Pedagogical Implications of "Becoming Wide-Awake": Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Publication of Releasing the Imagination by Maxine Green
Melinda Moore Davis |
University of Tennessee |
In my own quest for knowledge and beyond knowledge, wisdom, I read Maxine Greene's book, Releasing the Imagination . I sought guidance from Greene to re-form my own pedagogy related to teacher education. The tenth anniversary of its publication seemed an apropos time to consider its continuing value to educators. After reading and studying this work, I agreed with Elizabeth Vallance (1996) who said,
This book is a hymn to the liberating potential of art, music, dance, and literature as portraits of other imagined worlds. And, it is a forceful argument that those portraits are essential to students' repertoires of images of what it means to be human in a community (p. 102)
However, to further assess the worth of such a work of literature (for a highly poetic sort of prosaic form enlivened this nonfiction writing), it seemed only fair to critique the passion, the presentation, and the awakening of newness within the constructs that the author set for herself. Greene asked readers to examine their present conceptions of reality and consider social and political alternatives that promoted equity for all people. Greene wanted us all to engage our individual and collective imaginations toward the crucial pursuit of reforming education. In particular, she addressed the community of learners constituted by teacher educators, teachers, and students. She wanted to create space for commonly held understandings of teaching and learning processes that included myriad diversities. After acknowledging the unique positionalities of students and teachers from varied backgrounds and experiences, she asked professors to guide all students as they created meaning for their own lives.
As professor emeritae of philosophy of education at Teachers College, Columbia University , Greene spent (and is spending) her professional career devoted to the reformation of teacher education. Her purpose was to transform future teachers' collegiate environments and experiences and, thereby, to radically change the education of future generations of their subsequent students. She also sought to influence the thinking and related professional behaviors of teacher educators in colleges and universities. She wrote that her "life project has been to achieve an understanding of teaching, learning, and the many models of education; [she has] been creating and continue[s] to create a self by means of that project, that mode of gearing into the world" (1995, p. 1). In situating herself within her own locality, within her realm of experience, and within her unique personal characteristics, Greene saw this journey through her perceptions "as a woman, as a teacher, as a mother, as a citizen, as a New Yorker, as an art-lover, as an activist, as a philosopher, and as a white, middle-class American" (1995, p. 1). Adopting a readily apparent activist stance, this author applied values of decency and justice in discussing pedagogy that would be humane and emancipating. She refuted educational experiences that promoted oppressive conformity and denial of personhood.
In this book, the author expressed ideas about learning, about students, and about curricula that included literature and the arts. Greene conceived of enriched public school environments designed to stir teachers to renewed action -action on behalf of curricula that centered upon the concrete knowledge and experiences of those within their care. Teachers would engage their imaginations to seek alternatives to past and current methodologies that stratify, divide, and demean students. Teachers would act to reform education in ways that centered upon the creation of democratic community. And, teachers would consciously address inequities in public education and resist systems of accountability based on measurements of quality dependent solely on standardized tests. Recognizing inequalities in educational experiences and outcomes that adversely affected diverse individuals and groups of people, Greene rejected the model of public education that intended to form compliant citizens for reasons of economic productivity. She wanted teachers and students to work toward mutual acceptance and cooperation that would facilitate incorporating and applying new learning. This new learning would encourage moral decision-making for the benefit of all members of the human community.
So, did Greene succeed in her mission to arouse this reader's imagination? Did she convincingly present a proposal for restructuring public education that promoted a radical restructuring of my thoughts? Did I concur with her vision of joint learning for teachers and students within a democratic community? Did I discover "sense-making" to apply to my own teaching and learning? To answer these questions, I will divide this article into three main sections: first, I must more extensively expound upon her theories, ideas, and solutions for teacher-student interactions. And, her opinions must be analyzed in relationship to the educational environment that she resisted and the one she proposed instead. Subsequently, I will embed relevant comments and critique from scholarly reviews of Releasing the Imagination. Third, I will discuss changes in my conceptions of my own pedagogy in higher education based on Greene's ideals.
