For millennia it has been discussed whether literature appropriately can or should be used in education for a moral purpose. Taking as a premise that it can actually be educative and not merely moralising, we tackle the case made against such use, based on the claim that it would be perverting the aesthetic nature of literature as a form of art,…

In the discourse of the knowledge-based economy, the link between creativity and innovation is usually taken for granted. However, not only is this link of recent date, it joins together two diametrically opposed concepts: the economic concept of innovation and the humanistic concept of creativity. In research too, there is a lack of enquiry into…

David Bakhurst's 2011 book "The Formation of Reason" explores the philosophy of John McDowell in general and the Aristotelian notion of second nature more specifically, topics to which philosophers of education have not yet given adequate attention. The book's widespread appeal led to the symposium "Second Nature, Bildung and…

In the last two decades, a decisive anti-foundationalist turn has emerged in educational philosophy and theory. With such a shift, both the possibility and the desirability to conceive of educational processes and practices in terms of mastery and predictability has been challenged. In this paper, by locating my work on such an…

In the educational sphere, the concept of "democracy" is used in many and varied ways, though the hegemonic school culture often starts from a concept of democracy that is taken for granted, and it is understood that the entire educational community shares a similar concept. As a result of the research project "Democracy,…

Scholars in science and technology studies--and no doubt other fields--have increasingly drawn on Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics to theorize a variety of new "bio-concepts." While there might be some theoretical value in such exercises, many of these bio-concepts have simply replaced more rigorous--and therefore…

This paper is a sequel to the keynote address at the 2017 BCES Conference. The keynote address concluded with the thought that some educationists respond intuitively and spontaneously to neoliberalism and its impact on education whereas others reject neoliberalist precepts and their pedagogical implications on definite principled grounds. This…

Cosmopolitan education has been much theorized, discussed, and proposed, but what exactly might it look like and what specific processes might it involve? Cosmopolitanism's recognition of shared humanity and the subsequent entailment of democratic inclusion make explicit the moral and political nature of cosmopolitan education and philosophy. As…

Dialectics and a dialogical approach constitute two distinct theoretical frameworks with long intellectual histories. The question of relations between dialogue and dialectics provokes discussions in academic communities. The present paper highlights the need to clarify the concepts "dialogue" and "dialectics" and explore their…

Education in Victoria, Australia not only underwent significant change in the 1970s, but was witness to a widespread educational reform project. Whilst exploration of the more widespread alternatives has been of some interest, the smaller progressive traditions that emerged in some ways "alongside" the broader reforms have rarely been…

Educational philosophy has not discussed Foucault's publications on the Iranian Revolution and the related controversy. Foucauldian concepts are applied to education, though his only writings which "sidetracked" him from exploring power within the state, namely, his journalistic accounts of his visits to Iran, remain unexplored in our…

"To Educate the Human Potential" by Maria Montessori, first released in 1948, conveyed the Montessori theme of human solidarity as a unifying force for human history and integrated the sciences of geography, chemistry, biology, and physics. The concluding chapter of this journal places the reader in touch with the great questions of life…

This article analyses utopian and dystopian literature and its role in political education in order to make the case for imparting a 'utopian aspiration' that nurtures hope for the pursuit of political ideals. I note an 'anti-utopian' theme in both literature and political philosophy, a theme that emerges in a particularly fascinating pair of…

For decades, the humanistic disciplines--particularly history and philosophy of education--have justified themselves as an essential part of professional training for educators by characterizing themselves as the "foundations of education." This justification, the author will argue, has been weakened in recent years, and as a consequence…

Can we coherently conceive of our having knowledge inserted into our minds, bypassing forms of knowledge acquisition hitherto relied on? In this article, John Tillson contends that there is value in giving serious consideration to this question. First, insofar as technology develops apace, it is wise to start thinking about how we would use it…