In a time of intellectual and emotional overload in education, this paper offers room for breathing through a pedagogy of emptiness from a Daoist perspective. It begins by introducing the concept of Daoist emptiness through three intertwining features--generative, transcendent, and inclusive--important for rethinking pedagogy. It then moves to…

This article discusses the concept of children's agency in early childhood music education, integrating perspectives from the sociology of childhood and analysing music teaching and learning contexts in Brazil. Although children are increasingly recognised as catalysts for change in education and policy, there is still a persistent gap between…

This essay explores a conceptual view of imagination and its capacity for educational transformation by acknowledging its ineffable, aesthetic, and social qualities. A critical perspective is applied by drawing upon what Giroux (2013) calls the politics of disimagination. Imagination is then put to the pedagogical task of confronting the…

This article discusses approaches to improvisation from a learning perspective, using Irish traditional fiddle music as a case study. Within this genre, concepts of improvisation are largely implicit: many skilled musicians are engaged in spontaneous variation, without particular attention given to the phenomenon and without reference to the term…

Improvisation is a fundamental aspect of musicianship and an important pursuit in music education. Children in music classes throughout the world are engaged with improvisation in a variety of modes and settings. Whether singing, physically moving, or playing an instrument, the act of improvising in front of others may raise one's…

This course design integrates the use of contemplative practices, specifically applied improvisational theater, into writing pedagogies to foster mindfulness and critical engagement. It explores the theoretical, neuroscientific, and practical rationale for incorporating contemplative pedagogies in writing classrooms, arguing that applied improv…

Vectors have important applications both within and outside mathematics, but the concept of vectors is often taught to students in a less-than-engaging way, leading to students feeling inadequate and frustrated. This article describes the use of a mathematical microworld, "Driving with Vectors," to explore vectors using equitable…

In this exercise, participants create a fictional business based on a set of randomly generated words. This challenge requires participants to exercise creativity, while reinforcing the business concepts learned in class. The exercise has four steps: (1) generating a prompt of three random words, (2) designing a fictional business based on this…

Group improvisation encourages students to improvise in a collective setting to build confidence in their individual and group improvisational skills. In this article, I describe group improvisation methods that offer an accessible entry into creative music-making for learners in secondary school instrumental ensembles. Instructional…

This paper describes the pedagogical roots of the work we do, both as teachers and as performers; and how our work reaches beyond the classroom and into community, eliciting narratives and weaving them through improvised dance and music collaborations, eventually onto the walls of an art museum. Our concept was to solicit stories that told of some…

The purpose of this article is to introduce an action-oriented framework aimed at clarifying and promoting a principled approach to creativity in education. A principled approach to creativity refers to the design and implementation of positive creative educational endeavors, which are guided by a set of agreed-upon commitments aimed at making a…

This article explores the parallels between improvisational theater, commonly known as improv, and active teaching. Specifically, it focuses in the impact of improv techniques on instructor and teaching assistant professional development. The implementation of an active teaching seminar is analyzed, where improv techniques were used in developing…

Notable theorists have argued that theatre and drama play positive roles in the moral education of children and adults, including cultivating their capacity for empathy. Yet other theorists have expressed concerns that plays and educational practices involving improvisation might not lead to positive changes in real life, and might even have…

Taking advantage of the possibilities for learning outside of school requires us to build on what we know about why it is so hard to sustain and scale up unconventional educational experiences within conventional schools. To illustrate the opportunities and challenges, Thomas Hatch describes a large-scale approach to project-based learning…

This practice-based article illustrates how dance education pedagogies can help refugee youth adjust to new settings. To support refugee youth in narrating aspects of belonging in their everyday lives, this article offers pedagogies for creative movement that unfold through multiple stages. As developed in the first author's dissertation study and…