Reforming Teacher-Student Interactions and Creating Democratic Communities of Learning
First, Maxine Greene wrote Releasing the Imagination at least partially as a reaction to Goals 2000, a set of national standards proposed by the federal government during the early-to-mid 1990s. Greene (1995) responded with clarity in her opposition to these tenets for public education. She objected to the stricture that students and teachers should comply unquestioningly with educational goals determined by federal officials. In opposing those who decided the relative merit of various kinds of knowledge for others, she resisted the factory-like production of students as workers. Greene did not believe that students should be used simply as resources for the maintenance of American technical and economic superiority. In her words, the author stated that "world-class achievement and benchmarks seem superficial, if not absurd, in a world filled with inequity, fear, and uncertainty" (p. 122). While Goals 2000 promoted educational management through measurement, the author wanted educators and others to consider education oriented towards holistic well-being and growth for people. She emphasized the realities of diversity and the inevitability of change. She touted the creation of relevant, important educational tasks that would improve access to opportunities for many disenfranchised students.
In refuting the correlation between testing and academic quality, the author highlighted the discrepancy between hierarchically imposed, performance-based objectives for schooling and parents' and students' hopes, dreams, and expectations. Greene (1995) stated that standards and tests do not relate to the diversity of students living in a multicultural world. "The particularities [of people] cannot be reduced to statistics or even to the measurable" (p. 10). The educational environment in the United States would not be improved or concerns erased with the application of simplistic, mechanical measures applied to diverse human beings. Greene wanted a transformation of public education (and teaching and learning settings for people) that focused upon creating openings and possibilities for all people. Greene wrote often of the need to "look at things as if they could be otherwise" ( p. 19).
Greene (1995) centered her book, Releasing the Imagination , upon her heart-felt belief that it was imagination and not simple reason that allowed people to connect one with one another. Imagination was linked to empathy and empathy allowed us all to consider someone outside ourselves. These others and their life stories could then be incorporated as having validity, even without complete agreement between diverse persons. She spoke of imagination as "opening windows, as disclosing new perspectives, [as] shed[ding] a kind of light" (p. 36). In addition, she referred to imagination as "the means through which we can assemble a coherent world" (p. 3). Using a process of discovery, she conceived of teachers and students as joint seekers of knowledge. Greene merged our burgeoning knowledge of others as separate entities, as we grow and learn, with new constructions for envisioning life in different ways. As teachers and always still as students, to look at life with new eyes, new ears, and a new heart required an assessment of the past and present to create new insights into a better world for the future.
The author also wrote about breaking barriers in the educational environment and process to cultivate the emergence of imagination. To break these barriers would be to foster understanding of differences that then could lead to an acknowledgement of our joint humanity. A true recognition of our unified bonds as human beings would then lead to sharing humanness in all its aspects. We would feel more deeply and act more readily to improve the circumstances of the poor, the disabled, the victimized, and the disenfranchised. Use of the imagination in learning and applying our learning would foster "glimpse[s of what] might be, to form notions of what should be, and to focus on what is not yet" (p. 19). She conceived an altered future for teacher-student relationships within classroom settings that employed imagination as a central theme within her philosophy of education.
Greene espoused a philosophy of teaching and learning that included an active approach to the process of questioning. She emphasized a break with tradition, with conventions, with restrictive norms, to assist students in seeing alternatives for themselves and for their worlds. These alternatives would promote a different order of social and political interchanges that would appreciate the concerns and contributions of diverse voices. To create new beginnings for educators and for students, she stated that teachers (including herself) must break with routines and accepted norms to re-create learning. Greene believed that beginnings have to do with freedom and increasing people's awareness of options for their lives and the lives of others.
In constructing a new vision for classroom interactions that incorporated ideas of freedom, the author focused upon creating an atmosphere of mutual respect where teachers and students both operated as seekers of knowledge. They communicated through meaningful dialogue that produced engaged people who wanted to know about their worlds. She admitted to "utopian thinking" to construct a more equitable social order (p. 5). Working together to promote learning, the members of the classroom community would create new ways of learning and understanding that built consensus, but also acknowledged and respected areas of difference. She wanted academic rigor and the development of students' minds that remained open to different points of view and different ways of knowing. Greene's goals for classroom interactions included both the acknowledgement of diversity and the building of common elements within human relationships.
