Conference Presentations by Gregory M Nixon
Presentation at the Bergamo Curriculum Theory Conference, 1987
This is a one-act play — an ironically humorous fantasy melodrama
on differing views of appropria... more This is a one-act play — an ironically humorous fantasy melodrama
on differing views of appropriate curriculum. It is set in an adult-upgrading classroom (sponsored by a city college) set on a western Canadian Indigenous reservation. One of the lead characters is the great White Buffalo in somewhat human form.
The Elusive Present: Myth and Imagination in Curriculum
LSU/UNO 'Curriculum Camp' conference, 1992
Conference with open discussion of extreme curriculum possibilities at Covington Abbey in Louisia... more Conference with open discussion of extreme curriculum possibilities at Covington Abbey in Louisiana. My presentation indicated the need to awaken imagination by discovering the myth one is living.
JCT (Journal of Curriculum Theorizing) Conference, Bergamo Center. Dayton, OH, 1992
The idea that each of us consists in reality of multiple selves is not new. What may be new is o... more The idea that each of us consists in reality of multiple selves is not new. What may be new is our tendency to call all these personæ and potential personæ “selves,” as though they all somehow belonged to a central command station which we entitle “me” or “I”. Wasn’t it Walt Whitman who declared: “I contain multitudes”? And it was Goethe who asked about the beings struggling within: “Two? Why only two?” In Homer, the heroes at Troy all had personalities and considered themselves to be themselves in most daily intercourse or when they were speaking. But even in this last case—speech-making—their “self” could be subject to possession by a god or daimonion who may inspire their tongues to wingèd words of wisdom or to emotional displays of suicidal stupidity. “What god was it who brought this rage upon me?” they may ask. Or even: “What god was it who put these dishonourable thoughts in my mind?” One was conceived as being put “out of one’s head” under the influence of any of a multiplicity of divine or semi-divine beings. The “I” is more of receiving station than a central command post.
JCT (Journal of Curriculum Theorizing) Conference, Banff, AB, Canada, 1994
Postmodernity in many ways supports cultural or social constructivism with regard to the self and... more Postmodernity in many ways supports cultural or social constructivism with regard to the self and personal identity, but it runs into genetic and linguistic limits on the extent of such construction. Postmodernity itself allows for no such closure. I look at the various forms of postmodernism current today and compare their take on this question. I end up endorsing the views of Charles Taylor as found in his *Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity* (1989).
Attached is only my notes, from which I gave my presentation:
Postmodernism & Critical Pedagogy: A Primer
Outlining Interpretations of the Postmodern Condition:
Various Characterizations in Search of an Author
A. Postmodernism indicates:
(1)That knowledge can only be known temporarily.
(2)That which is inchoate or changing cannot be an object of knowledge.
B. Postmodernist positions include:
(1)Reactionary, constructive, or “process” postmodernism.
(a)emphasis on premodern humanism, liberalism, & hist. knowledge (see Griffin, Doll, Oliver, etc.). [some include Rorty here.]
(b)self, language & culture separate from politics & economics (see Foster & Habermas for critical quotes).
(2)Post-structuralist postmodernism.
(a)some postmodernist & post-structuralist similarities (see Foster, Taylor, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Giroux. see Griffin for anti-deconstruction quote).
(b)some “post-structuralist” postmodernism may be seen as “neoconservative” (Lyotard, Rorty) or even non-poststructural (Whitson) if it does not use post-structuralism to deconstruct the oppositions of the hegemonic structure (see Whitson quotes).
(c)Whitson, Giroux, et al. conceive a critical post-structuralist postmodernism [whew!] which does use a sort of metanarrative: the “language of possibility”, ethical standards, & a utopian vision.
C. Critical pedagogy (Giroux, McLaren).
(1)Origins in critical theory, neomarxism, & radical agendas.
(2)Connection to post-structuralism (see Foster, Whitson).
(a)avoids getting caught in oppositional thinking within the hegemonic structure.
(b)by deconstructing the structures of opposition, the critical pedagogist hopes to engage counter-hegemonic practices (see Whitson, Giroux quotes).
(3)Has distinct pedagogical agenda (see Giroux quotes).
(4)Has Marxist world working class revolution goals (McLaren, Freire).
D. Comparing & contrasting critical pedagogy and postmodernisms.
(1)Critical pedagogy and reactionary postmodernism.
(a)similar ideals of ethical standards & equal rights.
