LEARNING WITH
IMAGINATION
Enquiry, Communities, and Power
in the Mantle of the Expert System
Dr. Brian Edmiston
Professor of Teaching and Learning
Ohio State University
edmiston.1@osu.edu
‘What children ask for is … an
experience of school that is engaging
and meaningful, that supports the
learning the children need for their
adult lives in a manner that also
acknowledges their priorities as
children.’ (150)
Devine, Dympha. (2003). Children, power and schooling: How
childhood is structured in the primary school. Trentham Books
‘ … the knowledge that our
students really want, and that is
the knowledge we owe them [is]
not merely the facts, not merely
the theories, but a deep knowing
of what it means to kindle the
gift of life in ourselves, in others,
and in the world’
Parker Palmer (1998) p. x
Deep learning about life …
• … you learn from people
• … you can think quite a lot when you’re actually
having fun at the same time
• … you have to keep up with things that you don’t
want to do
• … [when] your imagination runs wild you can
design [ideas]
• …you can think of ways to make [life] better and
ways that would make it worse
… and about using the mantle
of the expert system
•
•
•
•
•
… you think like an adult and how their life is
… you can feel what it’s like to work
… learn things you didn’t know before
… it makes your mind unwind
… you get to know things you would like to learn
and things you wouldn’t like to learn
3 BIG IDEAS
• ‘Deep knowledge’ of life comes from
ENQUIRY
• Enquiry happens in relationships between
people in different COMMUNITIES
• The type of community people create
depends on how they POSITION each other
and share POWER
People create deep knowledge of
life through ENQUIRY
e.g. in a hobby
• People choose to engage
• in collaborative social practices
• through which they explore questions of interest to
them
• make meaning and over time acquire the expertise
(knowledge, skills, understanding) they need
• to become more competent
• and (ideally) ethically responsible human beings
• In doing so they join and create communities of
enquiry
‘Enquiry can take people beyond their current
understanding of the world through
collaborative explorations of the lives we
want to live and the people we want to be’
Jerome Harste (2001) p. 1
Leaving pupils’ learning a deep knowledge of
life (along with related facts and theories) to
everyday life means leaving learning to
chance …
We can use the mantle of the expert system to
create opportunities for learning by design
An example …
‘Living with Wolves’
Y2 (Grade 1 in the U.S.)
Imaginative Enquiry (or Dramatic Enquiry)
in the Mantle of the Expert system
Learning by design through
enquiry in imagined communities
• The pupils gradually take on ethical responsibility
for running an enterprise in an imagined
community
• The pupils care enough about the long-term goals
of a fictional client that they choose to engage in
collaborative social practices and explore
questions
• In doing so the pupils (and adults) begin to
imagine the world of a professional community
and over time acquire expertise
however …
children and adults are still interacting in the
everyday classroom communities
EVERYDAY
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITIES
IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
The imagined expert communities become
more complex and extensive over time
EVERYDAY
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITIES
IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
EVERYDAY
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITIES
IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
Adults’ (and children’s) use of
POWER …
is not necessarily controlling, domineering, or
oppressive
(though it can be)
People use power, in relation to other people
People in classrooms
have more or less power
in relation to each other
In your classroom, how are you (and children)
able to use power?
• the power to move (physical power)
• the power to interact (social power)
• the power to interpret and evaluate
(power of ideas)
Which adults and children tend to have the
most/least power?
• Physical power -- the
power to move
• Social power -- the
power to interact
• The power of ideas -the power to
interpret/evaluate
When you begin to use the
mantle of the expert system …
• As children begin to use power differently:
to move, to interact, to interpret/evaluate
How do you respond?
• You (and other adults) can also use power
differently: to move, to interact, to
interpret/evaluate
What are you comfortable trying?
… children must be able
to use power
Children must be able to use power
(to move, to interact, and to interpret/evaluate)
in order to make meaning and acquire
expertise
• Using power to make
meaning and acquire
expertise
Power circulates, accumulates,
and disperses …
Power circulates among everyone in a group
in relation to everyone else
Some people always have more power than
others
• Some people become dominant (sometimes
domineering) and others can become
excluded
Children (and adults) use, give,
take (and resist) POWER by how
they POSITION other people
• Power over others
• Power for others
• Power with others
How power is used over time creates
different types of COMMUNITIES
• Power over others
authoritative communities like factories, prisons,
military, etc.
