Releasing the imagination: essays on education, the arts, and social change

Abstract

In "Releasing the Imagination," [the author] reveals the critical role of imagination in cognitive and other modes of learning. Ruminating on themes such as literacy, the arts and aesthetics, pluralism, multiculturalism, and the tensions and passions of caring, Greene carefully considers both the realities of hard economic times and the human requirement for expressiveness. She shows that, while today's economic realities require an inevitable emphasis on vocational and technical training, this focus must be counterbalanced by an emphasis on the release of the human imagination and the cultivation of new visions. Greene explains how the arts play a key role in building understanding across differences and in stimulating the capacity to break with the habitual and the taken for granted—counteracting the sometimes pervasive sense of futility that overwhelms many of our youth. From an account of school restructuring to a rendering of the shapes of literacy, Greene's essays examine the potential releases of imagination in a variety of contexts—in connection with the arts and in connection with the community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)