(b)similar ideas of semi-determined (utopian) process.
(c)contrasting ideas of romantic “organicism”, nature, & the source of ethical standards.
(d)differing ideas of the self, language as correspondence, “God”, deconstruction, culture, etc. (see Griffin & Habermas quotes).
(2)Critical pedagogy and “non-critical” (Giroux: “neoconservative”) postmodernism.
(a)similar post-structuralist backgrounds (see Foster, Lyotard, Baudrillard quotes).
(b)contrasting ideas of modernist/postmodernist split.
i.as regards feminism & politicized language (see Edgerton/McCarthy, etc.)
ii.as regards modernist progressive programs (see Alterman, Habermas, & Giroux quotes).
(c)contrasting ideas of common cause vs. relativism (see Sirotnik, Alterman, & Giroux quotes).
(d)contrasting ideas of justice & ethics vs. relativism (see Sirotnik & Griffin)
(e)contrasting ideas of the individual as passive cultural construct vs. culturally conscious agency (see Baudrillard—passive, Giroux & feminists—active).
(f)contrasting ideas of need for metanarrative, i.e., the language of utopian possibility (see Lyotard—against, Whitson, Giroux, & feminists—for).
(g)contrasting “realpolitik” vs. “romantic” approaches.
A Fool's Paradise? The Reconceptualization of Curriculum Theory in the Eyes of Science
JCT (Journal of Curriculum Theorizing) Conference, Dubose Conference Center, Monteagle, Tennessee, 1995
I explain how science, especially in the guise of scientism, has infiltrated curriculum studies a... more I explain how science, especially in the guise of scientism, has infiltrated curriculum studies and educational philosophy, so we end up planning our lessons to manipulate objects, rather than drawing forth creative souls to pursue their own destinies. I suggest that the "reconceptualization" of curriculum theory could loward both personal and social liberation.
New York State Foundations of Education Association Annual Conference, SUNY (State University of New York) Oneonta, NY, 1996
Advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience claim to have begun to undermine the assumpt... more Advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience claim to have begun to undermine the assumptions of the arts and educational theory community by explaining consciousness through either a reduction to mathematical functionalism or an excrescence of brain biology. I suggest that the worldview behind such reductionism is opposed to the worldview assumed by many educational practitioners and theorists. I then go on to outline a few common positions taken in the burgeoning field of consciousness studies that suggest that—though many attributes of consciousness have been identified and explained—individual consciousness itself remains as much of an enigma to scientists as to the rest of us who experience it. However, I do suggest the necessity of intersubjectivity for conscious evolution.
New York State Foundations of Education Association Annual Conference, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY, 1997
In this piece I wonder within what archetypal configuration(s) American schooling largely takes p... more In this piece I wonder within what archetypal configuration(s) American schooling largely takes place. I look at the present and give a brief review of the past to conclude that education denies archetypal experience by denying experience itself, thus itself being " godless " (except for the senex aspect of all institutions). Experiential learning—the life of soul and senses—is left to popular culture. Comparing Joseph Campbell's four mythological functions to the function of education, I find function three is the both the raison d'être and the modus operandi of most American schooling. By looking at the reaction to the loaded term " drugs " as a metaphor, I conclude both American education and the " general public " deeply fear transformative experience. I suggest no reforms, but offer only this lament.
JCT (Journal of Curriculum Theorizing) Conference, Bloomington, IN, 1997
I have been bold enough to present a paper which is not theoretically complex but is, instead, da... more I have been bold enough to present a paper which is not theoretically complex but is, instead, daringly simple and direct. I ask where the rhetoric went about heightened or expanded consciousness, which was so predominant in the early 70s. To that end I look at the historical sources of this movement and what has happened since the early 'reconceptualist' days. I suggest that expanded awareness became irrevocably linked to psychedelic self-indulgence and seen as selfish by the majority radical political wing of curriculum theorists. However, I indicate that it is instead rigid political stances that are selfish and egocentric. I suggest that context-expanding awareness cannot be a personal goal but a pleasant side effect of selfless service.
