This paper develops work undertaken by the "After Religious Education" project which seeks to reimagine Religious Education in schools for a context in which both religious and non-religious worldviews are taken seriously. One of the longstanding challenges for RE teachers in schools in England has been how to reconcile the broad range…

Education debate often appears polarised between those who advocate a specific curriculum that should be "delivered" by teachers and those that advocate student-centred approaches that develop skills and understanding. This paper goes to the heart of the tension via an exploration of the "curriculum question." The purpose of…

In times of deep crisis, the most powerful critical contemplative pedagogy available to us is that of supporting all children and youth in learning to teach and teaching to learn as a primary path toward self-realization, social inquiry and civic contribution. This vital opportunity should be made accessible to all students, regardless of…

This article aims to connect and ground the innovative pedagogies described in this issue by looking at the meaning of 'pedagogy' in a holistic way. Drawing on a strong European tradition which originated in the German Enlightenment, it outlines deep principles such as independent thinking, criticality, freedom and social engagement. In…

Background: The aftermath of the 1910 Flexner report resulted in significant gaps in the structure of medical education. Experiential co-curricular opportunities can contribute to addressing these gaps. Purpose: To explore, from a holistic social constructionism perspective, the added value of a co-curricular program, designed and implemented…

Addressing educational curricula and programs in post-secondary education for Reconciliation brings new opportunities and challenges for geography educators, including decolonizing and indigenizing their own teaching practices and perspectives. A team of geography educators, from vastly different geographies and contexts, explored their…

Despite a 100-year-old history and the existence of schools in nearly every country in the world, Waldorf education is a little known and poorly understood educational model that was developed in Europe by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. For many years it existed in the United States in the form of private schools. Few of their teachers or…

In the broad area of moral philosophy, critiques of well-being values have notably increased since the 1980's. Often underpinning analysis are contrasting theories of well-being, e.g. subjective constructs that value highly reflections on personal experiences and individual fulfillment, and objective theories that emphasise more through specific…

This paper proposes that the ideas of political philosopher John Rawls could be adapted to offer a new starting point for a pedagogy of religious education (RE) in the non-denominational sector. It is argued that contemporary approaches to RE may infringe the liberal principle of freedom of belief by favouring certain methods of interpreting…

This article examines the notion of integrated studies as a way of organising curriculum in schools. Drawing on the insights of educational philosophy, curriculum theory and learning theory it establishes the soundness of a theoretical case for integration. It examines what this view means for the art and science of teaching, and notes examples of…

Despite the "progressive" influence of the English Plowden Report and Scottish Primary Memorandum on British primary curricula from the 1960s onwards, secondary education has generally continued to follow a more traditional subject-centred route and post-war educational theorists have not generally been favourably inclined to other than…

The introduction to the special issue on holism with learning disabled students addresses five current practices not espoused by the holistic model: segmentation of learning, narrow school goals, preoccupation with students' deficits, lack of consideration of student interests/needs in selecting curricula, and obsession with objectivity and fact.…

Curriculum knowledge cannot be legitimized until its method of construction is examined. Dominant curriculum theories, those that are well established by tradition, usually provide research results reflecting a deterministic or imposed reality. The basic premise of this paper is that curriculum theorizing has, for the most part, been a utilitarian…

Examines three world views influencing curriculum development--atomism (underpinning competency-based education), pragmatism (promoting inquiry-based approaches), amd holism (associated with confluent or Waldorf education). Holism embodies the perennial philosophy and attempts to integrate cognitive, affective, and transpersonal dimensions,…

This essay suggests a way for creating a curriculum for the future amidst the challenges of post-modern uncertainty. Curriculum discourse in the past has been dominated by widely-accepted key questions, which produce and maintain curricula that are essentially fragmented and reductionistic, and directly opposed to the essential demands of the…