It is possible to long for the past: we "long" for something that once was present but is no longer--nostalgia. We "hope" for something that has never been present but might be in the future--dreams: this is the core of progress in the modernist project. What can "longing for the present" mean? We desire a situation that we already have? We long…

The issues of premodern, modern, and postmodern can often confuse the social scientists because so much is drawn from modernism as the foundation of the social methodologies. Briefly, the author would like to differentiate the three modernism philosophies and indicate how a coalition of the three may apply to social sciences.

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, neopositivist claims made about the nature and validity of knowledge in the debates about scientifically based research were countered by educators who, decades earlier, had made various turns away from positivism and were surprised by its resurgence. In those debates, positivists often used…

Thayer-Bacon tells her story in a conversational tone that traces her personal and professional roots as she describes various chapters of her life: first as a philosopher, how she became involved in education, and then how that involvement became a career as a philosopher of education, in a large teacher education program, and now at a research…

Much has been written on Michel Foucault's reluctance to clearly delineate a research method, particularly with respect to genealogy (Harwood, 2000; Meadmore, Hatcher & McWilliam, 2000; Tamboukou, 1999). Foucault (1994, p. 288) himself disliked prescription stating, "I take care not to dictate how things should be" and wrote provocatively to…

In this article, it will be argued that in a postmodern society, there is a growing interest in apprenticeship. In a postmodern society, one of the issues dominating work life today is the need to learn local and pragmatic kinds of knowledge due to specialized, rapidly changing, and flexible forms of production. The resurrected interest in…

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how poststructuralism and social constructionism can contribute to the empirical research on groups in problem-based learning (PBL). The paper outlines the analytical complexity and shows, through empirical examples, the potentials and limitations of this perspective as an alternative to traditional group…

The purpose of this action research study is to help students alleviate their anxiety and stress symptoms using activities based on Olivia Gude's postmodern principles. The activities included are the participants own take-along visual art journal kit and classroom projects. Professional learning outcomes include the knowledge to equip teachers…

A book written in a foreign language and migrated to the US along with its author, an art historian, finds a new communicative dimension by becoming a ready-made for art making purposes. Starting with an introduction explaining the genesis of the collaborative project "Access Denied," this article focuses on one of the series'…

This paper explores students' seemingly puzzling engagement with what I call "processes of classification." Whilst most students on the Social Identities module I taught between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009 claimed that "class didn't matter" to them, during 2009-2010 more students engaged with classificatory processes. Using the…

This dissertation is "A Collective Case Study of Veterans Inside an Arts and Crafts Room and Their Perceptions Regarding Empowerment." This research examined to what degree art making, and in what ways a community of learning contributed to veterans' self-worth and empowerment through their creative activities and interactions inside an…

Universities articulate their identities during moments of organizational change. The process of development of university identity is herein explored from multiple theoretical strands: (a) industrial/organizational psychology, (b) human development/social psychology, (c) marketing, and (d) postmodern sociological. This article provides an…

The aim of this paper is to synthesize a theoretical basis for adult learning facilitation in order to provide a valuable systematic resource in the field of adult education. The paper has reviewed 6 journal articles with topics ranging from theory of andragogy; the effect of globalization on adult learning; the contribution of Malcolm Knowles;…

Steven R. Forness is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research has primarily focused on early detection and eligibility of children with psychiatric disorders for special education services in public schools. As part of an ongoing oral history…

This paper draws on Jean-François Lyotard's (1984) seminal study "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge" to reflect on two macro-level catastrophes: the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2009 (and its continuing effects throughout the Eurozone and elsewhere) and Fukushima. These two case studies probe aspects of these grand…