New York State Foundations of Education Association Annual Conference, SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, NY, 1998
Pragmatism, despite its early intent (for Peirce) as method or a theory of meaning, despite its e... more Pragmatism, despite its early intent (for Peirce) as method or a theory of meaning, despite its emphasis on free-will and creative response (for James), and despite its translation into a near-existential experimentalism/experientialism (for Dewey)— pragmatically comes to mean only a theory in which the end justifies the means. When the consequences of pragmatism are adjudicated, it becomes a philosophy of expediency in which truth is determined by its pragmatic consequences—or, as Wm James so often put it, its “cash value.” In short, is pragmatism to blame for allowing society to accept the arational intrusion of religious zealots into the public school system.
Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Spring Conference, UC Faculty Club, Berkeley, CA, 1999
If it were not experienced, consciousness is of such quality that it could not be known, could no... more If it were not experienced, consciousness is of such quality that it could not be known, could not, in fact, be said to exist: There could be no knower to know it. Consciousness, then, is known only through experience, but it is a particular type of experience. ‘Consciousness is the kind of experience that wills,’ as Leslie Dewart (1989, 257) has incisively defined it. It wills, according to Dewart, because this particular type of experience has gained the ability to experience its own experiencing or to know that it is experiencing. Consciousness is here understood as a learned quality of natural experience which changes, in turn, that experience into culture.
The Fifth International Conference on Persons organized by the International Forum on Persons, St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM, 1999
The question is, in a strict sense of the term, is it appropriate to give the appellation "person... more The question is, in a strict sense of the term, is it appropriate to give the appellation "person" to those human beings who are unable to be fully participating members of a community, including those who may have social protection but who are unable to bear social responsibility? In the strictest sense, personhood involves the notion of a self that has been cultivated from the raw soil of animal being. It does not arrive automatically or genetically but is, instead, an attainment. In normal beings, its attributes include a)language acquisition (which may be the foundation of all other attributes), b)self and self-awareness, and c)human narrative memory. Secondary attributes like the following may be said to attach to the primary ones: the higher emotions such as sympathy and compassion, the ability to think in abstraction and envision the future, the ability to relate to other persons in a meaningful way, and the power of taking social and culturally sanctioned (if not necessarily approved) actions.
Talk & Slide Show: “Journey Through the Wisdom of Mythic Symbols.”
The “Consciousness Club” of the University of Arizona, Tucson, hosted by Professor David Chalmers, January 26, 2000
Not quite ready for powerpoint, I bought a new camera for close-ups, and constructed a detailed s... more Not quite ready for powerpoint, I bought a new camera for close-ups, and constructed a detailed slide show giving evidence that creation myths, symbols, and rituals do not actually refer to the creation of the world or the beginning of time, but instead metaphorically express the dawn of human consciousness. The awakening to awareness of self-in-time and to self-agency was made possible by the crossing of the "symbolic threshold" into language and the human cultural world of symbolic interaction and intersubjectivity. As Cassirer taught us, myth and language are "twin creatures", both seeming to arrive as one from sacred sources. When we learned to speak in narratives, we found ourselves in dialogue, expressing myths that seemed sent by sacred beings – myths that symbolically represented our own awakening to time, death, and human being.
Poster Session: "Myth and the Human Creation of Conscious Agency"
Tucson 2000: Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson Conference Center, Tucson, AZ, April 10-15, 2000
I constructed a significant poster presentation (posters made from previous slides) giving eviden... more I constructed a significant poster presentation (posters made from previous slides) giving evidence that creation myths, symbols, and rituals do not actually refer to the creation of the world or the beginning of time, but instead metaphorically express the dawn of human consciousness. The awakening to awareness of self-in-time and to self-agency was made possible by the crossing of the "symbolic threshold" into language and the human cultural world of symbolic interaction and intersubjectivity. As Cassirer taught us, myth and language are "twin creatures", both seeming to arrive as one from sacred sources. When we learned to speak in narratives, we found ourselves in dialogue, expressing myths – myths that symbolically represented our own awakening to time, death, and human being.
