The aim of this lead article of this special issue of "Compare" is to assess the value of Jullien's vision for the field of comparative and international education today. The life, writings and ideas of Jullien are sketched, followed by a survey of the path of development of the field since the time of Jullien. In view of the exigencies…

This essay explores how my professional experiences as an English educator have been shaped by the values and beliefs that are typically associated with the Dartmouth Seminar of 1966 as they were presented by John Dixon in his immensely influential report of that seminar, "Growth Through English." Rather than seeing "Growth"…

The Dartmouth Seminar is rightly understood as a key event in English curriculum history--indeed, "a pivotal moment," as one commentator put it. Nonetheless questions can still be asked about the nature of its significance, both "discursively," with regard to the discourse (and rhetoric) of post-Dartmouth English teaching, and…

There is no doubt that second/foreign language teaching and learning has evolved over the years, distinguishing varied trends in the course of its history. Interestingly, vocabulary has been the dominant focus in the last decades despite it being an undervalued and often overlooked component in the earlier stages. This reorientation is reflected…

As far back as the late 1800s, U.S. physics teachers expressed many of the same ideas about physics education reform that are advocated today. However, several popular reform efforts eventually failed to have wide impact, despite strong and enthusiastic support within the physics education community. Broad-scale implementation of improved…

The leaders of the library profession in the United States in the 19th century were white, middle-class, college-educated men. They attempted to construct librarianship in the United States as an equivalent profession to the other white, masculine professions of their day. They also created education for librarianship in the same mold. They…

As one of the contributors to the first issue of the "Australian Journal of Environmental Education" (AJEE) in 1984 (and to a further seven issues between 1991 and 2009), and as a sometime member of its editorial board (1991-1994) and the editorial collective that edited four issues (1999-2002), Noel Gough has been privileged to witness…

Epistemological preferences in Western academies over the centuries became the measuring rod for what is to count as valid knowledge in thinking about development. The genealogy of the sciences of law and economics can be traced back to the Roman and British empires. The problem is posed in this paper as to the question of how remnants of these…

In a famous 1960 paper, Wigner discussed "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences." I suggest that the effectiveness of mathematics in producing successful new theories and surprising discoveries is even more unreasonable than Wigner claimed. In this paper, I present several historical case studies to…

This article discusses Booker T. Washington's educational contributions to contemporary practices of sustainable development. In particular, the article looks at Washington's contributions in the areas of economic sustainability and entrepreneurship, character development, and aesthetics. As states continue to contemplate and evaluate the value of…

Against the background of the many attacks on the school as being outdated, alienating, ineffective and reproducing inequalities we offer a morphological understanding of the school as distinguished from functionalist understandings (sociological or economical perspectives in terms of functions and roles) and idealistic understandings…

Various science education researchers believe that science tuition should include some discussion about how science has developed over time. Therefore, deliberations about the nature of science should be integrated in the science curriculum. Many researchers argue that teaching the history of science is a good way to place the nature of science in…

In this paper I use a general philosophy of science perspective in looking at the problem of justifying action research. First I try to clarify the concept of justification, by contrasting it with the concept of validity, which seems to be used almost as a synonym in some parts of the literature. I discuss the need for taking a stand in relation…

This article was first published in 1982 in "Educational Analysis" (4, 75-91) and republished in 1998 (Hirst, P. H., & White, P. (Eds.), "Philosophy of education: Major themes in the analytic tradition," Vol. 1, "Philosophy and education, Part 1," pp. 61-78. London: Routledge). I was then a lecturer in philosophy…

We review the ontological and pedagogical origins of International Development graduate education in the context of increasing pressures to "professionalise" graduate curricula. We apply Giroux's concept of "vocationalisation" to argue that professionalisation risks undermining the field's intellectual foundations in an elusive…