For the first time, Walter Benjamin's critical comments on educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner are examined in depth. In particular, Benjamin detected protofascist themes within Steiner's seemingly progressive notion of child-centered, arts-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood education. But this does not mean that Benjamin…

This article, a conceptual and theoretical piece, opens a window on "playful learning" as a philosophy of education and a suite of diverse pedagogical approaches, methods, and techniques. The paper criticizes the serious ambience of adult education with its high levels of instrumentalism and performativity. It argues for playful learning…

Learning from Freire can be a live-long endeavor, always adding humor, rigorous critical theory, and narrative. This article addresses the theoretical and cognitive ways in which Freire can be embraced. Moving far beyond banking education and fixed ideological notions of Freire's work, it is important to consider the tentative when reading and…

This article investigates whether there is any place for the school of thought that is known as analytic philosophy of education in the aftermath of postmodernism, and whether analytic philosophy of education can be treated as a 'method', among other alternative 'methods', that can be applied regardless of what kind of '-ism' or ideology one…

The religiopolitical movement of White Christian nationalism has increasingly impacted policy and practice in public education in the United States. This theoretical paper examines how White Christian nationalist ideologies and rhetoric are influencing the discourse of schooling and education. We use Butler's (2016) definition of frames,…

What distinguishes the philosophies of education advanced by pragmatists? Does pragmatism have something distinctive to offer contemporary philosophy of education? This paper applies these questions, which Randall Curren asks in "Pragmatist Philosophy of Education" (2009), to a more specific current debate in philosophy of education: the…

Slogans in education have been the subject of critical analysis -- at least in the context of philosophy of education -- for more than half a century. Some of these slogans are no longer relevant or frequently used, while their analyses and explanations are still an appropriate theoretical basis for understanding new educational slogans. One of…

For activists, scholars, and thinkers, the current state of our hyperpolitical global landscape can be daunting, especially as we consider engaging and responding to the growing political vitriol and hyperbole of our times. Over the past few years, I have wondered a great deal about how to sustain idealism during troubled times in a field such as…

This paper emerges from a set of questions about what it means pedagogically to undertake the paradoxical and difficult task of "unlearning" the emotional experience of imperialism. The analysis discusses the notion of 'emotional imperialism' and the various forms in might take; to do so, the author draws on concepts from affect theory…

This article delves into ecopedagogy, grounded in the work of the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire on popular education and critical pedagogies, to teach students to critically deconstruct the subjectivity and transformability of our world (all humans, human populations) with the rest of Earth (i.e., rest of Nature). As Friere emphasized humans'…

While the fresh debate on education's autonomy continues in this special issue as in other forums and venues, new layers of complexity on this theme continue to emerge, just as further nuances are revealed in the course of discussion. Following this welcomed growth in the discussion, and in the spirit of characterizing autonomy--and therefore also…

Education's autonomy cannot be found in schooling. For a theory of education to also adequately support education's autonomy, it must decouple itself from schooling since schooling is a technology of efficiency and acculturation that serves technocratic interests that strip autonomy from education. Using Christer Fritzell's examination of relative…

In academic environments ruled by managerialist philosophies, learning as doing, as outcomes, prevails. This work complicates the equation by taking up learning as becoming. Through the prism of learning metaphors, which apart from construction and transmission have not been fully explored in our discipline, especially the potential of Bildung, we…

The indoctrination debates have been a key feature of the philosophy of education over the past 50 years. While it is generally acknowledged that the pejorative associations of indoctrination only emerged over the last 100 years, those normative associations are widely taken to be an essential part of the concept itself as are the positive…

Presenting cutting-edge research from around the world, this book demonstrates how critical pedagogy is shaped by social-political contexts and ideological constructions of knowledge and power. The edited collection brings together a global author team using critical pedagogy to synthesise political and theoretical ambitions with the complex…