While many recognise the impact formal education has on human flourishing, often overlooked are the forces in society that shape our conception of the good life. Our understanding of flourishing is formed as much by the culture we live in as by the classrooms we learn in. This oversight impacts our ability to think clearly about flourishing…

There is a growing sense that the orthodox set of theories and policies for VET do not work. This is particularly true in the South where all such Northern theories and policies face the common problem of being constructed for other contexts and then imported. In the light of persistent poverty and inequality; widespread precarious and indecent…

This article analyses, mingles and blends divergent and complementary strands from the thinking of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and Sir Alec Clegg (1909-1986), two contemporaneous but different influential public figures and thinkers in the post-World War Two period. The paper uses these strands to construct a critique of the current colonisation of…

Whether all educationists were philosophers or not, one thing is clear--that all philosophers were educationists--directly or indirectly. May it be Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau or Dewey, they all came up with the notion that to bring about any change at a greater level in a society, change in its educational system is fundamental. Dr. Mohammad…

In Brazil, in 2018, the federal government proposed the creation of a new public education policy, the Pedagogical Residence program, as one of the actions that integrate the National Teacher Training Policy. The primary function of the Pedagogical Residence program is to support Higher Education Institutions in the implementation of innovative…

From the vantage point of liberal education, this article attempts to contribute to the conversation initiated by Michael Young and his colleagues on 'bringing knowledge back' into the current global discourse on curriculum policy and practice. The contribution is made through revisiting the knowledge-its-own-end thesis associated with Newman and…

An international consensus seems to have developed in educational research--and among educational planners and policymakers--during the last 10-15 years proclaiming that learning is, and must be, a visible phenomenon. This paper questions this predominant view and serves an assemblage of points offering educational scientists at least four…

As neo-Aristotelian character education approaches have become more popular, the list of objections has increased too. This paper focuses on the objection that while character education proponents claim to be 'progressive' and 'reformative' they seem to maintain the educational status quo. This paper examines what happens to neo-Aristotelian…

In this article, we analyse some of the mechanisms that neoliberal ideology is using to penetrate the educational system. The educational reforms being introduced throughout much of the world, following the guidelines of clearly neoliberal international economic organisations, are inserting this logic into current education systems. The latest…

This article provides a critical and theoretical exploration into teacher performance dispositions (orientations towards performance). The article explores research literature on dispositions, highlighting the representation of teachers in education policy and standards documents across several nations of the OECD: Australia, the USA and the UK.…

Since its publication in 1921, "The Teaching of English in England," otherwise known as the Newbolt Report, has informed both the shape of English as a school subject and the discourse about the teaching of English in England. The 1960s saw the report as promoting a cultural heritage rooted in outdated social values; the 1970s explored…

The contribution focuses on Neo-Confucian texts as collected by Zhu Xi (?? 1130-1200) and Lü Zuqian (1137-1181) and is a look from the "outside", from the perspective of German theories of Bildung ("self-cultivation"). It aims at demonstrating that among other insights that today's readers may gather from Neo-Confucian…

It is surprising that there is a young academic in 2015 working intensively on the German philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) and his concept of "Bildung". In times where--as the author states herself--educational systems globally tend to follow neoliberal principles and where the visibility, commodification, and…

Objective: The purpose of this article is to explain how central points developed in Dewey's 1916 "Democracy and Education" provide the rationale needed to adopt institutional and policy recommendations made by Grubb and Lazerson in their 2004 book, "The Education Gospel: The Economic Power of Schooling". Method: The central…

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…