The role of imagination when teaching the diverse group

Abstract

In the perspective of this paper, the challenge of diversity to teachers is a blending of two considerations: that the subject matter of teaching is cumulative and that the memory of subject matter must somehow be common to the student group, or else it would be impossible to teach. The paper concludes that the teacher can accommodate for common memories as a teaching context shared by the diverse group by keeping the class’s story of subject matter alive and by explicitly encouraging students to share their individual imaginations. This theoretical perspective is constructed from exploring the mimetic aspects of Didaktik, pinpointing the artificiality of schooling by comparing it to Aristotelian Poetics: the teaching matter is constructed by individuals being able to imagine it ‘as if’ it is both real world and subject matter. The human imagination is what makes students able to alternate between these two readings. The demand for imaginary work is further part of the institutionalisation of teaching: the alternation between readings is made possible by school being a connection to the world in its separation from it.