«'Teaching for Aesthetic Experience: The Art of Learning' is everywhere imprinted with the wisdom and vision of luminary Maxine Greene, even as it provides examples of curricula that breathe practical life into Greene's artful writing. In a range of engaging presentations, these thoughtful educators provide insight into and examples of aesthetic education in action. The descriptions of approaches and activities encompass a variety of artistic domains, serve a range of student populations, and span the breadth of Eastern and Western thought. We hear the voice of Greene as philosopher of education in the opening essay and feel the impact of Greene as teacher of teachers in the multiple interpretations and demonstrations of wide awakeness that
resonate through the text. The contributors to this volume eloquently offer readers reasons and ways to engage students in what Greene calls 'the always unfinished dialogue to which works of art give rise'. Educators in all disciplines will benefit from this vital and vibrant discourse. (Jessica Hoffmann Davis, EdD Patricia Bauman and John Landrum Bryant Senior Lecturer Director, Arts in Education Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education)
«Of any philosopher over the last century, Maxine Greene has profoundly influenced our aesthetic and pedagogic sensibilities by moving us toward an aesthetic education. In 'Teaching for Aesthetic Experience', Maxine Greene's voice is not only present, it resonates through the voice of each author as he or she narratively renders their unique understanding of 'Teaching for Aesthetic Experience'. The edited volume is a testament to its own title. The authors teach for aesthetic experience by enacting it before our eyes. Their encounters release one's imagination by storying the wonders of everyday life while immersing us in a wide-awakeness aching for aesthetic expression and appreciation. Their encounters also provoke our senses and free us to transform our realities by deepening our awareness of the beauty within the particular. Diaz and McKenna have brought together a remarkable community of artist/educators deeply engaged in teaching for aesthetic experience through art but perhaps more importantly through the unfolding of our being in the world. The book is a moving tribute to the lifetime contributions of Maxine Greene yet it is also a testament to the extraordinary aesthetic education practices exemplified in each chapter, and I dare say, in the transformative potential this volume will ultimately have upon the field of education. (Rita L. Irwin, Professor and Head, Curriculum Studies, The University of British Columbia)
«The beauty in these pages - vivid and various - emanates from a single source: an aching desire on the part of each of these artist/teachers to be and to do. Provoked and inspired by an intimate encounter with the work of the philosopher Maxine Greene, longing to provoke and inspire their own students in turn, each engages through the arts in a quest for a meaning-making, authentic learning, growth and change. Building, creating, shaping, forging, saying, rhyming, singing, naming, portraying - Diaz and McKenna invite us to witness up-close teaching for and with aesthetic experience. Once there, we are likely to wonder, to question and to ask: What is to be done? What will I do now?» (William Ayers is Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of 'Fugitive Days: A Memoir', 'A Kind and Just Parent', and 'On The Side of The Child')
«Beginning and ending in Maxine Greene's Fifth Avenue apartment, the contributors 'infuse with imagination' a 'curriculum of beauty', and in so doing, 'embody feeling somehow'. Like
