MACMILLAN Inquiry-Based Learning Through the Creative Arts for Teachers and Teacher Educators (Creativity, Education and the Arts)

This book is a theoretical and practical guide to implementing an inquiry-based approach to teaching which centers creative responses to works of art in curriculum. Guided by Maxine Greene’s philosophy of Aesthetic Education, the authors discuss the social justice implications of marginalized students having access to the arts and opportunities to find their voices through creative expression. They aim to demystify the process of inquiry-based learning through the arts for teachers and teacher educators by offering examples of lessons taught in high school classrooms and graduate level teaching methods courses. Examples of student writing and art work show how creative interactions with the arts can help learners of all ages deepen their skills as readers, writers, and thinkers. Review “One of the hardest things to learn as a teacher or a prospective teacher is to teach in a way differently than we were taught and learned. The constraining power of our experiential tacit theory of teaching and learning is both hard to recognize and difficult to change. This book provides a rich basis for doing so since it both enacts its principles of inquiry-based learning and uses the interpretation and creation of creative arts to enrich and deepen the graduate students’ experience of both inquiry-based learning and creative responses to poetry and paintings. Their emphasis on using these processes to reach and teach traditionally marginalized students makes this book particularly timely in the context of confronting America’s racist realities. In addition, Chapter 2 powerfully and clearly shows the writers and their students adapting to the unprecedented reality of the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which shut down the schools and the colleges. Although no one would wish such a change, the flexibility that all the teachers and students demonstrated during it actually enacted the kind of growth that the book hopes to help occur for learners even in whatever will pass for ‘normal’ education in the future. Teachers and students who are looking for new paths for learning will have no better guide than the insights and experiences of Gulla and Sherman and their students.” ― John S. Mayher, Professor Emeritus of English Education, New York University, USA, and author of Uncommon Sense (1990) and Learning to Write/Writing to Learn (1983) “Gulla and Sherman deftly introduce inquiry-based learning as a pedagogy of liberation and aesthetics.  Educators interested in social justice and engaging students with material from their own lives will find much to love about this unique volume. The detailed lesson plans and extended examples will have you ready to incorporate arts-based practice in your curriculum. This volume will have a prominent place on my book shelf. “ ―Sandra L. Faulkner, Professor of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, USA, and author of Poetic Inquiry: Craft, Method and Practice (2020) “International education systems are refocusing on higher order skills such as creativity to adapt to the formidable economic, environmental, and social challenges of the twenty-first century. Additionally, despite the wide recognition of Maxine Greene’s influence on education in North America, published applications of her ideas about aesthetic education seem to be short supply. Gulla and Sherman's admirable and beautiful book clearly demonstrates how these important concepts are being explored with both school students and teacher candidates.” ―Heather McLeod, Professor, Arts Education, Memorial University, Canada   From the Back Cover This book is a theoretical and practical guide to implementing an inquiry-based approach to teaching which centers creative responses to works of art in curriculum. Guided by Maxine Greene’s philosophy of Aesthetic Education, the authors discuss the social justice implications of marginalized students having access to the arts and opportunities to