Releasing the Imagination and Significant Experience: Maxine Greene's Aesthetic Education Approach

The aim of this study was to analyze Maxine Greene's (1981-1917) views in three areas of significant experience, imagination and aesthetic education. It was a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. After reviewing the available sources, Greene’s seminal views about developments in the field of curriculum and aesthetic education were collected and then analyzed . The results showed that Green's idea of releasing imagination has brought about a new approach to aesthetic education. In this approach, she emphasizes that imagination which was often neglected in the mainstream educational system, should be employed in the learning process as a means to transfer perceptions, a lived experience and an opportunity for creativity. Her idea is based on giving freedom to the students in the imagination of possible opportunities, making a curriculum meaningful based on individual experiences and accessing new areas. These aesthetic experiences will result in a comprehensive awareness to see the phenomena from a different perspective. Greene advocates a phenomenological approach to aesthetic experience because it is an interpretation based on a particular territory of the world .Therefore, aesthetic education is a specific educational function which results in the learners’ aesthetic literacy that is a comprehensive ability to understand, interpret, and judge.