Again, in Greene's (1995) words, "we want our classrooms to be just and caring, full of various conceptions of the good. We want [students] to be articulate, with the dialogue involving as many persons as possible, opening to one another, opening to the world" (p. 167). In helping students to care, the teacher would ask questions about the here and now, and about aspects that could and should be changed to promulgate intellectual curiosity and shared learning. And, she wanted students to continually ask "why?" within the safety of the classroom as a democratic community.
Using the concepts of situated lives as "narratives-in-the-making," the author wished to emphasize dialogue between teachers and students who behave as active learners within the same shared space (Greene, 1995, p. 6). She wanted students to encounter local and immediate relevancies within their lessons. She concentrated on the concrete and the particular to teach concepts leading to generalizations and abstractions. And, she pinpointed the importance of context, of knowing who we are and how we came to be who we are. In trying to resist the messages of our society (if and when they are unfair, exclusive, and hurtful), we must recognize these messages first and place ourselves within the continuum of expectations and beliefs held by the majority. Then, teachers and students can move beyond themselves to consider the connectedness of humanity and our responsibilities to others. Thus, the purpose of education was viewed as teaching students to teach themselves, so that they could go forward with reformation of their local communities and the global community.
To create educational reform that would enable students to develop competence, self-awareness, sensitivity to others, and needed values, the teacher educators and the teachers were to adopt several elements of educational philosophy commensurate with Greene's ideals. The program of reform was defined as
grasping a total picture. . Young people will require a great range of habits of mind and a great number of complex skills . that are oriented towards job opportunities, dealing with catastrophes, literacy in more than one medium, and adequate planning for the future. (Greene, 1995, p. 13)
She developed several strategies for teachers to consider in helping students become adept in using their imaginations to apply to learning. In wanting students and teachers to be open to questioning and discovery, she wanted all to focus upon the role of inquiry. Instead of using standardized assessment measurements, she urged teachers to develop authentic assessment measures linked to meaningful experiences to help students grow beyond their present understandings. Thus, she continued to reject the formulaic proposals of national educational initiatives that focused upon regimented programs of factual drill, testing, and students as assembly-line products of the system. Her democratic learning community included active participation rather than passive receptivity and cooperation rather than competition.
Greene discussed multiple roles for teachers to adopt in keeping spaces open to possibilities. Emphasizing authentic dialogue and collaboration with educators, parents, community members, and teachers' colleges, Greene saw teachers as observers of students' lives. Teachers were to consider the distinct experiences and circumstances of individuals in order to attend to their unique needs. In applying the "caring, connectedness, and moral commitment" inspired by Noddings (1992) and Martin (1992), Greene saw teachers as analyzing their students' present realities to foster movement towards alternate modes of living. Teachers were to act as "mediators between the students and the world, between students and the content" (Greene, 1995, p. 52). She insisted that education was an on-going journey throughout all of life and that incompleteness was an essential part of the vision. Teachers were not to control students, but they were to prepare them for independent entrance into the world.
In an interview with an editor from the Phi Beta Kappan in January of 1997, Greene explained that "this [relational, though independent] mode of teaching and curriculum-making does not lead to final answers" (p. 387). Focusing upon process and practice, teachers were to enlarge their roles as mediators and become guides for students' thinking and educational work. As guides, they would lead students to examine inconsistencies and tragedies, as well as connections and possibilities for renewal. As interpreters, teachers would show students that provisional knowledge leads to an on-going search that lasts a lifetime. Quantifying and qualifying definitive answers was not the purpose of seeking knowledge. Rather knowledge could be used to build wisdom to apply to present and future problems.
