Education, Arts, and Morality: Creative Journeys

184 Pages·2005·0.833 MB·English

by  David Lavery (auth.), Doris B. Wallace (eds.)

EDUCATION, ARTS, AND
MORALITY
Creative Journeys
PATHINPSYCHOLOGY
PublishedinCooperationwithPublicationsforthe
AdvancementofTheoryandHistoryinPsychology(PATH)
SeriesEditors:
DavidBakan,YorkUniversity
JohnM.Broughton,TeachersCollege,ColumbiaUniversity
RobertW.Rieber,JohnHayCollege,CUNY,andColumbiaUniversity
HowardGruber,UniversityofGeneva
CHOICESFORLIVING:CopingwithFearandDying
ThomasS.Langner
COGNITIVESCIENCEANDGENETICEPISTEMOLOGY:ACaseStudyofUnderstanding
DavidLeiserandChristianaGillie`ron
ACRITICALPSYCHOLOGY:InterpretationofthePersonalWorld
EdmundV.Sullivan
CRITICALTHEORIESOFPSYCHOLOGICALDEVELOPMENT
EditedbyJohnM.Broughton
CULTURALPSYCHOLOGYANDQUANTITATIVEMETHODOLOGY:Theoreticaland
EmpiricalConsiderations
CarlRatner
CULTURALPSYCHOLOGY:TheoryandMethod
CarlRatner
DEVELOPMENTALAPPROACHESTOTHESELF
EditedbyBenjaminLeeandGilG.Noam
EDUCATION,ARTS,ANDMORALITY:CreativeJourneys
EditedbyDorisB.Wallace
FRANTZFANONANDTHEPSYCHOLOGYOFOPPRESSION
HusseinAbdilahiBulhan
HUMANISTICPSYCHOLOGY:ConceptsandCriticisms
EditedbyJosephR.RoyceandLeendertP.Mos
THELIFECYCLEOFPSYCHOLOGICALIDEAS
EditedbyThomasC.DaltonandRandB.Evans
MANUFACTURINGSOCIALDISTRESS:PsychopathyinEverydayLife
RobertW.Rieber
THEMASSPSYCHOLOGYOFETHONATIONALISM
DusanKecmanovic
THEPROCESSAPPROACHTOPERSONALITY:PerceptgenesisandKindredApproaches
inFocus
GudmundJ.W.Smith
REGIONALIDENTITYANDBEHAVIOR
MaxSugar
SELFANDIDENTITYINMODERNPSYCHOLOGYANDINDIANTHOUGHT
AnandC.Paranjpe
WILHELMWUNDTINHISTORY:TheMakingofaScientificPsychology
EditedbyRobertW.RieberandDavidK.Robinson
EDUCATION, ARTS, AND
MORALITY
Creative Journeys
Edited by
Doris B. Wallace
NewYork,NewYork
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK,BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW
eBookISBN: 0-306-48671-7
Print ISBN: 0-306-48670-9
©2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
Print ©2005 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
New York
All rights reserved
No part of this eBook maybe reproducedor transmitted inanyform or byanymeans,electronic,
mechanical, recording, or otherwise,withoutwritten consent from the Publisher
Createdin the UnitedStates of America
Visit Springer's eBookstore at: http://ebooks.kluweronline.com
and the Springer Global Website Online at: http://www.springeronline.com
ForHoward
CONTRIBUTORS
RichardBrower,WagnerCollege,StatenIsland,NY
SaraDavis,RosemontCollege,Rosemont,PA
Michael Hanchett Hanson, Teachers College, Columbia University, New
York,NY
HelenHaste,UniversityofBath,Bath,UK
YehHsueh,UniversityofMemphis,Memphis,TN
DavidLavery,MiddleTennesseeStateUniversity,Murfreesboro,TN
SusanRostan,HofstraUniversity,Hempstead,NY
LauraTahir,GardenStateYouthCorrectionalFacility,Yardville,NJ
vii
PREFACE
HowardE.Gruber’sevolvingsystemsapproachtocreativityhas,invar-
iousways,influencedallthecontributorstothisvolume.Acentraltenet
in Gruber’s approach is that, in considering the creative thought and
workofapreeminentlycreativeperson,itistheperson’suniquenessthat
bringshimorhertoourattentioninthefirstplace.Thediscovery,novelty,
breakthrough or change of paradigm represented by the person’s ideas
and products is unlike those of anyone else. It follows that in order to
deepen our understanding of the development of the person’s work, a
case study is the best approach. Lavery, Hanchett Hanson, and Brower
eachusethecasestudytoexploreanaspectoftheworkofahighlycreative
individual.
DavidLaverystudiestheessaysandpoetryoftheAmericananthro-
