Imagination for Inclusion Diverse contexts of educational practice Routledge Research in Education Series

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.

Contents

List of figures & tables

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Editor’s preface

Chapter 1: Introduction: Reimagining imagination

Part 1. Fantasy

Why is it so? An introduction to fantasy

Chapter 2: Playful pedagogies: Promoting active learning through play and imagination in the early years of school

Susan Irvine

Chapter 3: Petting zoos and little dark spaces: Fantasy to inform school design

Derek Bland

Chapter 4: Letters of gratitude: A pedagogy of hope for teachers of young people with disabilities.

Jennie Duke & ‘Fitz’

Part 2. Creative imagination

Up the creek without a metaphor: An introduction to creative imagination

Chapter 5: ‘Just use your imagination’: A teacher educator’s explorations of assessment

Gill Rutherford, with Lucy Collins-McKenzie, Alex McLeod, Courtney Ross, & Aisha Williams

Chapter 6: Creativity for engagement and inclusion

Carly Lassig

Chapter 7: Imagining ourselves as 21st century learners: Making space to learn

Jill Willis

Part 3. Critical imagination

"And keep your eyes wide": An introduction to critical imagination

Chapter 8: The power of creative, critical and empathetic imagination to shape transformative opportunities in the teaching of literacy

Vicky Duckworth

Chapter 9: Re-imagining Indigenous education through flexi-schooling

Marnee Shay

Chapter 10: Feeling futures: The embodied imagination and intensive time

Anna Hickey-Moody, Valerie Harwood, & Samantha McMahon

Part 4. Empathic imagination

Crossing the empty spaces: An introduction to empathic imagination

Chapter 11: Ethical imagination and the inclusive education agenda: The case of low-income countries

Bill Atweh & Mellony Graven

Chapter 12: Imagination for Inclusion : Shared understandings across diverse contexts of educational practice

Donna Tangen & Louise Mercer

Chapter 13: From stone to stone across the unknown sea

John J. Cimino, Jr.

Afterword: The challenge of imagination for inclusion

Index

Derek Bland is a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Following a varied employment history that included driving instruction and attempting to sell things, Derek qualified as a graphic designer. He then gained a teaching qualification and taught visual art before becoming a regional coordinator with the Disadvantaged Schools Program in a large rural region of Victoria. He joined QUT in 1991 to establish a special entry and student support initiative to assist people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. His research focuses on inclusive education, particularly the intersection of low socio-economic status and education, and the ways in which imagination can engage marginalised and reluctant young people with formal education.