Thayer-Bacon (1996) and I agreed with Greene in the unfinished nature of knowledge-seeking and with viewing education as a life-long process. The infinity of possibilities from provisional understanding would lead to increased awareness and acceptance of personal responsibility to foster social and political activism. So, teachers acting as activists with visions of social justice would inculcate values within their students. These values would be individually defined and acted upon, in accordance with the ability to understand and include diverse voices, needs, and perspectives.
Next, teachers would act as healers as well. They would create wholeness from a number of disparate parts. They would help students to relate experiences to new knowledge to formulate useful constructs which would be applied to practice. Using Toni Morrison's quote from Beloved (1987), Greene (1995) conceived of a teacher as "becoming a friend to someone else's mind, with a wonderful power to return . a sense of wholeness" (p. 38). Within this incredibly humane vision of teachers and their work, did Greene specifically give directions for strategies to apply to praxis? Yes, she did.
Viewing the multiple tasks and roles of teachers as challenging, Greene suggested that teachers use literature and the arts to enhance curricula that intended to produce meaningful learning experiences. Teachers should be "willing to risk encounters with the unknown" (Greene, 1995, p. 128) and should use "stories, listening and speaking from a variety of personal perspectives, seeking consensus, and refining process and product" (p. 68). Teachers would ask significant questions and enter into dialogue with students to apply analytic skills to all the arts. She still believed that disciplinary structures and explanations of varied disciplines were necessary for students' development of vocabulary and constructs for useful discussion. But, she implored teachers to add understanding gained from the arts to mathematics and science education. She rejected the "essentialist notions" of science as objective truth and urged educators to apply process learning even within the teaching of these subjects (Gender Equity, n.d., p. 1). Learning empathy through literary and arts' experiences, students would utilize their newfound skills in all disciplines to critically examine assumptions that have led to present-day inequities.
To reduce differential access and inequalities within a learning community that adopted beliefs and practices of a true democracy required the willing embrace and inclusion of all who wished to join. It centered on the recognition of individuality and the need to construct common goals that would include those who had formerly been left out, silenced, or marginalized by a dominant majority. A democratic community operated within a shared context and adopted guiding principles, such as equality, justice, and freedom. Greene's vision of democratic community centered on varied teachers' roles and responsibilities and on corresponding student roles and responsibilities. One of the most important teachers' roles and her dedicated responsibility was to create space for students to share - a space of affirmation and comfort that recognized and valued conflict and its resolution. Teachers modeled classroom rights and responsibilities and led discussions concerning the principles inherent in the learning community. Students learned equity in privilege and responsibility in applying these principles, which included personal growth in relation to the growth and wellness of others.
Greene proposed a need to get to know diverse people, to listen to them, and to try to understand them. In confronting pluralism and multiculturalism, she explicated society's need to listen to many voices and to include them in educational excellence, in opportunities, and in collective decision-making. Students and teachers should work together in incompleteness to continue the process of searching for varied solutions to problems. They should recognize that reality has been built from combined perceptions and that no one individual holds the key to the door of TRUTH (my emphasis). So, if many diverse ideas are required to achieve workable solutions to human problems, how can any standardized curricula conforming to normative measures include the varied perspectives needed for solving complex human problems?
Greene (1995) rejected the concept of standardized curricula within a democratic learning community. She wanted teachers to help students question aspects of their respective realities and develop new potential to make meaning and to act upon it. She wanted people to respect the cultural heritages of others and to "reject the metanarrative of what it means to be an American" (p. 83). To explore a wide range of subjects with diverse people meant to form coherent notions of varied experiences. A democratic community resisted the conventions of societal habits and norms and created shared norms appropriate and relevant to group members. Within a small and confined membership, perhaps shared public spaces could really be reclaimed and restored. The purpose of democratic community would ultimately be to "look at the realities of our world, the harshness and the horror . to find ways of creating situations in which persons will choose to engage in cooperative or collective action in order to bring about societal repairs" (p. 61). Formation of a democratic community that centered upon a specific group of people engaged in collective learning implied a definite philosophy of education, a philosophy that Greene expressed throughout the book.
