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…

One of the leading theories of social learning today is Wenger's theory of Communities of Practice' (CoP-theory). CoP-theory reiterates basic tenets of social learning theory yet it us set apart from other theories of social learning and education not only by centering on identity-formation but by positing four key dualities as inherent structural…

There has been a revived interest Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Notions emanating from his philosophy concerning the human person and that human beings together create and sustain phenomena through social practice speaks of a relational ontology that has relevance for contemporary education. This article argues that such ontology needs to be…

Effective social research tapping a broad range of human experiences must employ research paradigms that are consistent with the ontologies and epistemologies of the research participants, community, and contextual scholars. This paper describes the construction of a bricolage, imbricating Islamic and interpretivist concepts for coherence and…

How can the use of metaphors promote sustainable resilience in an educational process? How can educators and pastoral workers facilitate transformative learning by promoting strategies for coping with challenges? The paper answers these questions from a religious and psychological perspective by applying a biographical approach. By evaluating the…

In recent years, there has been a marked shift in concern among some philosophers of education from political transformation to personal transformation. In the past, critics of liberalism, both egalitarian and communitarian, promoted political, social, economic and educational reform--but always subscribed to the freedom of the individual, the…

In my paper, by drawing on the writings Heidegger developed in the late 1920s, I wish to display what we may refer to as the thorough educational nature of Heideggerian reflection. It is my argument that the analysis of Dasein we find in the early Heidegger displays an extraordinary deep and dense reflection on selfhood and subjectivity, a…

This article examines two issues related to essentialist beliefs, autonomy and education. The first issue concerns the conceptualization of the role of essentialist beliefs about selfhood in the development of a continually transformative relationship with oneself. We argue that Carol Dweck's understanding of the regular causality of implicit…

This paper approaches the question of Spinoza and education via the work of Louis Althusser. One important aim is to show how Spinoza's description of the imagination underpins Althusser's description of the ideological 'infrastructure' of educational practices and institutions. To achieve this, I begin by addressing Spinoza's treatment of the…

This paper shows that philosophy and contemplation are integral parts of leisure ("scholé") and of a fully conscious educative experience. Through examination of the concepts of philosophy, the philosopher, and contemplation, it will be proposed that leisure is a necessary "condition" for philosophy and for education. To…

This paper aims to explore transformative learning processes of parents involved in informal, parent-established democratic schools, which are novel educational initiatives in Poland. The author argues that the distinctive educational ideology and the practice of such schools expose parents to new understandings of education, the child and the…

Purpose: First, the article offers a critical examination of the Deweyan conception of "common faith" in the context of climate change. Second, the article explores the conceptual linkages among the Confucian conception of the human-nature unity, the Buddhist doctrine of "no-self," and the Deweyan conception of common faith.…

Transformation has been the fundamental basis upon which education has always stood, as without transformation in mind, education would seem purposeless and undirected. This would imply that the objective of providing information in education is not just to gain knowledge but to achieve the desired transformation in character or behaviour by…

In this article, I set up a Heideggerian framework of research in order to investigate the phenomenon of "looking at the smartphone screen," focusing especially on "the desire to look," which I see as intricately connected with "the desire to know" and "the desire to be." With a clear phenomenological…

In this article, the "Bild" or image of the sculptor used by Plotinus and adapted by his Christian follower Meister Eckhart forms the basis of a reflection on the religious or otherworldly dimension in ethics (as opposed to a reductionist or functionalist conception of ethics with its focus on human happiness in the sense of worldly…