Drawing from literature in the social studies of science, this paper historicizes two pivotal concepts in science literacy: the definition of life and the assumption of objectivity. In this paper we suggest that an understanding of the historical, discursive production of scientific knowledge affects the meaning of scientific literacy in at least…

In this article I am proposing a post-structuralist treatment of some concepts central to a pedagogical agenda. These are concepts of territorial implications, such as democracy, nationality, patriotism and the foreign, concepts closely linked to The Enlightenment and to education. I am proposing this because these might be the times, for…

The current cult of the personality of the teacher and personal development as an official goal in education policy documents are problematic as they make it difficult to distinguish a teacher from a seducer, thus blurring the distinction between education and therapy. In order to describe the pedagogical bond proper the article draws on Lacanian…

This paper focuses on the developments experienced by natural philosophy and mathematics in Bologna during a period of rapid change in the relationship of the various disciplines in the faculty of Arts and Medicine. Insisting that university science was characterized by a greater vitality than the traditional historiography usually concedes, this…

I write this short essay in response to Peirce, as a feminist, pragmatist, and cultural studies scholar, in the hope that it will help to bring feminism and pragmatism together. I suggest that Peirce offers marginalized and colonized people a way to argue for the importance of their input, with his theory of fallibilism, even if he still claims a…

The e-syllabus is a set of Web pages in which each course in the curriculum is assigned a "course page" and multiple "session pages." Course pages have a standardized format that provides course objectives, course policies, required or recommended textbooks, grading scales, and faculty listings. A separate session page is…

Do we prepare teachers for the schools we wish all children could attend or do we prepare teachers for the schools where they are most likely to find a position? The authors address the often-asked question What do beginning teachers need to know? by making the case that we must prepare teachers for the disparate conditions found on the…

That processes of interpretation are unavoidable in any educational experience has not received serious attention in teaching and teacher education. One of the authors devised an exercise for her graduate class to help them understand practical aspects of hermeneutic theory in connection with rationality, truth and the nature of teaching and…

Why was Oxford the home of the mandarin and why has the era of the mandarin come to an end? The era of the mandarin was inaugurated by T. H. Green, who sought, through the gospel of citizenship, to provide a philosophy for an age of religious doubt. Green's moralism served in Oxford as a substitute for the social sciences, which came to be…

This article focuses on these key themes: (1) the value of education as learning to be fully human, (2) the value of education as learning to be fully human with others and for others - inviting us to consider the concept of "social capital" as a way of tapping into and releasing this value; and accordingly, (3) a number of practical…

The author begins by discussing David Geoffrey Smith's analysis of the enantiomorphism inherent in the rhetoric of New American Imperialism. He goes on to examine critically Smith's defence of Enrique Dussel's advocacy of transmodernism as a way of understanding this enantiomorphism and of moving beyond what are seen as the constraints of both…

Three faculty members of Concordia University in Montreal, who played integral roles in the formation of a highly successful core curriculum as part of their institution, discuss the logistics, the politics, and the philosophy behind the founding and growth of their Liberal Arts College. For Harvey Shulman, the program, which has attracted…

Findings from a study of undergraduate honors education introduce a new perspective into the debate over approaches to academic advising. Learner-centered advising emerged as a key attribute of high-quality honors programs. The learner-centered approach is consistent with a range of advising approaches and styles because through it advisors retain…

In philosophy, authenticity has been used with two meanings: one entails the notion of correspondence; the other entails the notion of genesis (Cooper, 1983: 15). As in certain branches of philosophy, language teaching has perhaps clung too long to the first of these notions of authenticity at the expense of the other. This paper reviews four key…

Vocational schools in Germany are currently undergoing administrative reform. The main idea behind this reform, taken from the administrative paradigm of New Public Management, has been to grant schools extended autonomy but to make them more accountable for their results. Critics emphasize that such reform tends to reduce school administration to…