Kieran Egan | Simon Fraser University (original) (raw)
Papers by Kieran Egan
It can be a tad sobering to re-read for the first time in over twenty years something written the... more It can be a tad sobering to re-read for the first time in over twenty years something written then in a hurry. I had been assigned to teach my first curriculum course at Simon Fraser University and thought it might be a good idea to find out what “curriculum ” was. Many of the people I talked to in the field seemed to have rather divergent views, and some cheerfully admitted they had no idea. Some suggested I look at the kinds of books used by curriculum professors in their courses and infer what the field cov-ered from that. And, of course, I studied the big Curriculum textbooks. None of this made things much clearer, oddly enough. I also wanted to start my class off with something that would clarify what curriculum was supposed to be about for the students. Not being able to find anything that seemed to me adequate at the time, I wrote “What is Curriculum? ” for my students, and later sent it off to the editor of Curriculum Inquiry, who, I tend to think looking at it now, was undu...
Why Do We Educate? Renewing the Conversation, 2008
A distinguished group of contributors surveys the topics from various perspectives. Part I includ... more A distinguished group of contributors surveys the topics from various perspectives. Part I includes chapters by Philip W. Jackson, Sigrun Gudmundsdottir, Carol Witherell, and Shirley Pendlebury, and looks at narrative in the practice of teaching, while considering the use of stories in organizing teaching and curriculum content and the moral and personal features of teaching that a narrative focus brings to the fore. In Part II, Brian Sutton-Smith, Vivian Gussin Paley, Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon, and Kieran Egan examine narrative's meaning for the learner, leading us beyond simplistic characterizations of children as "concrete" thinkers whose cognition is radically different from adults'. Part III, with chapters by Michael Huberman, Hunter McEwan, Ivor Goodson, Robert J. Graham, and Nancy Zeller, examines narrative accounts that help teachers make sense of their professional lives; how narrative can bridge the gaps between teachers and others, especially students; t...
Philosophical Inquiry in Education
McGill Journal of Education
We propose that teacher candidates need to have extended experiences with learning to teach imagi... more We propose that teacher candidates need to have extended experiences with learning to teach imaginatively, which is to say that teacher candidates need to have experiences that enable them to consider new possibilities in education. We first attend to the general theoretical framework offered by imaginative education before moving on to consider the implications of imaginative education for teacher education programs. We conclude with some provocations to the field that we hope will be of use for those who might wish to join us in considering how we might teach teachers to teach in imaginative ways — a complex sentence with an even more complicated set of implications.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00094056 1997 10521136, Jul 18, 2012
Curriculum and Teaching, 2009
ABSTRACT This article discusses the role of students’ imagination in classroom pedagogy. Using a ... more ABSTRACT This article discusses the role of students’ imagination in classroom pedagogy. Using a constructivist framework the authors argue that engaging students’ creativity and imagination will result in quality learning and teaching.
Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 1984
According to information on its cover, this book is concerned with a series of misunderstandings... more According to information on its cover, this book is concerned with a series of misunderstandings that arise in the study and practice of education, misunderstandings that follow from a failure to distinguish socializing from educating in any systematic way. The ...
Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 2012
The Arts in Children’s Lives, 2002
Action in Teacher Education, 2010
ABSTRACT Teacher education programs attend relatively little to some areas that are crucial to an... more ABSTRACT Teacher education programs attend relatively little to some areas that are crucial to an adequate education. Such programs tend to provide preservice teachers with inadequate opportunities to develop skills in how to develop students' imaginative engagement in learning, skills of story-shaping curriculum content, locating affective images in curriculum content, and deploying humor in the classroom. The skills, each tied in with emotions in some degree, are related to each other in their concern to enrich students' learning. This article argues for the importance of this set of skills becoming a routine part of teacher education programs and explores how their development can be brought into the regular curriculum of such programs.
Praxis Educativa Num 1 Y 2 Vol Xvii, 2014
It can be a tad sobering to re-read for the first time in over twenty years something written the... more It can be a tad sobering to re-read for the first time in over twenty years something written then in a hurry. I had been assigned to teach my first curriculum course at Simon Fraser University and thought it might be a good idea to find out what “curriculum ” was. Many of the people I talked to in the field seemed to have rather divergent views, and some cheerfully admitted they had no idea. Some suggested I look at the kinds of books used by curriculum professors in their courses and infer what the field cov-ered from that. And, of course, I studied the big Curriculum textbooks. None of this made things much clearer, oddly enough. I also wanted to start my class off with something that would clarify what curriculum was supposed to be about for the students. Not being able to find anything that seemed to me adequate at the time, I wrote “What is Curriculum? ” for my students, and later sent it off to the editor of Curriculum Inquiry, who, I tend to think looking at it now, was undu...
Why Do We Educate? Renewing the Conversation, 2008
A distinguished group of contributors surveys the topics from various perspectives. Part I includ... more A distinguished group of contributors surveys the topics from various perspectives. Part I includes chapters by Philip W. Jackson, Sigrun Gudmundsdottir, Carol Witherell, and Shirley Pendlebury, and looks at narrative in the practice of teaching, while considering the use of stories in organizing teaching and curriculum content and the moral and personal features of teaching that a narrative focus brings to the fore. In Part II, Brian Sutton-Smith, Vivian Gussin Paley, Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon, and Kieran Egan examine narrative's meaning for the learner, leading us beyond simplistic characterizations of children as "concrete" thinkers whose cognition is radically different from adults'. Part III, with chapters by Michael Huberman, Hunter McEwan, Ivor Goodson, Robert J. Graham, and Nancy Zeller, examines narrative accounts that help teachers make sense of their professional lives; how narrative can bridge the gaps between teachers and others, especially students; t...
Philosophical Inquiry in Education
McGill Journal of Education
We propose that teacher candidates need to have extended experiences with learning to teach imagi... more We propose that teacher candidates need to have extended experiences with learning to teach imaginatively, which is to say that teacher candidates need to have experiences that enable them to consider new possibilities in education. We first attend to the general theoretical framework offered by imaginative education before moving on to consider the implications of imaginative education for teacher education programs. We conclude with some provocations to the field that we hope will be of use for those who might wish to join us in considering how we might teach teachers to teach in imaginative ways — a complex sentence with an even more complicated set of implications.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00094056 1997 10521136, Jul 18, 2012
Curriculum and Teaching, 2009
ABSTRACT This article discusses the role of students’ imagination in classroom pedagogy. Using a ... more ABSTRACT This article discusses the role of students’ imagination in classroom pedagogy. Using a constructivist framework the authors argue that engaging students’ creativity and imagination will result in quality learning and teaching.
Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 1984
According to information on its cover, this book is concerned with a series of misunderstandings... more According to information on its cover, this book is concerned with a series of misunderstandings that arise in the study and practice of education, misunderstandings that follow from a failure to distinguish socializing from educating in any systematic way. The ...
Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 2012
The Arts in Children’s Lives, 2002
Action in Teacher Education, 2010
ABSTRACT Teacher education programs attend relatively little to some areas that are crucial to an... more ABSTRACT Teacher education programs attend relatively little to some areas that are crucial to an adequate education. Such programs tend to provide preservice teachers with inadequate opportunities to develop skills in how to develop students' imaginative engagement in learning, skills of story-shaping curriculum content, locating affective images in curriculum content, and deploying humor in the classroom. The skills, each tied in with emotions in some degree, are related to each other in their concern to enrich students' learning. This article argues for the importance of this set of skills becoming a routine part of teacher education programs and explores how their development can be brought into the regular curriculum of such programs.
Praxis Educativa Num 1 Y 2 Vol Xvii, 2014