Critiques of Releasing the Imagination
In reviewing Greene's book, Audrey Thompson (1995) agreed that "public education is where we pay off the democratic promissory note. Among the reasons we value it so highly -and debate its failures so ferociously-is our perception of schooling as a place to begin anew" (p. 392). Thompson viewed public schools as places that people could come to find opportunities to escape the limitations of race, ethnicity, gender, and class. In this manner, she reinforced Greene's basic concepts of education for freedom and of education constituted of starting over and over. Concurring with Greene and Thompson, Allsup (2003) used the concept of learning as beginnings with his music education students. He created a classroom environment that promoted experimentation and aroused students' passions for different kinds of music by allowing exploration of varied forms. Thus, he applied Greene's conception of learning as starting anew in a collegiate environment that prepared public school teachers.
Caine (2004), another one of Greene's reviewers, critiqued the current national methodology of educational accountability through standardized testing. He applied Greene's idea of creating personally relevant meaning by examining and interpreting experiences of self and others. Caine concurred with Greene's philosophical foundation of reform when he wrote of the need to "examine [the potential of] creative insight and powerful learning to create gestalt moments in students' lives" (p. 1). Caine also believed in Greene's insistence on the importance of meaning-making to promote wholeness within people and communities. And, I agreed with Greene and Caine when they emphasized meaning, synthesis, and personal growth to understanding not only others' present realities, but the possibilities for alternative lives lived with greater equity and harmony. Accountability should be linked directly to students' abilities to create cohesive and coherent meaning from newly observed phenomena through demonstrations of their own learning.
I do not believe that professional educators object to accountability to the public for their work with children and youth. After discussing the "No Child Left Behind" program with many teachers and student teachers during the past two years, I do believe that the methodology for accountability today is deeply flawed. In its creation, it has ignored the decades of research on how people learn and how people integrate new learning into their lives. To simplify the educational process by insisting upon tests that relate to only small, narrowly defined pieces of factual recall contradicts the work of educators, psychologists, neuroscientists, and others who have documented research findings. So, what vision did Greene substitute to replace the pre-digested, disconnected feedback that students are required to produce for standardized tests?
In reaction to Goals 2000 and other national programs imposed upon public education, Greene proposed applying educational ideas informed by her intelligence, her work, her interactions with others, and her knowledge of students and how they learn. Greene utilized Mann's concepts of "seeing the world small and seeing the world big" to describe educators' ways of acknowledging perceptions that informed teaching (Mann, 1955, quoted in Greene, 1995, pp. 10-13). To see the world "small" was to view it from the limited perspective of one system, one hierarchy, one manner of execution. To see the world "big" focused upon the "world and its people as something great" (Greene, 1995, p. 13). As did Vallance (1996), I found this use of "small and big" as ways to distinguish world views confusing. At first, it was difficult to discern her meaning. But, with further reflection, I realized that Greene's point was to categorize those persons who hold narrow definitions of teaching according to majority norms as "seeing small." Conversely, educators who reach beyond themselves to gather in others who are different and whose voices need to be heard were designated as "seeing the world big." She promoted inclusion and thus, wanted others to expand their experiential horizons to enlarge their perspectives and their ways of being in the world with others. So, in viewing the world "big," what differences would occur in teachers' guidance of their students?
Greene (1995) wanted teacher educators to assist future teachers with creating models for classroom interactions that would lead to functioning communities based upon democratic interchanges. These beginning teachers would learn to speak and act and interact with students in imaginative ways that would promulgate shared learning using active strategies to elicit engagement. As practitioners of Greene's "wide-awake[ness]," teachers would exhibit behaviors to encourage wide-awakeness in their students as well (p. 43). As Thayer-Bacon (1996) expressed it, Greene challenged us all to "experience the world in new ways and to learn to be wide-awake, open, and attending to the world around us" (p. 154).
