RECONCEPTUALISATION OF IMAGINATION AS A PART OF EDUCATIONAL THINKING

Minna Kallio
Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Department of Applied Scien

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     Last modified: March 11, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/21/2007 10:45 AM in Coast Hotel Parkside Room
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Abstract
The aim of this study is to contribute to the discussion about how we can reconceptualize imagination in the core of the theory of education and educational consciousness. The significance of preserving imagination is studied from pedagogical viewpoint in this article. The pedagogical studies of Finnish educational theorist Juho Aukusti Hollo (1885-1967) are used as a theoretical ground throughout the study. Hollo uses themes related to this research in his doctoral thesis ”Imagination and its development”(1918). As an educative theorist he gives imagination a remarkable meaning in educational thinking. However, imagination has not for a long time belonged to the core area of the Finnish education. In this context I will discuss the main background factors and prerequisites related to the theme of imagination. The starting point of the study is today’s characteristic feature of the superiority of economics and instrumental intellect, which is partly reflected also to education. The highlighted education policy factors support the mostly technically rationally defined educational thinking of today and favour the instrumentalization of the field of education. This can be seen also as a construction that hinders the autonomy and uniqueness of education. The article discusses the prerequisites of reconceptualization; what must be approved for the educational thinking created around imagination to gain ground in educational consciousness. The presumption is that the neoliberalist and market-oriented thinking as the frame of reference of education limits the theme of imagination and the existence of image and perception in educational consciousness that are closely related to it. The instrumental intellect does not allow for imagination based on perception even though the elements viewed from the field of education are essential.