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Contact:
Isabelle Eaton, 604.986.2390, ieaton@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca

Would soldiers who torture and degrade their prisoners be less likely to commit such atrocities if they had some preconception of themselves committing such acts, and the consequences of them? Nel Noddings, a Lee Jacks Professor Emerita from Stanford University, and a former public school teacher, administrator and curriculum developer, believes yes. Noddings will deliver the keynote lecture on the value of imagination in moral education at the second annual International Conference on Imagination and Education, July 14 to 17 at Vancouver’s Coast Plaza Hotel.

Organized by the Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) in SFU’s faculty of education, the conference will feature seven major speakers and some 100 presentations. It is expected to draw about 300 scholars, students, administrators, policy makers and educators, worldwide, to examine the role of imagination in teaching and learning.

In her lecture, Imagining the Worst, Noddings will argue that "we need to imagine ourselves not only as a victim but, more powerfully, as perpetrator" to achieve our potential. "The best example is seen in the recent events in Iraq," offers Noddings, who has written extensively about the correlation between imagination and learning in everything from the ethics of care to mathematical problem solving. "The young people who committed the horrible crimes against prisoners in Iraq would probably have been reasonably good citizens if they had not been exposed to the pressures of war and the unexpected role of prison guards. The least we can do for our kids is to inform them that the loss of moral identity is a possibility every bit as likely as the loss of life or limb."

IERG founder and SFU education professor Kieran Egan is the first researcher to demonstrate how imaginative activities trigger progressively advanced learning, based on cognitive skills. IERG develops curriculum resources and educational tools to jumpstart learning through imagination. To find out more about conference events and a pre-conference workshop on IERG’s imaginative teaching model see: www.sfu.ca/conferences/ierg2004. Conference speakers will be available for media interviews.

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Websites:
IERG: www.ierg.net
For the media page: www.ierg.net/news/ierg_bckgdr/index.html