My Responses to Releasing the Imagination
As Allsup (2003) expressed in his application of Greene's work in this volume, the notion of education defined as beginning again and again was a radical one for me. Coming from an indoctrinated educational philosophy of "teacher as expert" who gave pre-packaged knowledge to others, Greene's definition prompted a 180 degree shift in the way I think of myself as a teacher and about how I will design learning experiences for students. To consider newness as a principal construct means to delve into learning as an opportunity for excitement, to prepare for amazement, to wander into the unknown without pre-conceived outcomes in mind. Could this approach to learning truly blend my situatedness and my life story with those of others to foster open adventuring with blended understandings as the goal? I believe so. For example, instead of non-stop lecturing which I would have gladly done in the past, I have recently designed small group instructional exercises for pre-service teachers that allowed them to examine and react to multicultural children's literature. Their exploration placed changes in educational publishing in historically-based social and political contexts and our time together reinforced and expanded their learning, as opposed to merely transferring my own.
Next, as with several of her reviewers (Braman, 2004; Rodriguez, Murphy, Huber, & Clandinin, 1998; Thompson, 1995; Vallance, 1996), one of Greene's most significant ideas for me came to life as she discussed the need to recover our personal connections to important works of literature from childhood and young adulthood. As we view these works through reflective lenses of memory connected to broadened experiential bases, we recapture what was meaningful to us as children and recognize how these connections with others have informed our present selves. In better understanding ourselves, we can reach out to others through examining experiences that have been similar, as well as those that represent significant differences in our molding and positions in life.
I have recently indulged in this exercise to determine key points of impact from literature for myself. Space and time will not allow specific references to books and poems and essays, as within Greene's book, but I will share some ideas about this subject in general. I learned that using my imagination in reading was a necessary escape from daily life, with its moments of conflict and verbal abuse. I learned that my conception of God was different from that of others. I learned that people are often kind and giving, and, conversely, can sometimes act in evil ways. In reading extensively, I explored people and events and worlds past and yet to come. I came to view most of life as a form of internal, interpretive fiction that stemmed directly from my perceptions of varied experiences. So, I do not believe that scientists have more insight into "real life" than do artists or novelists or philosophers. From reading and listening and examining others' words and ideas, I have formulated values and beliefs to guide my interactions with other people whom I love and those who remain mere acquaintances. As in Greene's life, this quest is unfinished. However, the relationship between Greene's reading and my own and the shared connectedness to literature has become a link for me to her world.
In a doctoral class that I attended at The University of Tennessee, Dr. Thayer-Bacon pointed out that many scholars and readers have criticized Greene's work as being esoteric and beyond the reach of many people's general understanding. Her references to literature were viewed as somewhat elitist and exclusionary. But, as with Thayer-Bacon, I did not find this analysis to be true for myself. Greene's poetic explanations of influences from other authors and specific titles seemed true and applicable to her overall vision of using one's imagination to inform the teaching and learning process for both teachers and students. However, it was helpful to seek information about her references and allusions at times in order to deepen the meaning that I was able to make from reading her work. And, in our current era of mass devotion to popular culture and blatant materialism, should we not honor and celebrate a person whose breadth and depth of reading and knowledge so informed us?
Greene also informed me about a different world view that more conscientiously and intelligently reflected my perceptions of my life at this point in time. I am learning to substitute shared responsibility for learning for strict control. I now view myself as a seeker of approximate truth in concert with my students, instead of insisting upon correct answers. I accept incomplete understandings for definitive knowledge, as I continue to grow and learn throughout my life. Perhaps, most importantly, I am learning to consider more diverging viewpoints of existence as valid through the expressions of many more diverse acquaintances than the Anglo-Saxon, Protestant descendants of my youth and early adulthood. In reaching out to know diverse people whom I might not have met in the past, I am reconstructing myself as an educator and as a human being. I believe that Greene would approve. And, I have met a philosopher of education whose writings will continue to guide my own academic endeavors.
In referring to Greene as "the most important American philosopher on education since John Dewey" (p. 1), Baum (2003) expressed my sentiments exactly. Baum celebrated all of Greene's initiatives and achievements in philosophical understanding of educational reform and practice. In creating a vision for teachers in using the imagination to create democratic learning communities, Baum commented about Greene's worry that today's classrooms implemented many fewer opportunities for creative thinking and radical reconstruction of teaching children and youth. I, too, am very concerned that public school classrooms today focus upon isolated skill development in reading and math and do not integrate these lessons into the larger conceptions of life that students will need to function in a complex world.