pologist,historianofscienceandwriterLorenEiseleyandthelatter’sgoal
tofeelathomewhenheisawayfromhome.Laverydiscussessomecentral
metaphors in Eiseley’s thought and draws parallels between Odysseus’
homewardjourneyandEiseley’sprofessionalandpersonalone.
Michael Hanchett Hanson’s study focuses on the role of irony in
George Bernard Shaw’s writings about World War I, the Great War.
HanchettHansonshowshowShaw’suseofironycontributedtohiscre-
ativityandreflectedhismoralpassion.
Richard Brower uses the social-psychological theory of social com-
parisontotracethedevelopmentofvanGoghasanartist.Brower’sstudy
contradictstheprevalentideathatthehighlycreativeindividualisasoli-
taryfigurewhoworksalone,cutofffromtheworld.
SaraDavisdescribesherstudyoftherelationshipbetweenreaderand
text when the text is a romance novel. She discusses the heavy influence
ix
x PREFACE
ofbroadculturalnormsconcerningwomenandromance,butalsoshows
howreaderswhoinitiallyhadaverynegativeattitudetoromancenovels,
constructed new meanings of the text once they began to read. Davis’
interestinsocialcontextisindebtedtoGruber,whobelievedthatexamina-
tionoftheeffectsofthesocialmilieuisessentialinthestudyofindividual
creativity.
Several authors mention Gruber’s Network of Enterprise which is a
theoreticalconstructthatalsoprovidesamethodologicaltechniquetomap
aperson’senterprisesovertime.Anenterpriseisapurposefulactivityof
some duration (weeks, months, years) which consists of projects, tasks,
and products. Gruber used the Network idea in the course of developing
his approach to the study of creative work. Laura Tahir, who directs the
psychologicalservicesinaprison,appliesthistooltoherworkwithtwo
membersofagroupofyoungincarceratedmen.Togetherwithheruseof
narrativetherapy—whosemainfocusisforthoseintherapyto“re-story”
their lives—Tahir discusses the potential effects of her program on the
futurelivesoftheparticipants.
SusanRostanusesGruber’sworkonmoralityandcreativityasatake-
offpointtoexamineextraordinarymoralbehaviorinchildrenofelemen-
tary and high school age and traces aspects of its developmental course
across these age groups. Rostan includes teachers’ perceptions of the ex-
traordinarymoralbehaviortheywitnessedanddiscussestheimportance
of teachers’ potential roles in the development of such behavior among
theirstudents.
Yeh Hsueh takes up the method of Critical Exploration in education.
He traces the origins of this approach to Jean Piaget’s development of
the“clinicalmethod”asawayofinterviewingandworkingwithchildren.
Hsuehcarefullydescribestheevolutionoftheapproachinthe20thcentury
anditscurrentusebyEleanorDuckworthasawayofelicitingmaximum
participationandcreativethinkingintheclassroom.
HelenHasteusesabroadbrushtoexaminequestionsofhowbestto
educateyoungpeopleformoralandcivicresponsibility.Herexamination
includesresearchstudiesinWesternandEasternEurope,NorthandSouth
America, and Asia. She emphasizes the importance of taking changing
political,social,andpsychologicalworldevents(suchastheentryofenvi-
ronmentalismintothepublicdomain)intoconsiderationinmakingdeci-
sionsaboutcurriculum.Hastediscussesbroadtheoreticalissues,questions
aboutparticipationandpractice,aswellasthemeaningofresponsibility
attheindividuallevel.
Itiseasytoseeinthesebriefdescriptionsthattheessaysinthisvolume
owe a collective debt to Howard Gruber—from an abstract-idea level to
PREFACE xi
theconcreteadoptionofmethod.Atthesametime,itisstrikinghowmany
ofthecontributorsarepresentingworkinareasneverexploredbyGruber.
This,perhaps,atteststothegenerativityandflexibilityofGruber’stheory.
DorisB.Wallace
NewYork