Provoked by Maxine Greene: Starting Hopeful Conversations-as-Doings in Turbulent Times

Abstract

Sousanis and Suzuki offer a philosophical-aesthetic inquiry to bring forward Maxine Greene’s practice of conversations-as-doing. Greene situated these conversations in the practice of “wide-awakeness” with the hope that people would take up the commitment and responsibility to actively engage with the world. Provoked by Sousanis and Suzuki, we began by rereading Greene’s writing, noting how Greene’s explorations of shadows, violations, and erosions align with our present world. Rather than focus on darkness, we offer Greene’s response to these “shadowed” times, insisting on light by imagining what could be possible. We take up Greene’s call of starting conversations as initiating the doing, because conversations themselves are the doing. Thinking with Greene and Jennings’s discussions, Dewey’s and Greene’s ideas of public spaces and engagements, and our own research turns with a kaleidoscope, we generate what is possible in imagining a more just and humane world through conversations-as-doing. We end with a call to readers to initiate their own conversations within education and beyond, with the hope that this leads toward solidarity and standing together, with different vantage points, beliefs, and ways of knowing.

“I don’t want to save the world. I only want to start a conversation.” Sousanis and Suzuki (2015, p. 6) highlight these thoughts from Maxine Greene in their philosophical-aesthetic inquiry. Their article shares what it means to be in conversation with Maxine—a conversation started with Maxine before her death and then, following her passing, realized through a collaboration between Sousanis and Suzuki. These conversations live and burst forth in the expressed collaboration and make visible the “doing” Greene describes in her writings. Sousanis and Suzuki note how her doing by “asking” created what could be otherwise: “Maxine’s method of asking, rather than answering, opened her to seeing greater possibilities in her world” (p. 1). For Maxine, conversations-are-doing because they are what inspire and generate more actions. Maxine describes these conversations-as-doing as enacting responsibility and commitment to being “wide awake” in and with the world. Conversations-as-doing then become how we can question “what is oppressive, mindless, and wrong” (Greene, 1978, p. 51). We take up and further Greene’s call for starting a conversation as we collaboratively act to find hope, joy, and doing toward the otherwise in conversations-as-doing.

We began by re-reading Greene’s works, beginning with the article “Teaching as Possibility: A Light in Dark Times” (1997). In this writing, Greene names the darkness of our times:

I view our times as shadowed by violations and erosions taking place around us: the harm being done to children; the eating away of social support systems; the “savage inequalities” in our schools; the spread of violence; the intergroup hatreds; the power of media; the undermining of arts in the lives of the young. (p. 14)

Although her statements clearly make connections to the current times in 2025, there is no need to further articulate this as hopelessness surrounds us. We witness daily the unwavering news reports of deportations and the dismissal and eradication of certain ideals such as fairness, difference, and inviting all as community, as well as the targeting of organizations, groups, and voices. Rather, we offer Greene’s words to focus on her response to these “shadowed” times, insisting on light by imagining what could be possible and what could be otherwise through conversations-as-doing. Light, as Greene describes it, is the conversation starter, the place to begin, the place of hope. Greene’s writings focus on empowering educators and students to critically expand conversations, bringing new possibilities of working toward a more humane, more democratic world (Greene, 1978). The arts, Greene suggests, activate more possibilities, a new lens for seeing what can be possible that ignites the imagination (Greene, 2001). This lens is how we can move beyond ourselves, engage with the complexity of life’s realities, and imagine what a just world might look like. This is what is needed to navigate our “dark times.”

In “For the Record: Spaces and Transitions” (1970), an editorial in Teachers College Record, Greene begins a conversation with the incoming editor, Frank G. Jennings. First, Greene discusses the current events leading up to that point in time (1970), tumultuous and ringing eerily of our present times. These happenings construct a provocation for the conversation to continue through his editorship as she notes his concerns will rest with “inequities and deficiencies,” but it does not stop there. She offers a call, a challenge to Jennings to also be concerned with “potentialities”—and Jennings answers in his response: “There is ancient and incontestable wisdom in the observation that ‘Philosophy is no good unless it bakes bread’” (p. 5). Baked into this observation, we find our notion of conversations-as-doing. Kneading at the boundaries of Jennings’s metaphor, we encounter a level of doing, which is offering the bread out as a gesture in opening a dialogue. Further still is eating together as an act of exchange and development toward understanding. Perhaps this conversational work toward common ground could ultimately lead toward solidarity and even taking a stand together, all the while from different vantage points, beliefs, and ways of knowing.

