In this essay, a high school senior reflects on her educational experience as a journey beginning with her difficult decision to stay at Francis W. Parker School for high school and ending with her current search for a college where she can continue to explore the nature of education. Her narrative focuses on her experience in an elective course…

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of Henry Giroux's contribution over the years to critical thinking in education and beyond. It focuses primarily on Giroux's recent works concerning the changing nature of the State (from the social to the carceral and neoliberal state), the war against youth and children, the culture of militarisation,…

This interview conducted with Henry Giroux begins by probing Henry's childhood, upbringing and undergraduate years to discover where his sense of social justice took hold. It also questions Henry about his working-class background and the major influences on his thought, including his relationships with Paulo Freire and Howard Zinn. The interview…

This article presents the author's response to "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty" written by Steven Connolley and Rune Sarromaa Hausstatter. The author agrees with Connolley and Hausstatter that people need to stop and question the assumptions and values associated with…

This article presents the author's response to Connolley and Hausstatter's article "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty." The perspectives of diversity treated in their article are both diversity among "people's abilities," and diversity of "opinions." According to Connolley…

In order to address some of the key underlying issues currently distorting dominant approaches to schooling it is necessary to acknowledge and engage with our broad intellectual and cultural responsibilities currently shunned by contemporary policy. Philosophy has a key role to play here, in terms of both deconstruction and recommendation. Drawing…

This article recounts a real-life conversation relating to beliefs, opinions, and attitudes. It asserts the country's democracy needs intellectual debate, but increasingly lacks the inclination and skills to have it. Like students within their homogeneous peer groups, American citizens increasingly inhabit intellectually gated communities.…

Students in the best universities do not believe in anything, and those universities are doing nothing about it. The great questions--God, freedom, and immortality--hardly touch the young. The universities have no vision, no view of what a human being must know in order to be considered educated. (MLW)

Good citizenship calls for the ability to think critically about issues concerning which there may be a difference of opinion and apply democratic values to the issues. Critical thinking has three components: an attitude of carefully considering problems, knowledge of logical inquiry methods, and skill in applying those methods. (MSE)

This paper is a description and discussion of the author, a critical Social Foundations scholar-teacher, and the craft/intellectual/emotional/moral/identity sources that sustain his work. Opening paragraphs describe his family background in the Piedmont province of northern Italy, the Turin (Italy) working class and their attitudes toward work.…