For more than a decade, former CIRCE Executive Director Gillian Judson has been collecting reflections and stories from teachers on the impact Imaginative Education has had on their practice. Here are a few of the pieces featured on her website imaginED: education that inspires.
Imaginative Education: Teaching That Connects the Head and the Heart (By Jennie Allestar Harvey)
The Missing Piece: Cultivating a Classroom Community through an Imaginative Education Approach (By Gloria Tsang)
Wrapping Yourself in Wonder: Making Space for Wonder is the Self-Care You Have Been Seeking (By Jessica Elkin)
An Imaginative Approach to Teaching Identity (By Megan Sandham)
The Lure Of Imaginative Education (By David Futter)
The Selfish Teacher (By Christa Rawlings)
Look Out! A Spontaneous Eruption Of Cognitive Tools (By Tim Waddington)
How Imaginative Education Tricked Us Into Teaching Atomic Physics…To Squirrley 7-Year-Olds (By Brandon & Kristin Hendrickson)
Curriculum through an imaginative lens
More insights into the diverse forms Imaginative Education can take in K-12 classrooms, in the context of particular subject areas, comes in the form of blog posts collected on the imaginED website. The curricular areas addressed there include:
Teachers studying their IE practice
Since 2003, the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University (home to the Imaginative Education Research Group and its successor CIRCE) has offered Master of Education programs with a focus on Imaginative Education. These programs have always included a significant emphasis on classroom inquiry and action research (AR), requiring students to delve deeply into their practice and to explore what happens when they engage their students’ imaginations in learning. Here is an excerpt from a letter to parents and guardians explaining the general intent of such research:
I am currently working on my Master of Education in Imaginative Education at Simon Fraser University. This program enables me to reflect on both my teaching practice and student learning with the intention of developing best practices. As part of my studies I have developed an inquiry project to examine how to document our learning. This inquiry will be based on my own observations and critical reflections to help me to assess my practice as a professional educator. Over the course of the next several months I will collect student work samples, surveys, reflections, and photographs to reflect on my practice. All elements of my inquiry will take place within the context of my normal instruction.
As all teachers (and teacher educators) know, the complexities of classroom teaching go beyond what any planning framework or curriculum theory can encompass. These AR projects illustrate the challenges and rewards of Imaginative Education in real classrooms. Their authors acknowledge the benefits of their learning in connection with IE, but they also identify ongoing questions, tensions and struggles.
We have highlighted a few projects here, covering a range of grades and curriculum areas. More can be found in our research database here.
Alberti, Andrea (2021)
Learn MoreAmeresekere, Judith (2022)
Learn MoreChambers, Helen L. (2022)
Learn MoreFarley, Laura (2022)
Learn MoreMcArthur, Jenna (2021)
Learn MorePaziuk, Katalin Toreky (2022)
Learn MorePerdue, Dawn (2022)
Learn MoreRedford, Rosetta (2021)
Learn MoreRempel, Kim (2021)
Learn MoreSandham, Megan (2021)
Learn MoreTan, Cherie (2022)
Learn MoreThiesen, Shannon (2021)
Learn MoreWong, Kendra (2022)
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