This article, which is related to a longer piece to be published in 2023, starts from the point of view that, despite some issues, there may be borrowable ideas in how South Korea and Japan developed their education systems, especially at the outset of their modern periods of educational development. However, in the popular press, and even among…

The history of educational policy-making in Aotearoa New Zealand is also a history in myth-making. Myths about Maori in education are deeply embedded in educational and social thought, because they have their origins in the first political interactions between Maori and Pakeha. These interactions were motivated by contradicting forces--Maori…

Commonly accepted beliefs about science are drastically different from the reality. Science is almost universally regarded--at least in developed industrial countries--as the reliable source of understanding of the material world. In fact, science is as fallible as any other human activity, influenced in similar ways by outside interests and…

Evolution is the central concept of biology and key to a comprehensive understanding of any complex biological interaction. It has proven to be a particularly difficult subject for both teachers and students. Hybrid teaching environments have the potential to support students in learning about complex topics and simultaneously enable researchers…

In this paper, based on an invited keynote given at the 2022 Colloquium of the Society for Educational Studies, I explore the question of the integrity of educational studies. I ask is whether educational studies in their current configuration are able to offer resistance to the instrumentalisation of education and the push towards empirical…

Is character education flawed as an approach to values education? A 2013 article answered that question in the negative and defused ten common objections against character education as 'myths'. The aim of the present article is to revisit those objections and consider the evidence that has accumulated since 2013. After a brief historical and…

As a Canadian mathematics educator, I have a vested interest in Canadian mathematics education matters. After all, to me, Canadian mathematics education matters. Knowing this little factoid, imagine my horror when it recently dawned on me that, no matter where I looked during this COVID-19 pandemic, all I saw was flippant treatment towards the…

We discuss a case study on how misinformation regarding COVID-19 health outcomes can arise due to confounding. Data from the UK on mortality rates suggest that people who have some level of vaccination and contract the Delta variant of COVID are twice as likely to die than those who are unvaccinated. Age, however, a confounding variable, when…

The current heightened sensitivity around history, colonisation and the aftermath of the socio-political and cultural ethos of the world can create in many people the fear of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation. This fear can affect the ability to imagine and play in certain learning settings, especially in devising performances, socially…

One of the longer-term effects of poststructuralism and its principles, in particular deconstruction, has been to direct fresh attention to reading as an ethical practice. A re-focus on the ethical responsibility of the reader is part of a large, historic process of moving beyond 'structuralism' -- a name for the formerly-dominant paradigm of the…

Background: Recent complex and cross-boundary policy problems, such as climate change, pandemics, and financial crises, have recentred debates about state capacity, democratic discontent and the 'crisis of expertise'. These problems are contested and open to redefinition, misunderstanding, spin, and deception, challenging the ability of…

According to the author, the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (AC:M) requires primary school students to measure the attributes of angle, time, temperature, length, area, capacity and mass. This article outlines some misconceptions held by primary school students which appear to stem from them not understanding terminology concerning the…

Faculty development programs in higher education frequently focus on educational practices advancing diversity, inclusion, and student success. They also usually address how to handle tense class disruptions arising over controversial topics. What faculty development programs usually fail to tackle, however, are fundamental questions of belonging.…

Africa is rich in natural resources and magnificent flora and fauna; it is also a place full of kind and hospitable people and as diverse in cultures and traditions as any other continent. The author was born in Uganda, in East Africa, and lived there until 2008, when she relocated to the United States to join her husband, a university professor.…

Textology has gradually become an important field and special research area in the overall pattern of Chinese Marxism since the beginning of the 21st century. Scholars have honed new explanations with new understandings concerning the relations between the origins of Marx's thought and the Western cultural tradition, the continuity and essence of…