This article explores the use of the circle as a shape metaphor in qualitative and education research and particularly in research designs. Circles dominate the shape metaphors found in the literature and the paper argues that this is because circles have key features that align well with designing and conducting qualitative research. Circles…

The United States is undergoing unprecedented religious change, including an increasing diversity of religious tradition, rapid disaffiliation from conventional religious institutions, and a rise in syncretic and sometimes corporatized spiritualties. Given the speed and scope of these changes, all of which affect our students, rhetoric and writing…

"Childhood, Philosophy, and Dialogical Education" explores the history and prospects of democratic, dialogical education, and its promise as an engine of social and cultural evolution, especially in the context of the cultural and social site dedicated to the adult-child encounter: the school. Drawing on three historical narratives--of…

Building sustainable diversity in higher education isn't just the right thing to do--it is an imperative for institutional excellence and for a pluralistic society that works. In "Diversity's Promise for Higher Education," author Daryl G. Smith proposes clear and realistic practices to help institutions identify diversity as a strategic…

Individuals are typically identified as gifted largely on the basis of competence in limited contexts, but their performance in the real world, both as children and adults, often lags far behind their competence. Thus, the identification of the individuals as "gifted," however useful in theory, is much less useful in practice. This…

There is a fragmented and complex literature about higher education leadership representing a diversity of ideological perspectives about its nature and purposes. Internationally, the literature has been strongly shaped by the importation of concepts and theories from management studies and a tradition of scholarship led by university…

How can the teaching of knowledge in schools contribute to the development of students as individual human beings, with the capacity not only for problem solving within the existing structures of society but also for developing ideas and solutions that go "beyond the existing structures?" The purpose of this article is to bring this…

This paper takes a philosophical look at what it means to talk about educational change in the context of the global proliferation of Western secular liberal democratic values. A handful of challenges, contradictions, and incoherencies that potentially impede the success of educational change projects in developing countries are examined with a…

In most schools everywhere, democracy and participation continue to be carried out through the usual channels based on representative democracy and the vote of elected representatives. However, this reality is not monolithic, and we do find centers committed to practise a full and more profound democracy. Based on a case study, the article…

This article attempts to re-evaluate Karl Mannheim's notion of "planning for freedom" within the context of contemporary global citizenship education (GCE). First, it examines Mannheim's distinctions between "planning," "founding," and "administration" and analyses his notion of "principia media."…

In this paper, we are juxtaposing the notions of cosmopolitanism and koinopolitanism, to sketch a theoretical perspective in which local productions of knowledge, as a binding force of local communities, can meet more abstract regimes of knowing and more global concerns of democratic elites. We see this issue as politically significant in light of…

To speak of democracy is often to speak less of a fact than of a hope. In his introduction to "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville admitted that '… in America I saw "more than" America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices and its passions, in order to learn what…

Adult education has a historical and ongoing commitment to fostering democratic relationships, demonstrated by the tendency of adult education to be called upon when social change and realignment are most desirable. This article considers the philosophical and pragmatic possibilities for adult education at this moment, when White Christian…

This article starts by reviewing the position that inclusion is a contested and difficult term to define and that there have been no attempts to link the policy challenges of inclusive education with the issues of democratic policymaking. The article then summarises contemporary ideas and practices about deliberative approaches to policymaking and…

Creative drama encompasses two primary learning objectives: the internalization of democratic values and the cultivation of advanced communication skills. To foster these attributes in individuals through creative drama education, it is imperative that the educators themselves possess these skills. This research pursues a dual objective: firstly,…