Imagination, Myth, and Applicability
Value Formation in Post-Secular Education
Keywords:
Imagination, myth, value formation, applicability, post-secular education, philosophy of education, transcendence, J.R.R. TolkienAbstract
In post-secular and pluralist educational contexts, value formation risks either normative imposition or pedagogical withdrawal. This paper argues that imagination and myth provide a non-coercive framework for ethical and existential formation. Through a conceptual–hermeneutical engagement with J.R.R. Tolkien’s distinction between allegory and applicability, it shows how mythic narratives disclose meaning symbolically while preserving interpretive freedom. Applicability is proposed as a pedagogical orientation that enables openness to transcendence without presupposing shared metaphysical commitments, thereby reconfiguring the educator’s role as steward of interpretive space rather than as a transmitter of values.
Downloads
References
Auer, Petra, Elena Makarova, Anna K. Döring, and Heidrun Demo. 2023. “Value Transmission in Primary Schools: Are Teachers’ Acculturation Orientations a Moderator?” Frontiers in Education 8 (June 26). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1136303.
Aydın, Yıldıray. 2023. “Analysis of Primary School Teaching Programs in the Context of Imagination Education.” International Journal of Progressive Education Studies 4, no. 3: 162–169. https://doi.org/10.59062/ijpes.1395089.
Elmira, Uaidullakyzy, Galiya Rysbayeva, Baitursynova Aigul, Gulzhan O. Zhetpisbayeva, Alimbayev Medeu, and Saulesh Tileuova. 2022. “Developing the Imagination of Primary School Students through Media Technologies.” Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences 17, no. 2 (February): 479–490. https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v17i2.6849.
Kunter, Mareike, Elena Makarova, Ella Daniel, Anna K. Döring, and Thomas P. Oeschger. 2024. “The Interplay between Teachers’ Value-Related Educational Goals and Their Value-Related School Climate over Time.” European Journal of Psychology of Education 39: 3633–3660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00849-y.
Taylor, Charles. 2018. A Secular Age. Paperback edition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Originally published 2007.)
Tolkien, J. R. R. 2014. On Fairy-Stories. Expanded edition, edited by Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson. London: HarperCollins.
Tolkien, J. R. R. 2021. The Lord of the Rings. Illustrated edition. London: HarperCollins. (Foreword to the Second Edition, originally written for the revised second edition published 1966, Allen & Unwin.)
Tolkien, J. R. R. 2023. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Revised and expanded edition. Edited by Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Robert Falzon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
