This paper explores the mystical structure of education as Bildung in medieval theologian and Dominican friar Meister Eckhart's work and the 2010 French film "Of Gods and Men" ("Des Hommes et Des Dieux"). I start this paper with a short introductory sketch of the "Bildung" tradition, in order to situate my discussion…

In this article, Ingrid Andersson discusses the decolonial philosophy of Sylvia Wynter, with a special focus on addressing her concepts of the hybrid human and origin stories. Andersson shows how Wynter's philosophizing about the "being" of being human is premised on an entanglement of nature and culture that is on par with the posthuman…

This study examines the challenges of humanism and education in the 21st century as addressed by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in his Elmau Speech (1999). In this lecture, titled "Rules for the Human Zoo", Sloterdijk argues that the traditional notion of humanism, specifically "humanism as a literary society," has…

The recent shift in social science research toward philosophies of the more-than-human has pushed many scholars to question their understanding of units of analysis and agency. While many engage with agencies of the material, few have attempted to address what might be called the agency of ideas. Here, Alexander Pratt argues that engaging with the…

This paper examines giftedness and gifted education from the point of view of humanistic ethical critique. While religious worldviews may conceptualize individual talent as something that human beings have received (as a "gift") from God or (more generally) from a divine world-order, secular humanism may also implicitly presuppose a…

In this Presidential Address, the author wants to turn our attention to an interpretation of identity that invites us to rethink our relationships with each other and with Earth. First, the author will briefly discuss recent work by OVPES colleagues, Lauren Bialystok and Bryan Warnick, to provide some background and initial framing of key…

This introductory 'research paradigms' article discusses Indigenous methodologies in relation to those approaches more familiar to educational researchers. A useful Table introduces methodological frameworks for research students in education, highlighting the significance of theoretical and philosophical thinking for research.

A number of philosophical perspectives, such as deep ecology, posthumanism, and new materialisms, to name a few, have challenged the deep-rooted anthropocentric assumptions about human exceptionalism. Yet these non-anthropocentric perspectives must still find a place for human action; they require clear conceptualisations of human action and…

Due partly to the multimodal and multiscalar nature of technology applications, there lacks theories to explain successful technology integration in teaching and learning in higher education. Such multidisciplinary theories developed primarily within Western contexts as behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, connectivism, collaborationism,…

In this paper, we employ Deleuzian philosophy to explore the complex challenges confronting teachers and education systems posed by the climate emergency and the implications of the resulting posthumanist turn. Self-identified climate-activist teachers working in schools in Aotearoa New Zealand were asked to draw Deleuzian assemblages of their…

Pedagogical approaches emanating from posthumanist and neomaterialist theoretical frameworks can potentially redefine what learning and teaching are. In this paper, I argue, however, that these discussions are marked by a distinct absence, having to do with the role of teachers and the nature of teaching itself. Attempting to make up for this…

This essay discusses the aesthetic potential within Bernard Stiegler's concept of technics, particularly its nascent or preactual form of realism. This realism fosters a sense of spontaneity, crucial to a modal engagement with time, being, and history in the face of contemporary planetary enframing. By critically appraising Stiegler's framework,…

In this article, David Hansen works with two conceptions of "being with." The first is Jean-Luc Nancy's ontological version as found in his "Being Singular Plural" (1999). The second is Hansen's ontic formulation as expressed in his recent book, "Reimagining the Call to Teach: A Witness to Teachers and Teaching"…

Dimensional ontology is Viktor E. Frankl's theory that contends humans are composed of their biological, psychological, and noological (spiritual) dimensions. Frankl maintains that it is in the noological dimension where humans freely choose their responses to the environmental, psychological, and biological conditions that befall them. Frankl's…

With the "Donald Trump Baby Balloon" as a provocation, this work utilizes philosophy as a method and cinema-as/in-philosophy to multi-modally interrogate the particular images of giant babies. Deleuze and Guattari's conceptions of molarity and molecularity and Bakhtin's conception of grotesque bodily images are put to work alongside…