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Articles

Vol. 22 (2006 Fall)

Pedagogical Implications of "Becoming Wide-Awake": Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the Publication of Releasing the Imagination by Maxine Green

  • Melinda Moore Davis
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21423/awlj-v21.a252
Submitted
June 21, 2017
Published
2017-06-12

Abstract

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.