Creative Pedagogies for Engagement: Reimagining Curriculum Through Literary Methods

• In Event: 56.022 - Reimagining, Rethinking, and Reorienting Trans-formational Curricula and Pedagogies

Abstract

As they answer the conference call for reflections on schooling that forefronts social progress and democratic engagement, the authors suggest that language and literary practices have much to offer educators interested in creative, critical, and liberatory approaches to education, rather than those that are instrumental, industrial, and colonial. The paper draws upon data from two federally funded research projects that engaged participants in close reading, close writing, and performance. Using methods of literary anthropology and Lather’s (1986) notion of catalytic validity, the authors argue that through composing, revising, and sharing their work, participants developed empathy, relationality, imaginative identification, mindfulness, and engaged participation – the qualities and dispositions that one might expect from citizens in a fair, just, and sustainable society.

Authors

• Claire Elizabeth Robson, Simon Fraser University

• Dennis J. Sumara, University of Calgary

• Rebecca J. Luce-Kapler, Queen's University