As researchers, if we think with Maxine’s lifetime of conversations-as-doing, research becomes a site of social transformation where research questions are rooted in agency, empowerment, and democracy. Research becomes how we can create the conditions to imagine a more just world by “doing” research focused on socially relevant issues, which generates the “doing” of advocacy and action (Iorio & Parnell, 2020). For example, research focused on positive climate action empowers participants to find ways to live and thrive together with the environment. In other instances, by constructing research projects focused on local concerns that engage with children, educators, and community constituents, we make visible and valuable the everyday learning that happens. Visibility brings conversations-as-doing to the attention of everyone (teachers, children, administrators, leaders, policymakers, community members, families, and so forth). This making-noticeable-work also generates possibilities for community engagement—for community members to be coparticipants in research where their knowledge and lived experiences contribute to conversations-as-doings that work toward the common good.

Considerations within the research process further illuminate ways of conversations-as-doing. Our process (see Iorio & Parnell, 2020) might include how we (re)imagine literature and where we source our knowledge. We may use research methodologies to connect identities and contexts as learning and ways of coming to know while also considering approaches to researching with intertwined questions. (What do we want to know and why do we want to know?) We are keen to disrupt traditional conceptions and analyses of data to open up more questions, live in the uncertainty and speculation, and rethink what data could be in response to what is happening around us. For us, conversations begin with “What is there that we do not see?,” and this informs how we are in conversation together “doing” research (Iorio & Parnell, 2020, p. 323).

Although we think of doing research as a way of initiating conversations and conversation-as-doing, our response is steeped in our experiences as academics and within the higher education institution. We often wonder what starting conversations would look like outside of academia. This first curiosity also leads us to how the public might start conversations and engage with conversations-as-doing. Dewey (1927) conceptualized the public as emerging from conflict, with people uniting to seek solutions. This view informs our understanding of the public as a dynamic space where groups converge and act collectively to address current issues and community needs. The public, therefore, isn’t a static entity but a space of potential. Echoing this idea, Greene (1986) describes “public spaces” as active arenas where “a better state of things can be imagined,” supporting communities to recognize societal shortcomings and strive for transformation (pp. 247–248). Throughout her writings, Greene recognizes the classroom as a public space, situating the teacher as the agent of change, empowering her students to create the conditions for action, as teacher and students collectively engage in critical dialogues. If we think about the public as Dewey and Greene suggest, conversations can begin, and the doing can be done.

Similar to Dewey and Greene’s public unity and potential ideals, we find contemporary conversations surfacing over current societal problems. A pertinent example comes to mind from when U.S. drag queen, television host, singer, producer, writer, and actor RuPaul began a conversation with the public:

With all the darkness that’s going on in the world, you can look at the darkness . . . don’t stare. It will make you crazy. It will make you cross-eyed, it will make you what it is. The solution is to create magic: dance, sing, love, create environments where you can create joy. Because you can create joy. (https://youtube.com/shorts/FmtYg-aYicM?si=DDa1Jg8LL1Gz0JP1)

This call, so poignantly stated, creates a way for the public to gather, think, question, wonder, and create toward the common good. Such sentiments start conversations-as-doing and move us into more doing. The suggestion to dance, sing, love, and create proposes movement, interaction, creation, sensations, and so on. These considerations and more play big parts in the doing, offering potential, transformation, innovation, and the possible, much like what Greene (2001) suggests in the power of the arts as another lens in imagining what can be possible. This is counter to the ideas of human exceptionalism and of saving the world. Here, Greene’s statements ring true: “I don’t want to save the world, I only want to start a conversation” (Sousanis & Suzuki, 2015, p. 6). Her words remind us that we must pay attention to the conversations-as-doing—we must just start the conversation.

Sitting together, we think about Greene’s writings and her impetus to find the light, and are drawn back to our own writing regarding rethinking research (see Iorio & Parnell, 2020) that begins with the metaphor of a kaleidoscope. A kaleidoscope relies on light to share what is inside. With each turn of the kaleidoscope, situated in our agency as actors and creators in change, light and materials come together in new ways, changing depending on brightness, angle, and the positioning of the materials. There is endless capacity in how the materials and light can come together, and no two turns will be the same. These limitless possibilities align with Greene’s hope of creating a more just society, constantly renewing and rethinking, where change for the better is just a turn away. The materials become reused but in novel and alternative ways from their former views, engaging with Greene’s challenge of disrupting the ordinary to see further possibilities. This new lens changes the perception and view, offering what could be. Attuning our gaze toward the differences while twisting slowly or quickly changes what we see, bringing a provocation to start a conversation-as-doing. Greene simply wanted people to start a conversation, and with even the simplest turn of the kaleidoscope, the doing begins.

Our choice to put these words into a commentary is purposeful. We wanted this writing to create a space for debate and dialogue while bringing together an international community in discussion, aligning with the aims of commentaries in Teachers College Record. We challenge our readers to respond and represent multiple conversation starters with the intent of finding more ways within education and beyond to make visible the “light” and turn the kaleidoscope to more conversations-as-doings that further democracy, hope, and what could be possible.