In Europe and across the globe, academic freedom -- and its close relative, institutional autonomy -- find themselves increasingly under pressure. For the European University Association, it is essential to support universities as central actors in the protection and promotion of academic freedom. In this position paper, EUA offers concrete and…

Writing practitioners, researchers, and scholars are at a juncture where foundational assumptions about the teaching of writing, its place in higher education, and its ability to help foster a truly inclusive democratic society are increasingly contested. Trust in literacy has been eroded over the past decades, coming to an acute crisis in the…

Stiggins says that, to build better assessment systems, educators and education leaders need more opportunities to learn the basic principles of sound assessment practice. He lays out what he views as the fundamental elements of assessment literacy.

This short contribution is a response to Stein's critical review of the New General Service List; it reviews Stein's argument and replies to the main points raised in her paper. We identify and discuss three fundamental principles of wordlist creation. In particular, we focus on defining and operationalising the vocabulary construct and the…

The curriculum resources used for teaching secondary mathematics vary considerably from school to school. Some schools base their teaching largely on a single published scheme, while others design their own schemes of learning, curating their resources from a range of (often free) online sources. Both approaches seem problematic from the…

In this article, the author offer a response to Nathan Snaza's (2013a, 2013b, 2014a; Sonu & Snaza, 2015) "bewildering" pedagogy as developed in the "Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy". Pedagogy is about the role of being-with in human development; it does not primarily answer to cognitive or competency development or…

This essay reviews Atkinson's article "Dewey and Democracy" and argues that while Dewey and the social foundations classroom may indeed be important for teacher preparation, it is not in the way Atkinson suggests. Namely, I argue that Atkinson's essay has three distinct (yet interrelated) issues: his problematic oversimplifications, what…

For the over 25 million students enrolled in America's colleges and universities, postsecondary writing instruction is critical for success in college and beyond. In writing courses, students gain experience analyzing expectations for writing held by different audiences and practice meeting those expectations. This experience contributes…

In these uncertain times, it is essential when dealing with student activism that faculty and staff base their actions on foundational assumptions and beliefs representing best professional practice that serve the multiple purposes of higher education. To set a context for his arguments, the author draws on a recent example from the field. The…

"Practicality Studies" (Janssen, Westbroek, & Doyle, 2015/this issue) starts with a critical commentary on "Principled Practical Knowledge: Not a Bridge but a Ladder" (Bereiter, 2014) but consists in the main of an essay on what the authors consider to be "really" practical knowledge for teachers. The gist of…

The institution of the seminary was established by the sixteenth century Council of Trent. Seminaries were charged with the formation of men for the priesthood. The character of seminary education was largely unchanged until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). This article observes and comments upon the changes and developments over the past…

At one time or another, all researchers in mathematics education must face the rather complex question of their epistemological foundations. Discussing epistemological foundations naturally leads to a conversation about theories. Theories and epistemological foundations work in a circular fashion: theories can have epistemological foundations and…

Thriving in the digital age workplace requires, in part, professionals who think differently about how they prepare the next generation workforce. Teachers and teacher educators are no exception. When reflecting on how today's teacher educators prepare teacher candidates for the multitude of roles and responsibilities they will shoulder, including…

This is a reflexive account of my experiences teaching online and blended doctoral research methodology courses and seminars. Vacillating between skepticism and affirmation, my thoughts mirror the many issues that arise from my daily professional practice and from what I have discovered in my quest to better understand the nature and workings of…

In this article, I respond to the work of Gert Biesta regarding the question of what education should be for. He maintains education ought to be oriented towards the "good" rather than measurement, accountability and efficiency. While sympathetic to such claims, I nonetheless question his avowal that discussion of the purposes of…