In this article Karl Hostetler portrays teachers as tragic ironists whose existence is prone to "playful disruptions of the soul," when the meaning and value of ideas pertinent to teaching--including "teaching" itself--become puzzling, prompting a reassessment and reinvigoration of those ideas. In developing his concept of…

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) is a legend in her native Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. She is esteemed for the artistic and intellectual quality of her wide-ranging poetry, plays, and prose writings. She is renowned for her defense of the right of women to study, to publish their scholarship, and to teach, all controversial claims…

The dominant conception of educational equality in the United States is meritocratic: an individual's chances of educational achievements should track only (natural) talent and effort, not social class or other morally irrelevant factors. The meritocratic conception must presuppose that natural talent and effort can be isolated from social…

A recent report on the UK's higher education system by Lord John Browne exemplifies the dominant trend in education policy initiatives toward a focus on education primarily for employment and for the acquisition of skills. In this essay, Alison Assiter argues that such an entrepreneurial approach neglects essential aspects of the processes of…

In this essay David Labaree explores the historical and sociological elements that have made educational researchers dependent on statistics. He shows that educational research as a domain, with its focus on a radically soft and thoroughly applied form of knowledge and with its low academic standing, fits the pattern in which weak professions have…

Criticism is offered of a previous article, "On Education as a Species of Play." (JD)

The marked tendency of Americans to look upon the rural Midwest as the "national reservoir of values" points to the need for deeper analyses and interpretation regarding the origins of Midwest rural education, focusing on analyses which square well with the realities of the rural Midwest today. (CB)

The concept of metaneutrality in teacher education implies that teacher trainers qua teacher trainers should remain neutral about educational aims with regard to the students being taught in the schools. The desirability and possibility of this position are discussed. (JMF)

The article examines educational changes recommended by Mill in his liberal political theories to point out some of the attempts of liberals to adjust themselves to changing historical circumstances. (CB)

In this paper, we discuss some conditions for understanding silence as an act of self-criticality and caring for the Other, rather than as an instrumental or technical act identified through discipline or reflection. We first engage into a critical reading of Western and Eastern traditions of silence and use this to explore the pedagogical value…

The politicization of education as a means of protecting the rights of children is examined in terms of the objections to it raised by critics and the context within which such politicization has occurred. (JMF)

While the elements of enjoyment, creativity, and pleasure are present in the learning process, education is basically work, and despite its joyful aspects, it is sometimes drudgery. (JD)

Author reviewed the final section, composed of five chapters, of Philosophical Redirection of Educational Research'', and concerns himself with themes of pro-science and anti-science in the educational research community. (Author/RK)

Author intended to illustrate how mathematics could be used as a humanistic enterprise to convey knowledge and attitudes towards the world. (Author/RK)

Author gives examples of how widespread the tendency has become to politicize all of life, and why it seems unfortunate to view all things in such terms. (Author/RK)