In this article, I critically engage with a vital assumption behind the work of Paulo Freire, and more generally behind any critical pedagogy, viz. the belief that education is fundamentally about "emancipation." My main goal is to conceive of a contemporary critical pedagogy which stays true to the original inspiration of Freire's work,…

This paper discusses R. S. Peters' concept of education, particularly his notion of cognitive perspective and its relevance to school science education. In light of the problems inherent in any attempt to define the notion of scientific literacy, it is argued that the development of cognitive perspective can be considered an important, if not the…

This article argues that ideas from the ancient past supply insight about the future of Chinese universities. I make this case by outlining three claims about the nature and purpose of education in Homer, Plato, and Augustine. I propose that conversations based on these ideas illuminate central underlying problems facing Chinese higher education…

As far back as the late 1800s, U.S. physics teachers expressed many of the same ideas about physics education reform that are advocated today. However, several popular reform efforts eventually failed to have wide impact, despite strong and enthusiastic support within the physics education community. Broad-scale implementation of improved…

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…

Micro social work practice can be understood in the context of its historical professional traditions and dialectics as well as the environmental pressures and demands placed on the profession. In becoming a profession, social work relied heavily on principles drawn from medicine and science. Although these bodies of knowledge provided the…

Author Lori Flint, has a PhD in educational psychology/ gifted and creative education and is a board member for the North Carolina Association for the Gifted and Talented. She advocates for students of all ages and abilities, especially the underdogs. She begins this article with a discussion of the origins of creativity in the world of education…

The ninetieth anniversary of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) offers an opportunity for reflection. Where is higher education now in the shared commitment to the values and practices of liberal education, and where do they need to go, within the academy as a whole and within AAC&U itself? This article provides…

Against the background of the many attacks on the school as being outdated, alienating, ineffective and reproducing inequalities we offer a morphological understanding of the school as distinguished from functionalist understandings (sociological or economical perspectives in terms of functions and roles) and idealistic understandings…

This article examines our modern ways of schooling youth in light of philosophic and personal narrative accounts of "the Dionysian" aspect--a term the author uses to understand his own experiences and aspirations as a high school English teacher. Having articulated the meaning of this term, he goes on to point out how schools today are…

We review the ontological and pedagogical origins of International Development graduate education in the context of increasing pressures to "professionalise" graduate curricula. We apply Giroux's concept of "vocationalisation" to argue that professionalisation risks undermining the field's intellectual foundations in an elusive…

This article is an investigation of two apparently contradictory impulses in Oakeshott's writings about liberal education. On the one hand, he implied that it was primarily "aesthetic", something undertaken for its own sake with no practical consequences. On the other hand, he often implied that a student might undergo a moral transformation in…

In 1990 Helon Howell Raines published "Is There a Writing Program in This College? Two Hundred and Thirty-Six Two-Year Schools Respond," in which she reported on her study, via survey and eight follow-up telephone interviews, of two-year college writing programs across the country. Raines asked questions about departmental and institutional…

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…

The development of critical thinking skills among learners is a common educational goal across graduate theological schools. The purpose of this article is to provide a survey of some of the primary historical influences of the critical thinking movement in higher education in the United States and the movement's impact on graduate…