The Imaginative Education Research Group

Aleksandra Waliszewska

Part 1: Background Information

a) Name of organization: The Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG)

b) URL: http://ierg.net

c) Mandate excerpt: “Connecting the child's imagination with the world is the key to much successful teaching and learning. That connection is the focus of our work. We want nothing less than to make the learning experiences of all children in all schools more interesting, meaningful, and imaginatively engaging. By developing teachers' and students' imaginations, we believe we can transform the experience of schooling, and help students become more knowledgeable, and more creative in their thinking.” (http://ierg.net/about/aims.html) The group’s core ideas are based on Kieran Egan’s work on imaginative education (http://ierg.net/about/whatis.html) and the use of storytelling (http://ierg.net/about/storytell.html). Dr. Egan is the Director of IERG and a professor at Simon Fraser University.

d) IERG regularly organizes conferences and workshops (http://ierg.net/workshops), publishes lesson and unit plan ideas, and conducts various research projects such as Dr. Sean Blenkinsop’s recently proposed “Aligning Education and Sustainability in Maple Ridge, BC: A Study of Place-Based Ecological Schooling” project (http://ierg.net/news-items/sean-blenkinsop-leads-a-1-000-000-project/) as well as the now completed LUCID project (http://ierg.net/LUCID/overview). In addition, IERG coordinates a network of educational researchers and offers a Masters of Education program (http://ierg.net/research).

e) Although funding details are not fully disclosed on the IERG website, it appears that the organization is funded primarily through membership fees, university grants (it is affiliated with Simon Fraser University), and research grants from major research funding bodies such as The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

f) This group is a great resource for teachers and researchers alike. It offers great professional development opportunities and publishes free lesson and unit plan ideas on its website. Its philosophical and theoretical underpinnings, which are continually empirically researched, offer an innovative and effective pedagogical strategy that promises to engage and motivate students.

g) IERG collaborates with various school districts throughout British Columbia as well as researchers throughout the world. Its ties are deepest with Simon Fraser University as its directors are all derived from SFU.  

Part 2: Resource review: Supplement to Teaching as Storytelling by Kieran Egan (PhD), Faculty of Education, SFU (http://ierg.net/assets/documents/ideas/supplement.PDF; excerpts: pp. 30-1, 35-40)

            The central social issue that IERG focuses on is the purpose of schools in contemporary society. They argue that a pedagogical shift is necessary “from an industrial age school system to a post-industrial system: from a system that attempts to squeeze people and thoughts into standardized boxes, often to the detriment of originality and adaptability, to a system that enables the unusual and effective to flourish wherever possible.” (italics added; http://ierg.net/about). IERG is less concerned with what we teach than how we teach. They propose that schools should be teaching in ways that inspire possibilities, creative thinking and engage students’ imaginations. One method to do this is what Egan calls teaching as storytelling.

            Supplement to Teaching as Storytelling focuses on how to use storytelling teaching strategies in the classroom. Egan describes a storytelling approach to teaching elementary students about maps. First, Egan establishes the relevance of teaching about mapping. He argues that maps allow communities to locate themselves within the context of others, thus diminishing ethnocentrism. Second, Egan delineates binary opposites of self/other in order to have an exciting tension that the “story” can be built upon. Third, he organizes content into a story. His approach is to discuss the changing representations of the Earth in relation to the changing scientific understandings of the solar system. He also discusses the importance of personal, emotionally-charged mapping projects such as of past homes or family members’ childhood homes. Fourth, Egan concludes the unit by proposing a discussion back to the self/other tension. How does our understanding of ourselves change in relation to others? How can maps be seen from multiple perspectives? Lastly, Egan points out that standard evaluation practices do not capture the emotional growth and understanding that children can undergo throughout such a unit.

            Egan’s approach aims to engage students’ imaginations and creativity in order to deepen their understanding of themselves and the world. It acknowledges children as active participants in the learning process and argues for their emotional involvement as well. Egan discards the stale metaphor of children as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge (or as widgets on an assembly line) and proposes that we see children as imaginative, active beings eager to be engaged in learning and discovery. Since most teachers are interested in stimulating and encouraging children’s curiosity, Egan’s approach should be explored. It’s not without flaws (he rarely addresses power dynamics, his imaginative teaching approach does not question the role of the teacher as authority figure, and he doesn’t discuss children as decision makers); however, it is a rich starting point towards a critique of the industrial age mass education system.  

Part 3: Applying Egan’s storytelling strategy to studying habitats in grade 4 Science

            1. Identifying importance

·        Studying other species and their ways of life is an opportunity to question the meme of anthropocentrism that underpins contemporary society.

2. Finding binary opposites

·        Human/non-human

·        How can we understand ourselves in relation to (as opposed to in opposition to) other species?

3. Organizing content into story form

·        Habitats as different solutions to different problems that animals have faced evolutionarily, just as human beings have faced different challenges throughout our evolution. How did we solve our problems? How did they solve their problems? What adaptations did they evolve?

·        Exploring different points of view. Western scientific point of view on animal habitats. Aboriginal points of view on various animal habitats. Other species’ points of view on their own habitats.

4. Conclusion

·        Take away message is the continuity of life forms and their problem solving approaches.

5. Evaluation

·        Emphasis on the flexibility of thought. Could the children explore different points of view? Could they empathize with other species?