Over the last 50 years, certain ideas have become dominant that make learning to read different than it once was than the ideas that children are neurologically "wired" to use language "competently" in certain ways. Noam Chomsky has promoted the idea that there are certain "syntactic structures" hard-wired in the human brain. That view, the author…

This rejoinder is in response to criticism against the African Virtual University (AVU), an internet-based education modality, by Amutabi and Oketch [2003. Experimenting in distance education: the African Virtual University (AVU) and the Paradox of World Bank in Kenya. International Journal of Educational Development 23, 57-73]. By closely…

In this article a humble attempt is made to bridge the gap between the history of education and the philosophy of education with reference to what has been called Disability Studies since the 1980s. After outlining some of the internal tensions within New Disability History concerning "critique", "power" and "history" the suggestion is made to…

Symbolic rule-based approaches have been a preferred way to study language and cognition. Dissatisfaction with rule-based approaches in the 1980s lead to alternative approaches to study language, the most notable being the dynamic approaches to language processing. Dynamic approaches provide a significant alternative by not being rule-based and…

This article examines the ideologically-articulated shifts, and the images of transformation, and nation-building process presented in the new generation of school history textbooks in Russia. The article analyses the new content of post-Soviet history textbooks used in Russian secondary schools that represent various transformations from…

The twenty volumes of ethnographic text and pictorial photography and the twenty portfolios of large, finely printed photogravures that together comprise "The North American Indian" were the product of an extraordinary labor by Edward S. Curtis, an extensive and shifting team of co-workers, and the participation of hundreds of Native Americans. By…

In this article, Rivas (1998, 2003) presents a critical analysis of vocational behavior and counseling in the present day, questioning many of the assumptions held until now. He underscores the role played by codetermining factors from the sociocultural context in earlier positionings. Acknowledging that the educational system is insufficiently…

This article describes the learning experiences of three pre-service teachers within a university-level course entitled "Aesthetics and Art Criticism for the Classroom." Discussion is focused on the nature of the meaning-making that emerges from aesthetic encounters and its educational value. Specifically, what can pre-service generalist teachers…

Juliette Goldman and Christine Collier have recently proposed that the editor of "Sex Education" should adopt a policy of replacing the phrase "opposite sex" with "other sex" in all published articles, on the grounds that the word "opposite" has connotations of hostility or adversity. In this brief reply I…

This article is a response to Rhoda Bernard's (2005) article, "Making Music, Making Selves". The author first met Dr. Bernard several years ago in the UK, at an international music education research conference at the University of Exeter. Without realising he was in the audience, Dr. Bernard cited his 1995 article "Artist or Teacher?" as an early…

A review of group literature, much of which is anecdotal or theoretical, revealed that coleadership has been a common practice in training and therapeutic settings for well over 50 years. Careful examination of group practice reveals a surprisingly small amount of empirical evidence to support what apparently is a widely practiced method for the…

Teachers are often exhorted by creationists to "teach the controversy." Although such encouragement sounds on the surface like a proposal for critical thinking instruction, the history of the creationist movement in North America belies this claim. Rather than teach students to analyze and evaluate actual scientific controversies, the intent of…

In this article, the author profiles Pierre-Auguste Renoir and describes Renoir's work of art, "Woman with Parrot". Renoir gained a reputation among peers for taking exceptional pleasure in painting, and his style was said to celebrate beauty and sensuality. He is recognized for showing significant empathy for the sitters in his portraits, and for…

According to an influential view, empathy has, and should have, a role in ethics, but it is by no means clear what is meant by "empathy", and why exactly it is supposed to be morally good. Recently, Peter Goldie has challenged that view. He shows how problematic empathy is, and argues that taking an external perspective is morally…

In this article, the author talks about a critically acclaimed movie "Crash" and what it reveals pedagogically about the paradoxical legacies of the grand experiment in radical democracy. Written and directed by Paul Haggis, "Crash" inundates the viewer with a barrage of the most condescending racial and ethnic insults, which…