The popular trend of manifesting involves supposedly making something happen by imagining it and consciously thinking it will happen in order to will it into existence. In this paper Laura D'Olimpio explains why manifesting is a form of wishful thinking and argues that it is an epistemic vice. She describes how such wishful thinking generally, and…

Despite his popularity in educational discourses, Lev S. Vygotsky tends to be read mainly as an educational psychologist or learning theorist. His potential contribution to a theory of education remains largely undiscussed. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is often misunderstood as a sort of "educational tool," which severely…

According to a number of authors, character is dead. On their view, the evidence is in, and all of our attempts to inculcate character in our students have not only failed, but are in fact destined to fail for various reasons. They base their conclusions in part on a number of experimental results that have been obtained since the 1920s,…

In this historical study of English teaching, Jory Brass adopts a governmentality perspective to highlight the contingency and limits of pedagogical arguments that construct an oppositional relation between power and freedom. In the first part of the essay, Brass historicizes contemporary critiques of transmission pedagogies by comparing them with…

The concept of development is currently under revision in education and psychology. In this essay, Eugene Matusov, Renee DePalma, and Stephanie Drye examine a traditional notion of development and provide an alternative sociocultural view. As educators working within a sociocultural approach to learning, development, and education, the authors see…

The author argues that because sexism is social in nature, those institutions that serve as the primary transmitters of the sociality should work to eradicate the disease altogether by striving for gender freedom. Ways in which aspects of sexism interact and reinforce each other are discussed. (MT)

"Illiterate America," a book by Jonathon Kozol is used as a platform to propose an alternative model of functional literacy which does not adjust the disadvantaged to the status quo, but enables them to acquire intellectual access to their world and their place within that world. (MT)

The author addresses the problem of moving from gender-biased education in a sexist culture to an unbiased education, through adoption of a gender-sensitive perspective, which encourages a critical and constant review of the meaning and evaluation attached to gender. This offers greater hope than does a gender-free strategy. (MT)

It is argued that Christensen and others fail in their claim that learning disabilities are merely an excuse invented by schools to explain their instructional failures. Specific instances of error are discussed. A reply by Gerber and Christensen follows this article. (MT)

This article critiques "Schooling and Work in the Democratic State" by Martin Carnoy and Henry M. Levin. The book examined the public school as more than an institution that reproduces unequal class relations of capitalist society, but also as a product of conflict between the dominant and the dominated in the paid workplace. (MT)

The role of schools in promoting social reproduction is the focus of unproductive debate among proponents and between adherents and others. This essay is concerned with how this body of theory may become a force for progressive, practical transformation. (MT)

The social and educational theories of Basil Bernstein are examined. (JD)

This paper explores the impact of John Dewey on the field of educational psychology. Dewey raised issues and ideas, such as the role of context and the reapproximation of knowledge, that would come to haunt education and psychology for the next century. And yet soon after the turn of the twentieth century, Dewey abandoned psychology and redefined…

Career education is a reform movement which seeks to create more efficient workers for the capitalist system of production. The goals of producing fulfilled and satisfied workers must be shared by career educators and the broader society. (JN)

This paper explores potential avenues of analysis and research useful for reconciling the concept of "learning disabilities" both as a medical and a psychological concept. Traditional perspectives are analyzed. Issues regarding the legitimacy of labeling children as learning disabled are discussed. (MT)