imagination.Let us weave the threads from life’s memories into a tapestry of ideas and possibilities. Breathe in and out each memory that surfaces from the deep shadowed regions of your mind, heart, and soul. Feel the toss of your life’s waves, as unexplained storms are remembered, always knowing that an island of hope will appear on your soul’s horizon.

A Philosophy for Education: A Study in Aesthetic Rationality supports an argument for the crucial role of the aesthetic in a humanist education. It is structured around the philosophy of Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) who saw the poetic imagination as the first language through which humankind makes sense of its place within the world with myths and symbolic ritual. This is the search for the truth of identity and, ultimately, requires a self that examines its own experiences. That examination is the work of an aesthetic rationality that responds to life’s contradictions through the use of metaphor: An historical perspective, ranging from the Renaissance, through the Romantic Movement, to Phenomenology, identifies the major characteristics of an aesthetic rationality, and concludes with recommendations for the school curriculum.

A Philosophy for Education: A Study in Aesthetic Rationality supports an argument for the crucial role of the aesthetic in a humanist education. It is structured around the philosophy of Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) who saw the poetic imagination as the first language through which humankind makes sense of its place within the world with myths and symbolic ritual. This is the search for the truth of identity and, ultimately, requires a self that examines its own experiences. That examination is the work of an aesthetic rationality that responds to life’s contradictions through the use of metaphor: An historical perspective, ranging from the Renaissance, through the Romantic Movement, to Phenomenology, identifies the major characteristics of an aesthetic rationality, and concludes with recommendations for the school curriculum.

Though qualitative research methods shape scholarship around the globe, and institutions worldwide offer qualitative coursework, there is very little explicit discussion on how to effectively teach qualitative research. Instead, a standard approach is for instructors to gain in-depth expertise in qualitative methodologies, with little or no pedagogical training. The effect is a continuous and nearly exclusive emphasis on content knowledge that undermines the preparation of novice researchers as both teachers and learners.This book works to fill that gap by offering perspectives, strategies, and applications from instructor and student perspectives, based on a semester-long class emphasizing social justice in qualitative research. This edited volume offers sections on pedagogical strategies, students’ responses to and applications of those concepts, and then instructor reflections. The goal is to offer an important starting point for explicit discussions on how qualitative research might be taught and learned, in addition to how it might be thoughtfully and ethically conducted.Contributors are: Erica T. Campbell, Sun Young Gu, Kelsey H. Guy, Aimee J. Hackney, April M. Jones, Alison N. Kearley, Caran Kennedy, Amon Neely-Cowan, Allyson Pitzel, Diana Quito, Erin E. Rich, Stephanie Anne Shelton, Ashley Salter Virgin and Venus Trevae Watson.

Though qualitative research methods shape scholarship around the globe, and institutions worldwide offer qualitative coursework, there is very little explicit discussion on how to effectively teach qualitative research. Instead, a standard approach is for instructors to gain in-depth expertise in qualitative methodologies, with little or no pedagogical training. The effect is a continuous and nearly exclusive emphasis on content knowledge that undermines the preparation of novice researchers as both teachers and learners.This book works to fill that gap by offering perspectives, strategies, and applications from instructor and student perspectives, based on a semester-long class emphasizing social justice in qualitative research. This edited volume offers sections on pedagogical strategies, students’ responses to and applications of those concepts, and then instructor reflections. The goal is to offer an important starting point for explicit discussions on how qualitative research might be taught and learned, in addition to how it might be thoughtfully and ethically conducted.Contributors are: Erica T. Campbell, Sun Young Gu, Kelsey H. Guy, Aimee J. Hackney, April M. Jones, Alison N. Kearley, Caran Kennedy, Amon Neely-Cowan, Allyson Pitzel, Diana Quito, Erin E. Rich, Stephanie Anne Shelton, Ashley Salter Virgin and Venus Trevae Watson.

This book considers the role and function of creativity for anchoring educational practices both in universities and beyond. Crucially, the educational practices in question model responsive, careful and attentive encounters with an unfolding present. Reinterpreting the ground-breaking creative processes of leading artists, writers, musicians and dancers, this book offers a toolkit of invitations and encounters that demonstrate how creativity can be practiced – and taught – as a competency that cultivates expertise in harnessing experiment, curiosity, somatic intuition and collaborative practices of world-building. In doing so, the book mounts a vital critical call for developing languages, approaches and methods in both digital and face-to-face learning environments that reconsider creativity as a literacy foundational to all learning settings. Vital to diverse disciplines, fields and professional sectors, this book boldly changes the conversation around the conspicuous role creativity takes in shaping our learning and teaching futures.