The heart of teaching learning philosophy is the concept of nurturing students and teaching them in a way that creates passion and enthusiasm in them for a lifelong learning. According to Duke (1990) education is a practice of artful action where teaching learning process is considered as design and knowledge is considered as colours. Teaching…

The question of truth as it relates to the teacher's role in the classroom raises not only issues of what and how we should teach, but challenges the very purpose of teaching. Since truth itself is a major question of phenomenology, the author chose to use the works of German philosopher Martin Heidegger for his phenomenological treatment of truth…

Happiness is a large idea. It looms enticingly before us when we are young, delivers verdicts on our lives when we are old, and seems to inform a responsible engagement with children. The question is raised: do we want this idea? I explore a distinction between rich and poor conceptions of happiness, suggesting that many sceptical arguments are…

Wim Wenders' film "Wings of Desire" tells the story of an angel who wishes to become mortal in order to know the simple joy of human life. Told from the angel's point of view, the film is shot in black and white. But at the very instant the angel perceives the realities of human experience, the film blossoms into colour. In…

Since it was first published in 2011, "A Manifesto for Education" by Gert Biesta and Karl Anders Säfström has received numerous enthusiastic reviews and been hailed as providing "an alternative vision for education". Such enthusiasm, however, is perhaps not purely attributable to the substance of the text but also to the form…

The basic principle of educational equality is that each child should receive an equally good education. This sounds appealing, but is rather vague and needs substantial working out. Also, educational equality faces all the objections to equality per se, plus others specific to its subject matter. Together these have eroded confidence in the…

This paper offers a rehabilitation of the neglected eighteenth-century thinker and philosopher, Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), and defends the contemporary relevance of his construction of the wisdom of teaching. Reinventing the ancient traditions of European rhetoric, and reacting with great critical hostility to the pervasive educational…

In this paper, the author investigates what kind of challenges contemporary pedagogy has confronted, focusing on the question of knowability of radical otherness of the educated and the makability of the human being through education. Starting from two different narratives reflecting on their personal educational relationships and their identity…

In this paper I share my understandings of an elective outdoor environmental education course, a significant component of which was a field school. I helped develop this course at the Canadian university where I work as an academic, with the field school conducted on the island of Kaua'i in Hawaii. The paper describes the university field school…

This article juxtaposes the notion of "wuwei" in Daoism and philosophical principles of self-organization in systems theory to re-imagine classroom dynamics in which pedagogical relationships, students' interactions with texts, and peer interplay come together to enable an open system of education, learning, and growth. "Wuwei"…

This paper examines China's civic education discourses from a historical and cross-cultural perspective. It unpacks "observation" as a political--cultural--spatial pedagogy, underpinning Confucius' educational envisioning, Mao's domination in the Cultural Revolution Movement, and Xi's "China/ese Dream" propaganda. Drawing upon…

Inclusion has been an integral part of school policies worldwide for decades, yet the application of inclusionary principles depends on the attitude and skill set of the individual teacher in the classroom. Changing the requirements of pre-service teacher training, combined with the development of an inclusive ethos in school divisions will…

Accredited engineering degrees call upon students to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills. These range from technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge, through to transferable skills such as communications, teamwork, business acumen and critical analysis. Through a faculty-wide curriculum development programme we have sought to…

This article examines "government-registered medersas" in Mali and suggests that their appeal and expansion are due to their unique and innovative integration of Western and Islamic educational epistemologies (not simply subjects). Registered medersas respond to parental demands for the early introduction of "secular"…

European and international research shows how the child has an attitude, in relation to the knowledge of the natural world, characterized by curiosity and free exploration. My research refers to the theoretical contribution of Dewey ([1933. "How We Think: A Restatement of the Relationship of Reflective Thinking to the Educational…