This roundtable explores how Maxine Greene’s philosophy of aesthetic education, particularly as articulated in " Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change" (Greene, 1995), can be translated across cultural and educational contexts. Greene’s work emphasizes the importance of imagination, aesthetic perception, and reflective inquiry, yet these concepts emerge from specific historical and cultural conditions. How, then, can her ideas be meaningfully interpreted and applied in diverse educational settings worldwide?Participants will share perspectives on the challenges and possibilities of translating Greene’s ideas, including:• How aesthetic education manifests differently across national, cultural, and institutional contexts• Points of continuity and tension in applying Greene’s philosophy internationally• Strategies for fostering imagination and transformative learning while respecting local traditions and practicesThe session aims to cultivate dialogue among researchers and practitioners, highlighting both the universality and contextual sensitivity of Greene’s vision, and to illuminate pathways for adapting aesthetic education in globally diverse classrooms.Panelists:Panelist #1: The first panelist will explores how aesthetic perception (shinbigan in Japanese) can be cultivated across cultural contexts. As one of the translators of the Japanese edition of Releasing the Imagination, published in March 2025, the panelist engaged deeply with Greene’s philosophy, considering how her ideas could be interpreted and situated within Eastern aesthetic frameworks. While the curriculum in Japan emphasizes cultural heritage through warabe-uta and shōka, it has long been framed by Western classical traditions. The panelist’s teaching experience with “Sakura” in U.S. classrooms revealed cultural discontinuities, as some children associated the song with Halloween—highlighting the context-dependent nature of musical meaning. Drawing on both the translation process and classroom experiences, the panelist reflects on how educators and learners can cultivate reflective, imaginative, and participatory musical experiences while navigating cultural differences, aesthetic traditions, and contemporary musical practices.Panelist #2: The second panelist suggest that the recent Japanese translation of Releasing the Imagination invites us to ask whether Maxine Greene still ‘translates’ today. As an American who studied with Greene, the panelist is haunted by this question. After all, her emphasis on so-called ‘high art’ and her deep reverence for American letters presupposes a shared culture of reading books, thinking through the act of writing, and making time for contemplation. Here is a praxis that feels decidedly old-fashioned in an age of digital misinformation, siloed communication, and AI slop. I argue that Greene’s work translates powerfully in one critical way: her conviction that the arts and education are essential to forming a democratic public. To that end, Greene would lecture repeatedly that the opposite of aesthetic engagement is numbness, and numbness is precisely what authoritarian cultures demand of their citizens: helplessness in the face of ICE attacks and kidnappings, a ‘looking the other way’ in the persecution of queer and trans people, a forgetfulness that we are all newcomers, that is, a multiplicity and not a bloc of them -vs- us. It is through an education in the arts that we have the right to question, she insists, we have the right to ask why (Releasing the Imagination, p. 25). And so here we are, in a broken world that seems without a fix. Are we numb? Are we afraid? We arrive at the subjunctive that art provides: What else can we do? Panelist #3: The third panelist will share the contribution of Maxine Greene to the University of Cambridge Primary School (UCPS), whose strapline is ‘Releasing the Imagination: Making a new possible possible’. The panelist will introduce how UCPS, the first University Training School in the United Kingdom, has become an innovative learning environment which applies Maxine Greene’s theoretical principles to its curriculum design, values and ethos and draws from practical implementation of democracy in education.