Taoism, one of the oldest Eastern religious systems, has significantly influenced Chinese culture and society. Taoism centers around "The Tao" or "The Way," considered the ultimate source from which everything--both physical and non-physical, living and non-living--originates. It emphasizes inner self-cultivation through…

Critical pedagogy is a pluralistic approach that emphasizes the individual and his/her creative potential (Freire, 2010). Today's schools are seen far from this process and the need for a renewal process becomes highly evident. The purpose of the current study is to investigate teachers' opinions at different levels of education about the…

After a brief historical reconstruction of the emergence of the market economy as a model of social order in Europe, dating back to the eleventh century--the century of the commercial revolution--the paper focuses on the decisive contribution of the Franciscan school of thought to furnish the theoretical infrastructure of the new mode of…

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…

This article explores some of the key themes of John Macmurray's recently published lecture, "Learning to be Human". It focuses initially on three elements of his argument: relationships in education; education and the economy; and our corrosive obsession with technique. It then utilises Macmurray's views to develop a typology of…

Holistic education encompasses a wide range of philosophical orientations and pedagogical practices. Its focus is on "wholeness," and it attempts to avoid excluding any significant aspects of the human experience. It is an eclectic and inclusive movement whose main characteristic is the idea that educational experiences foster a less…

Presented at AERA 2010 as the Social Justice Award Lecture, this article calls attention to the purposes of education in the 21st century and the need for a robust, social justice vision of education. Here, it is argued that education is about the cultivation of a flourishing life and not only the narrow preparation for employment. To realize…

The basic question of why schools exist can be addressed by two prevailing answers: to create workers and to develop citizens. The sorting and segregating and elimination of students who do not meet standardized expectations are a result of the belief that education should just produce workers. When creating workers is the focus of schools, the…

Evidence abounds that, in recent decades, students have typically entered college relying on perspectives they have uncritically accepted from others and are not sufficiently challenged and supported to transition to internal authority during college. Students who have experienced significant challenge, particularly as a result of marginalization,…

Nine educational principles underpin the University of Melbourne's teaching and learning objectives. These principles represent the shared view within the University of the processes and conditions that contribute to first-class higher education. The nine principles were first adopted by the University's Academic Board in 2002. This renewed…

A superhighway is being built across today's education landscape, extending from preschool to graduate school, writes Armstrong. This superhighway bypasses all the byways, narrow routes, and winding paths that have traditionally filled the road from early childhood to early adulthood. As schools race to move students through the curriculum at…

The pamphlet elaborates on the philosophy that the role of 4-H Club extension agents and volunteers is to help people to do things for themselves, rather than to do things for them. It presents brief discussions of 22 principles dealing generally with the importance of extension agents and volunteers in the operation of 4-H Clubs, the need for…

The primary emphasis in this paper is with Sir Rabindranath Tagore's philosophical position, and then how he put his philosophy of education into practice. (Author/RK)

The first of these two companion papers presents an account of Dewey's position on the nature of growth and its implications for curriculum development. The second paper provides a critique of Dewey's concept of growth and sketches what C. S. Peirce would have regarded as more viable alternatives. (Author/SJL)