Making use of hermeneutic phenomenology and morality critique as methodological navigation points, this paper challenges the phantasmatic prestige and power of normative orders and the education systems that are designed to keep them alive. It is suggested that what education needs is not morals and ethics, but a pedagogy of discernment that will…

This article applies criteria for validity in interpretation to Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr.'s interpretations of John Dewey. Specifically, three criteria that Hirsch, himself, established in his earlier work are used to evaluate Hirsch's interpretation of John Dewey as a member of a class (romantics) who embraced a naive naturalism (trait) more often…

Critical, postmodern, and constitutive rhetorics are typically guided by an ethical stance opposing domination and marginalization. However, this stance often functions as an unreflective morality operating outside the constitutive practices of rhetoric itself. To locate an ethical stance within rhetorical practice, we can turn to Isocrates, who…

As both researcher and practitioner, or in service educator, I often resist situating myself within one discrete tradition. For this reason, I turn to narrative as an approach to understanding. I believe employing narrative allows me to draw from a cross-section of scholarly work including reflexive inquiry, critical analysis, and autoethnography.…

Provides some philosophical groundwork for contemporary debates about the idea of critical thinking. Discusses three styles of critique: critical dogmatism, transcendental critique (Karl-Otto Apel), and deconstruction (Jacques Derrida). Argues that while transcendental critique is able to solve some of the problems of the dogmatic approach to…

In earlier work on the hermeneutics of charity, the author explored the relevance of Augustine's insistence on charity in reading Scripture for interpreters of non-biblical texts. This article shows how one might bring such charitable reading into the classroom and reframe the teacher's task in its light. The article discusses some implications…

At the top of the list of historians who practiced social criticism stands the best-selling author Christopher Lasch. Lasch observed that "historians tend to become social critics almost in spite of themselves, in the ordinary business of going about their work." By taking the past seriously as an object of study, historical research opens a…

Introduces the findings of Ricoeur's hermeneutics and interprets the usefulness of his philosophy in the study of domination. The role of interpretation as a constitutive part of ideology critique is understudied and it is here that Ricoeur's ideas are instructive. Uses Ricoeur's insights in order to show their potential to disrupt asymmetrical…

This paper invites you, the reader, to co-produce meaning around the possibilities and limitations of what Gadamerian philosophy and hermeneutic phenomenology holds for environmental education research. Gadamerian philosophy and hermeneutic phenomenology is founded on the idea that people make meaning (the hermeneutic aspect) of lived experiences…

Discusses the mutually opposed stances towards learning represented by early formulations of deconstruction and of hermeneutics. Identifies shifts in later formulations of both which provides a more inclusive context for understanding learning as a human undertaking, including the identification of tensions that are more promising than the…

The capability approach advocates that interpersonal comparisons be made in the space of functionings and capabilities. However, Amartya Sen has not specified which capabilities should be selected as the relevant ones. This has provoked two types of criticism. The stronger critique is Martha Nussbaum's claim that Sen should endorse one specific…

Michael (1975) reviewed efforts to classify reinforcing events in terms of whether stimuli are added (positive reinforcement) or removed (negative reinforcement). He concluded that distinctions in these terms are confusing and ambiguous. Of necessity, adding a stimulus requires its previous absence and removing a stimulus its previous presence.…

In this book, seven teachers analyze their own efforts to integrate social, moral, and political issues into the public school classroom. The volume weighs the possibilities for making classrooms more responsive to the need for social justice, critical consciousness, and democratic values. Through their personal narratives, these teachers reveal…

Presents a response to, and critique of, the purely postmodernist approach to the study of history. Maintains that an appreciation of the subjective and constructed nature of knowledge still can be integrated, as a component, into a study of the understanding, construction, and transcription of history. (MJP)

Contends that a number of music educators believe that music should be taught in the same rigorous, sequential, and comprehensive way that other subjects are taught. Asserts that critical thinking skills and interpretation are essential factors in this process. Recommends cooperative learning and portfolios as appropriate instructional strategies.…