In paraphrasing Greene's vision for students' educations, Shaw and Rozycki (2000) reiterated that "
students need to come to understand that the reason for learning is to nurture their intellectual talents for the construction of our society into a more democratic, just, and caring place to live. Citizens must be well-informed and have the educational abilities and sensitivities needed to critically examine the world in which we live. (p. 1)
In looking at education, we must not confine ourselves to divisive notions of political and social purposes of education. We must truly engage in authentic dialogue with others to determine the multi-faceted, essential purposes for educating the young, the middle, and the old to produce changes that will lead to improved lives for all.
So, in a final analysis for this paper (for the evolution of my ideas will not end), how did reading Greene's book, Releasing the Imagination , impact my life as a person and as an educator? I did engage with her in imagining my teaching in very different ways. I do believe in the necessity of applying imagination to creative restructuring of the educational process. My consciousness and, hopefully, my ability to be "wide-awake" have been enhanced. I propose to radically restructure my interactions with future students in first considering their situated lives. To accomplish this task will require knowledge of each person and her or his dreams and goals. It will also require recognition of areas of abilities and areas of limitations for each individual and for the group as a whole. In building a more democratic vision of classroom community, I will design learning goals, readings, and assignments with serious consideration of student input.
I will creatively modify curriculum planning and execution to make needed adjustments along the way. Alternative modes of expression by individual students will be not only allowed, but encouraged. Assessments will be designed with input from the person, from their classmates, and from myself as the mediating professor. I will carefully consider the diversity of backgrounds and experiences within those backgrounds that have shaped the personalities and opinions of my students. I will try to enlarge their perspectives by providing significant engagement with literature and the arts, and with examples of innovation from other sources and disciplines as well (something Greene does not address in a thorough way). In promoting an atmosphere of caring and cooperation, I will focus upon the success of all, as we jointly design experiences for the success of individuals. And, as a radical shift in thinking, I will align myself as a fellow seeker of increased knowledge, rather than the holder of some expert knowledge that is to be imposed upon persons who cannot escape the particular learning setting.
In applying a quote to Virginia Woolf that she found in the work of Sartre, Greene (1995) said, "She read; she reflected; she refused. Sartre would have said that she became educated" (p. 49). Greene used this quote to explain Virginia Woolf's influence on her own life. I would like to now extend the admiration and the indebtedness to Maxine Greene in my own life by stating: She read; she reflected; she refused. In so doing, she became educated and in turn, she has educated me and many, many others. Amen!
References
Allsup, R. E. (2003). Praxis and the possible: Thoughts on the writings of Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 11 (2), 157-169.
Baum, J. (2003). Maxine Greene, philosopher & aesthete. Education Update Online , 1-2. Retrieved March 8, 2005, from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxy.lib.utk.edu:90/hww/results
Braman, J. (2004). Releasing the imagination. Independent School , 63 (2), 86-88.
Caine, G. (2004). Getting it! Creativity, imagination, and learning. Independent School , 63 (2), 1-7.
Gender equity for mathematics and science (An interview with Maxine Greene) . (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2005, from http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/math/gender/03f-greene.html
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change . San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.
Greene, M. (1997). Metaphors and multiples: Representation, the arts, and history. Phi Delta Kappan, 78 , 387-394.
Rodriguez, K., Murphy, S., Huber, M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1998). Releasing the imagination [Review]. Teachers College Record , 99 (4), 793-795.
Shaw, R. P., & Rozycki, E. G. (2000). The educational theory of Maxine Greene. Retrieved March 8, 2005, from http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Greene.html
Thayer-Bacon, B. (1996). Peripheral visions. Educational Studies , 27 , 292-301.
Thompson, A. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change [Review]. Educational Studies , 392-397.
Vallance, E. (1996). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change [Review]. American Journal of Education , 105 (1), 102-107.
