Beauty and Education

by Joe Winston

Published 17 December 2009

Beauty is something we value instinctively. We find it in art and in nature, in words, images and ideas, seeking it through our senses and through our intellect, in others and in ourselves. This book seeks to re-awaken educators to the power of beauty as an educational concept, to its relevance for schools and the current needs of students and teachers. Drawing upon a range of practical examples, Winston considers the nature and meaning of the experience of beauty, analysing its cognitive, affective and moral energies in order to demonstrate how beauty can provide young minds with some of their most powerful educational experiences. Incorporating examples across the curriculum at all levels of schooling, Winston argues that a due consideration of beauty in education can address some of the more fundamental problems that continue to bedevil policy and practice. With its clarity of style and wealth of practical examples, it will be of great interest to academics, teachers and education students at the graduate and postgraduate levels.