• Power for others
nurturing communities like families, hospices,
animal care facilities etc.
• Power with others
collaborative communities like explorative
laboratories, choirs, creative groups, investigative
teams etc.
What sort of community do you
want in the classroom?
more authoritative -- like a factory?
more nurturing -- like a family?
more collaborative -- like an explorative
team?
Whose classroom is it?
Is it …
• ‘my’ classroom?
• ‘their’ classroom?
• ‘our’ classroom?
As adults …
… how we use our power (and react to how
children use their power) creates different
types of community
• The mantle of the expert system provides us
with opportunities to use power differently
than people usually do in the classroom
Everyone uses power differently
in different situations with
different people
People shift back and forth among
• using power with
• … or for
• … or over other people
Which uses of power are more
dominant in classroom practices?
• The dominant uses of power create an
overall classroom ‘tone’
• Creating a tone of cooperation,
collaboration, attentive listening, sharing
ideas, negotiation, making meaning together
i.e. sharing power with others as
‘colleagues’ is at the heart of good teaching
… and is essential in successfully using the
mantle of the expert system
• Overall we share power with children and
help children share power with one another
• I can do this as ‘me’ or by positioning
children as if I am someone else, like a
colleague in an animal care enterprise ,or as
a Park Ranger, a Bank Manager, or even a
wolf
This doesn’t mean we don’t use
power over children, or for them
• Ideally uses of power over children, and
using power for them, are ‘nested’ within
using power with them
Power with others
Power for others
Power over others
Nesting power relationships in a
COMMUNITY of ENQUIRY
• We can shift back and forth between
handing over more power and holding on to
or taking back more power
Handing over
more power
Taking back
more power
Hand
over more
power
Power with others
Power for others
Take
more
power
Power over others
Adult sharing power with children
to create liberating constraints
Using power with others
• Children (and/or adults) position one
another with broadly equal power
Colleagues share knowledge and abilities
… invite cooperation
… collaborate in activities
In order to negotiate meaning
Using power with others
• Use the language of ‘we’
• … and make decisions together
• … including important life decisions
‘How would we be able to …?’
‘We were wondering why …’
‘How might we …?’
EVERYDAY
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITIES
‘Has anyone not
had a chance to
speak?’
IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
‘How will we be able to
work together to capture
the wolves without
hurting them? Does the
Ranger have any ideas?
USING POWER WITH OTHERS: the language of ‘WE …’
within which is nested …
Using power for others
• Children (and/or adults) position themselves
(and/or are positioned by others) with less power
 colleagues help one another and lend a hand
 amplify ideas
 bring ideas from the edge to the centre
Colleagues use power for others …
• Lending a hand
• Bringing ideas from
the edge to the centre
Using power for others
• Use the language of ‘you’
• … and make decisions with attention to
minority as well as majority views
‘What do you need right now?’
‘Would you like to …?’
EVERYDAY
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITIES
‘Would you like
me to hold your
drawing so
everyone can see
it?’
IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
‘Did you all hear what
she just said about using
tranquilizer darts?’
USING POWER FOR OTHERS: the language of ‘YOU…’
within which is nested
Using power over others
• Children (and/or adults) position themselves
(and/or are positioned by others) with more
power
Some colleagues are ‘servant leaders’
… but colleagues don’t exclude others’
ideas
Colleagues use power over others …
• as ‘servant leaders’
• … but don’t exclude
Using power over others
• The language of ‘I …’
‘I want to …
‘I would like you to …’
‘I thought we had agreed to …’
EVERYDAY
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITIES
‘I thought we’d
agreed to decide
together what
we’d do?’
IMAGINED
COMMUNITIES
‘Wait a minute, I’m
worried about how the
wolves might feel if you
use your hypodermic
needle like that!’
USING POWER OVER OTHERS: the language of ‘I …’
Hand
over more
power
Power with others
Power for others
Take
more
power
Power over others
Adult sharing power with children
to create liberating constraints
‘ … the knowledge that our students
really want, and that is the
knowledge we owe them [is] not
merely the facts, not merely the
theories, but a deep knowing of what
it means to kindle the gift of life in
ourselves, in others, and in the
world’
Parker Palmer (1998) p. x