As a three-year-old, Margaret Katch told stories about princesses in Vivian Paley's classroom. Now deep into adulthood, she reflects on how acting out these stories as a preschooler influenced her life.

This submission explores the concept of aesthetic justice pedagogy, and advocates on behalf of it. In contrast to aesthetic injustice, which denotes any harm done to a person's aesthetic capacities, aesthetic justice pedagogy aims at facilitating the development of students' imagination, perception, and feelings, wherein narrative and story-making…

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine a published language arts curriculum, determine how Anna Craft's possibility thinking framework could be integrated into the curriculum, and then observe how students responded to the implementation of lessons integrating the elements of possibility thinking. The findings…

The aim of this study is to reveal the contribution of digital storytelling to the creative thinking skills of middle school seventh grade students. The study was designed as a mixed method research. The data were obtained from the digital stories created by the students through block-based coding, video recordings and student interviews.…

This article explores the possibilities (and complexities) of multimodal meaning-making in the digital dimension, which allows students to compose with a variety of different modes, such as images, sound, music, and writing. This lets them think deeply about the ways in which meaning is constructed, conveyed, and eventually interpreted by an…

In an online graduate-level early childhood education course, the authors sought to playfully disrupt and transform educators' conceptions of children's "dark play," as provoked by contemporary popular culture. Embracing the imaginative potential of darkness and liminality, the course participants problematized and expanded their…

In this qualitative study, the author explores how young readers build literary understanding through performative responses in picturebook read-alouds. Performative responses allow children to create and express meaning in ways that go beyond talk and that engage their creativity and imagination. They include a variety of modalities, such as…

Presents an essay by renowned author of young adult literature Robert Cormier, musing on the autobiographical aspects of his own writings as well as writing in the guise of people or about situations to which he is a complete stranger. (SR)

In this book, the author reveals the creative force of children's narrative imagination and shows how this develops through childhood. He provides a new and powerful understanding of the significance of narrative for children's intellectual growth and for learning and teaching. The book explores a series of real stories written by children between…

Describes a program that has been conducted for two years by a group of educators at the University of Hamburg, West Germany, in which participants investigated the pedagogical use of the story. Illustrates the way in which story telling can be used to teach concepts at a high level of synthesis. (KO)

Three strategies are suggested for teachers to use in developing the critical imagination of students: (1) the deconstruction of lived and told storylines; (2) the development of reflective ethical practice in line with post-structuralist understanding; and (3) the writing, telling, and adapting of stories that interrupt binary thinking. (SLD)

Discusses the importance of imagination and the power of stories. Draws on insights gained from visits with children growing up in difficult environments, and shares examples from the author's own works written for young adults. (AEF)

Finds that youth participating in a delinquency-prevention program (that included a psychoeducational intervention teaching them imagination skills) improved in their ability to be more fluent thinkers, showed better divergent thinking in the area of originality, improved in richness in storytelling, and reported a greater ability to relax and to…

Asserts that puppets help children in storytelling and role playing, encouraging creativity and language development. Details types of puppets and how to construct them, including: (1) figure stick puppets; (2) paper plate puppets; and (3) garden glove puppets. Describes how to construct different puppet stages for performance. (BGC)

This article features ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center," a learning facility wherein students are provided with an original approach to education, learning, and the arts. ImaginOn is a joint venture of the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLMC) and the Children's Theater of Charlotte. ImaginOn's mission is to "bring…