Secondary Education: Maxine Greene High School for Imaginative Inquiry

• In Event: 43.040 - Research as Meaning-Making: Developing a Lens for Understanding the Impact of Aesthetic Education

Abstract

Since opening in 2005, The Maxine Greene High School for Imaginative Inquiry (MGHS) has partnered with Lincoln Center Education (LCE) in order to provide academic experiences for students with works of art across the curriculum. MGHS was developed as a new small school created through unique partnerships with cultural organizations and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) in 2004-2005.
The hallmarks of the work at MGHS are the integration of intensive, interdisciplinary studies of works of art throughout the academic year and the ongoing exploration of the instructional methodologies related to imaginative learning in accordance with the philosophical tradition of Maxine Greene. As Maxine was the founding philosopher of our school, in 2017 we were the first school in the nation named to honor her vision for aesthetic education and social imagination.
In the current mission of the MGHS it is affirmed that the school is,
. . . a learning community in which deep engagement with works of art enhances the imaginative capacity leading to the intellectual rigor of all students.
This year we are furthering our commitment to bringing Imaginative Inquiry to our students through an expanded collaboration with The Maxine Greene Institute and a new partnership with Lehman College, CUNY, as a Professional Development School (PDS). These collaborations will provide more opportunities for reflective engagement in each grade by fostering Imaginative Inquiry at the secondary level, as imagined by Maxine Greene.
Hannah Arendt spoke about “spaces of action” and Greene referred to “aesthetic discoveries and experiences . . . and the effect it can have on the spaces we open, how much it has to do with encouraging a sense of agency on the part of teachers and learners both.” At MGHS we are deeply curious about the space in which the Aesthetic Experience happens and the kind of agency required on the part of both teachers and students.
Through our collaboration with Lehman College we are exploring the intersection of the classroom as the space where students create their unique actions with the teachers and teaching artists who are charged with facilitating the experience. Through targeted writing interventions we are creating meaningful experiences with critical questioning in which the students may find the spaces of action that allows for the deeper awareness of the Aesthetic Experience in our classrooms. Analysis of the students’ writing will examine students’ growth over time utilizing the Analytic Writing Continuum developed by the National Writing Project Preliminary data suggests that the experience of inquiry into works of art combined with writing in a variety of forms contributes significantly to both the quality and quantity of student writing. Our research draws on the tradition of reflective practice, defined by Dewey (1910, p. 6) as “the active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it.”

Authors

• Steven Noonan, The Maxine Greene High School for Imaginative Inquiry

• Amanda Nicole Gulla, Lehman College - CUNY