Authors
Laura D’Olimpio
Publication date
2020
Journal
Wonder, education, and human flourishing
Pages
256
Description
Anders Schinkel (2017; 2018) defends the role of deep wonder as an antidote to the instrumentalising effects of a neoliberal approach to education. Educationally, children should be encouraged to enter into wonder-full1 states, yet how to educate for wonder? In this chapter, I will further build on Schinkel’s ideas and defend the arts as an important vehicle for prompting the experience of wonder. The arts are likely to give rise to a sense of wonder due to the way in which they present concepts, images and ideas in new and creative ways. Such artistic depiction encourages those engaging with artworks to adopt a certain way of seeing; a mode of perception that is open and receptive and thus likely to result in feelings of wonder. I claim that creating space for the arts on the school curriculum will provide opportunities for wonder in educational settings.
Wonder often seems elusive. It seems as though some people (especially young children) often experience moments of wonder whereas others do not… and wonder is the type of experience that is unlikely to become manifest the more it is chased. As such, experiences of wonder may surprise us, arising anywhere at any time. As teachers, how may we teach students to experience wonder? We may create the conditions conducive to wonder, yet we cannot guarantee the perceiver will experience wonder. The experience of wonder involves subjective and contextual factors; factors which may be difficult to
Total citations
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Scholar articles
L D'Olimpio - Wonder, education, and human flourishing, 2020