TC2 – The Critical Thinking Consortium: Thinking About Thinking Conference - UBC, Vancouver, June 23, 2007
Notes & Quotes on the Non-Critical MYTHIC MIND (Speech Presentation)
Gregory M. Nixon
1. UNITES ... more Notes & Quotes on the Non-Critical MYTHIC MIND (Speech Presentation)
Gregory M. Nixon
1. UNITES INNER & OUTER, SELF & WORLD (logic & analysis divide)
2. EXPERIENCES TIME ULTIMATELY AS ETERNAL RETURN
3. NATURE IS A BEING OR PRESENCES, NOT AN “IT” - RELATIONAL
4. NATURE IS BOTH WITHIN & WITHOUT
5. SELF IS NOT ISOLATED WITHIN ONE’S HEAD
6. NOTHING IS PRIVATE, INCLUDING MEMORIES
7. UNDERSTANDS “THE GIVEN” TO BE ONLY A REFLECTION OF HIDDEN PROCESSES
8. REALITY IS DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE (unlike objective analysis)
9. EXISTENCE IS A VAST SINGLE ENTITY DOING THE DANCE OF LIFE & DEATH
10. TRUTH IS NOT TOTALIZED BUT MULTIPLE & CHANGING
11. HARMONY NOT CONQUEST IS THE GOAL
12. THE MIRACULOUS HAPPENS
13. LIFE IS AWAKENED, EXUBERANT — AWESTRUCK
Generative Anthropology Thinking Event (GATE), Vancouver, BC, Canada 26 July - 29 July , 2007
Generative Anthropology as espoused by Eric Gans and the works of religious historian, Mircea Eli... more Generative Anthropology as espoused by Eric Gans and the works of religious historian, Mircea Eliade, cross paths many times in the same abstract territory to do with the origins of humanity & symbolic culture, myth & ritual, and the idea of the sacred. Whether we find contrast and disagreement or agreement and synthesis in their views will largely depend on what we are looking for when we begin. In this brief report, I will make an effort to identify both similarities and differences in their perspectives. To further limit the scope of this investigation, I shall focus mainly on the concept of the sacred, especially as it manifests itself in the lived reality of prehistoric humanity, though the above themes (origin of the human mind, myth & ritual) are related enough to be mentioned as well. With my limited time, the presentation itself will be an abstract of what could become and (hopefully) will become a larger study.
2nd Annual PDP (Pedagogical Practices) Conference: Rethinking the Worlds of Teaching. Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Feb 12, 2009
Consciousness has basically been ignored by psychology (until recently) since the time of William... more Consciousness has basically been ignored by psychology (until recently) since the time of William James and the psychoanalysts, so Learning Theories have followed suit & stuck to an objective materialist (hard science) viewpoint. Learning, like the presumed mind-function of consciousness, has tended to be view objectively only. “Learning always involves a systematic change in behaviour or behavioural disposition that occurs as a consequence of one’s of one’s experience in some specific situation.” It seems Learning is either an unconscious behavioural adaptation, as in training or mimesis, or an increase in conscious awareness and volition (or both, 2nd following the 1st). Herein I suggest the only actual learning is not being trained in new habit, but involves a growth or at least alteration in consciousness.
North American Chapter / World Council for Curriculum & Instruction (NAC/WCCI) Conference 2009: Curriculum Opportunities for Fostering Peace in a Diverse Global Community. University of Lethbridge, AB, July 15, 2009
In this putative "position paper," I review the necessity of a global form of education by addres... more In this putative "position paper," I review the necessity of a global form of education by addressing the global and human crisis we are in. I note that many postmodern and multicultural approaches deny there are universal human values or that individuals can rise above their cultural traditions, either of which renders hopeless any attempt to meet this crisis through global education. Instead, I insist that there are a) universal values and b) identifiable stages of individual conscious development, the higher of which allows for a planetary (i.e., transcultural and transnational) perspective. It is my contention that the above makes decolonized global education (as espoused by groups such as the WCCI) desirable and necessary.
For the presentation, I used the attached brief PowerPoint® to illustrate the ideas I talked through in more detail here: https://www.academia.edu/296611/Conscious_Learning_and_Learning_to_be_Conscious_A_Position_Paper_for_Transcultural_Global_Education
Northwest Association of Teacher Educators (NWATE) 2012 Conference – Overhauling Pedagogy: Building Success for Learning. Edmonton, AB, June 1, 2012
Since educators are always looking for ways to improve their practice, and since empirical scienc... more Since educators are always looking for ways to improve their practice, and since empirical science is now accepted in our worldview as the final arbiter of truth, it is no surprise they have been lured toward cognitive neuroscience in hopes that discovering how the brain learns will provide a nutshell explanation for student learning in general. I argue that identifying the person with the brain is scientism (not science), that the brain is not the person, and that it is the person who learns. In fact the brain only responds to the learning of embodied experience within the extra-neural network of intersubjective communications. Learning is a dynamic, cultural activity, not a neural program. Brain-based learning is unnecessary for educators and may be dangerous in that a culturally narrow ontology is taken for granted, thus restricting our creativity and imagination, and narrowing the human community.
