"Countering Miseducation: Situating K-12 Social Studies Education within the Black Intellectual Tradition" combines two separate articles--Part I "Re-membering" The Teachings of PtahHotep: Educational Implications of the Oldest Book in the World" and Part II "Locating Early 20th Century K-12 Black Social Studies…

As public-sector unions such as teachers' unions used the boon of post-war liberalism to form their political power, they imported many of liberalism's key contradictions: its formation of racial contracts, its misappraisal of affective labour, and its opportunistic collective action logics. This article suggests cracks within liberalism weakened…

Interest in progressive education ideas has often been accompanied by advocacy for greater use of interdisciplinary and holistic learning approaches, as these are considered beneficial in conceptual, curriculum, and pedagogical terms. The paper reviews the possibilities for progress on this basis and contextualises the paper around three…

During the second half of the 20th century, a new pedagogical movement emerged, which centered around the concept of "critical thinking." While the movement soon became a significant player in the pedagogical field, its proponents continued to develop the theoretical and practical aspects of critical thinking, aiming to transform it into…

This article traces the evolution of a moral philosophy curriculum originally taught by George A. Roeper in the earliest years of The Roeper School. The first author, a student at The Roeper School in the 1960s and 1970s, describes the impact of the class George Roeper called "Human Relations" on her life. Returning to the School as a…

Past practices shape and limit the design imagination of teachers, pupils, parents, governors, and others concerned with designing modern schools. Bringing histories of education to the table in the participatory design process of new school buildings and curricula is necessary. Schools having an extraordinary past have the potential to draw from…

This commentary on Wu Zongjie's article "Interpretation, autonomy and transformation: Chinese pedagogic discourse in a cross-cultural perspective" begins by suggesting the usefulness of Wu's polar opposite depiction of Confucian and modern pedagogy as ideal types for comparative exploration. It goes on to suggest that the term…

This presentation retraces some of the often forgotten history, dating back to 1860s, of Aotearoa/New Zealand that formed aspects of our education structures. Of particular interest is the relationship between educational innovation and change that came about through the active involvement of teachers as policy champions as they pursued their goal…

In 1795 America's premier scholarly association, the American Philosophical Society (APS), posed the following question: [Write] an essay on a system of liberal education, and literary instruction, adapted to the genius of the government, and best calculated to promote the general welfare of the United States; comprehending, also, a plan for…

Over the last century, school library standards have gone through a number of iterations, and expectations for student learning have evolved. While the school library of today looks and functions differently from the school library of the early 1900s, the vision surprisingly is still very similar. The goal of today's school library is to provide…

Children find comfort in stories. They are familiar, accessible and entertaining. By teaching science through narratives, we can provide that same comfort and access to scientific content to children of all ages. In this article, I will discuss how, through the use of narratives in science instruction, we can provide students with a deeper…

Most people don't realize that the history of electric vehicles (EVs) predates the Civil War. This article provides a historical snapshot of EVs to spark the interest of both teachers and students in this important transportation technology.

In late 1987, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White circulated a draft opinion to his colleagues in a case about whether high school journalists had the right to be free of interference from school administrators. His opinion in the case, "Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier," sided with Missouri administrators who some four years…

In the historiography on curriculum reform during the progressive era, one interpretive lens has dominated the study of 20th-century reform for more than 40 years: the idea of the "social efficiency" doctrine. In this historiographical essay, the authors briefly trace the rise of social efficiency as an idea in curriculum history, identify the…

With this rejoinder, we address some of the concerns and questions raised by Ridley and Mollen (2012) and Hill (2012). Specially, we reflect upon Ridley and Mollen's commentary about whether the three theories in this major contribution can be deemed emergent or whether they are simply old thought in new packages. We also address Hill's question…