The Dragon's Egg: The Purpose of Awakening Imagination in the Primary Classroom.
Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) International Conference 2013 - Engaging the Minds of Students in the Curriculum. Vancouver, BC, July 10-13, 2013
This was a dual presentation with Jo Finnie, who colourfully demonstrated the story of "The Drago... more This was a dual presentation with Jo Finnie, who colourfully demonstrated the story of "The Dragon's Egg" by illustrating how to make a dragon's nest with the egg in it. Later, at the climax of the story, the egg was opened to reveal a toy baby dragon. I provided the philosophical back drop as to the importance and nature of imagination, though there was some audience resistance to my suggestion that conscious imagining, as such, is dependent on language.
Presentation Proposal for the
Eighth International Conference of Imagination and Education:
Imagination and Learning: Engaging the Minds of Students in the Curriculum
July 10 – July 13, 2013
Greg Nixon and Jo Finnie
Section: Other Aspects of Engaging Students’ Imaginations in the Curriculum
Jo Finnie, primary schoolteacher (Ron Brent Elementary), and I, Greg Nixon, professor of teacher education (UNBC) – both in Prince George – would like to present a dialogue between objective theory and imaginative teaching practice, along with a good dose of audience participation. My academic or bureaucratic questions will be directed at Jo’s open encouragement of imagination in her practice and her defence of it. This exchange will get quite lively, even edgy, but we’re used to it, after all.
I will begin by presenting a background theory of the imagination as deriving from the images of memory and warning that the purpose of imagination in curriculum is to guide young minds towards achievement and constructive participation in carrying forward the torch of culture. It is directed imagination to meet social goals.
Jo, by this time becoming impatient with my rhetoric, will likely interrupt and challenge my theorizing as largely irrelevant to what the imagination actually does. She will explain how, in her inner city primary grade classroom, children often arrive from homes in which the use of imagination was stifled in the struggle to meet basic needs or was never encouraged by often-absent caregivers. Such children do not need their imaginative powers channelled to meet curriculum directives or social goals, but instead are in vital need of awakening to the power of wonder right here and now. Awakening imagination in such children is an end in itself. Jo will be given the floor to demonstrate her point with the story of “The Dragon’s Egg” and audience participation. Greg will close with the symbolism.
Respondent in section IV – “Reënvisioning Nature; Reënvisioning Science”
Pando Populus Conference – Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization. Pomona College, Claremont, CA, June 3-7, 2015
Uploads
Conference Presentations by Gregory M Nixon
Attached is only my notes, from which I gave my presentation:
Postmodernism & Critical Pedagogy: A Primer
Outlining Interpretations of the Postmodern Condition:
Various Characterizations in Search of an Author
A. Postmodernism indicates:
(1)That knowledge can only be known temporarily.
(2)That which is inchoate or changing cannot be an object of knowledge.
B. Postmodernist positions include:
(1)Reactionary, constructive, or “process” postmodernism.
(a)emphasis on premodern humanism, liberalism, & hist. knowledge (see Griffin, Doll, Oliver, etc.). [some include Rorty here.]
(b)self, language & culture separate from politics & economics (see Foster & Habermas for critical quotes).
(2)Post-structuralist postmodernism.
(a)some postmodernist & post-structuralist similarities (see Foster, Taylor, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Giroux. see Griffin for anti-deconstruction quote).
(b)some “post-structuralist” postmodernism may be seen as “neoconservative” (Lyotard, Rorty) or even non-poststructural (Whitson) if it does not use post-structuralism to deconstruct the oppositions of the hegemonic structure (see Whitson quotes).
(c)Whitson, Giroux, et al. conceive a critical post-structuralist postmodernism [whew!] which does use a sort of metanarrative: the “language of possibility”, ethical standards, & a utopian vision.
C. Critical pedagogy (Giroux, McLaren).
(1)Origins in critical theory, neomarxism, & radical agendas.
(2)Connection to post-structuralism (see Foster, Whitson).
(a)avoids getting caught in oppositional thinking within the hegemonic structure.
(b)by deconstructing the structures of opposition, the critical pedagogist hopes to engage counter-hegemonic practices (see Whitson, Giroux quotes).
(3)Has distinct pedagogical agenda (see Giroux quotes).
(4)Has Marxist world working class revolution goals (McLaren, Freire).
D. Comparing & contrasting critical pedagogy and postmodernisms.
(1)Critical pedagogy and reactionary postmodernism.
(a)similar ideals of ethical standards & equal rights.
(b)similar ideas of semi-determined (utopian) process.
(c)contrasting ideas of romantic “organicism”, nature, & the source of ethical standards.
(d)differing ideas of the self, language as correspondence, “God”, deconstruction, culture, etc. (see Griffin & Habermas quotes).
(2)Critical pedagogy and “non-critical” (Giroux: “neoconservative”) postmodernism.
(a)similar post-structuralist backgrounds (see Foster, Lyotard, Baudrillard quotes).
(b)contrasting ideas of modernist/postmodernist split.
i.as regards feminism & politicized language (see Edgerton/McCarthy, etc.)
ii.as regards modernist progressive programs (see Alterman, Habermas, & Giroux quotes).
(c)contrasting ideas of common cause vs. relativism (see Sirotnik, Alterman, & Giroux quotes).
(d)contrasting ideas of justice & ethics vs. relativism (see Sirotnik & Griffin)
(e)contrasting ideas of the individual as passive cultural construct vs. culturally conscious agency (see Baudrillard—passive, Giroux & feminists—active).
(f)contrasting ideas of need for metanarrative, i.e., the language of utopian possibility (see Lyotard—against, Whitson, Giroux, & feminists—for).
(g)contrasting “realpolitik” vs. “romantic” approaches.
Gregory M. Nixon
1. UNITES INNER & OUTER, SELF & WORLD (logic & analysis divide)
2. EXPERIENCES TIME ULTIMATELY AS ETERNAL RETURN
3. NATURE IS A BEING OR PRESENCES, NOT AN “IT” - RELATIONAL
4. NATURE IS BOTH WITHIN & WITHOUT
5. SELF IS NOT ISOLATED WITHIN ONE’S HEAD
6. NOTHING IS PRIVATE, INCLUDING MEMORIES
7. UNDERSTANDS “THE GIVEN” TO BE ONLY A REFLECTION OF HIDDEN PROCESSES
8. REALITY IS DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE (unlike objective analysis)
9. EXISTENCE IS A VAST SINGLE ENTITY DOING THE DANCE OF LIFE & DEATH
10. TRUTH IS NOT TOTALIZED BUT MULTIPLE & CHANGING
11. HARMONY NOT CONQUEST IS THE GOAL
12. THE MIRACULOUS HAPPENS
13. LIFE IS AWAKENED, EXUBERANT — AWESTRUCK
For the presentation, I used the attached brief PowerPoint® to illustrate the ideas I talked through in more detail here: https://www.academia.edu/296611/Conscious_Learning_and_Learning_to_be_Conscious_A_Position_Paper_for_Transcultural_Global_Education
Presentation Proposal for the
Eighth International Conference of Imagination and Education:
Imagination and Learning: Engaging the Minds of Students in the Curriculum
July 10 – July 13, 2013
Greg Nixon and Jo Finnie
Section: Other Aspects of Engaging Students’ Imaginations in the Curriculum
Jo Finnie, primary schoolteacher (Ron Brent Elementary), and I, Greg Nixon, professor of teacher education (UNBC) – both in Prince George – would like to present a dialogue between objective theory and imaginative teaching practice, along with a good dose of audience participation. My academic or bureaucratic questions will be directed at Jo’s open encouragement of imagination in her practice and her defence of it. This exchange will get quite lively, even edgy, but we’re used to it, after all.
I will begin by presenting a background theory of the imagination as deriving from the images of memory and warning that the purpose of imagination in curriculum is to guide young minds towards achievement and constructive participation in carrying forward the torch of culture. It is directed imagination to meet social goals.
Jo, by this time becoming impatient with my rhetoric, will likely interrupt and challenge my theorizing as largely irrelevant to what the imagination actually does. She will explain how, in her inner city primary grade classroom, children often arrive from homes in which the use of imagination was stifled in the struggle to meet basic needs or was never encouraged by often-absent caregivers. Such children do not need their imaginative powers channelled to meet curriculum directives or social goals, but instead are in vital need of awakening to the power of wonder right here and now. Awakening imagination in such children is an end in itself. Jo will be given the floor to demonstrate her point with the story of “The Dragon’s Egg” and audience participation. Greg will close with the symbolism.