What is at stake in high school philosophy education, and why? Why is it a good idea to teach philosophy at this level? This essay seeks to address some issues that arose in revising the Ontario grade 12 philosophy curriculum documents, significant insights from philosophy teacher education, and some early results of recent research funded by the…

Within the school of thought known as Critical Thinking, identifying or finding missing assumptions is viewed as one of the principal thinking skills. Within the new subject in schools and colleges, usually called Critical Thinking, the skill of finding missing assumptions is similarly prominent, as it is in that subject's public examinations. In…

Despite an increasing array of "quality indicators" and substantial investments in educating professionals, there continues to be clear evidence of discordant, or even negligent, practice by accredited professionals. We refer to discordant professional practice as being "out of tune" with what is accepted as good practice. In a…

This essay examines the relationship of philosophical pragmatism to the practice of reflection in service-learning. Service-learning theory and practice often elides over or ignores entirely the principles of inquiry as developed by Dewey. The exercise of reflective thought requires that educators create a situation of discomfort for learners, and…

Through this article the author presents an experimental collage about the experiment of writing and its relation to the analogies of kinship--an enactment of folk phenomenology.

Marion Richardson was a revolutionary art teacher and schools inspector. First published in 1948, her book "Art and the Child" is one of the most remarkable educational documents of the period between the first and second world wars. This article reviews Richardson's philosophy and practice of art and suggests its continuing…

The story of how the sciences began to understand themselves as independent fields of research starts by detaching them from philosophy. The identity of the science in question will then further develop as it writes its own history. Higher education studies are, in such reflections, understood as a relatively new field that has its beginnings in…

The allegory of the cave illustrates one of the central problems in philosophy: the gap between reality as it appears to be and the reality in itself. The allegory of prisoners in the cave, as opposed to being free out of the cave, symbolizes the gap between illusion and truth--between the thing and the thing in itself. The moment of getting out…

Since the nineteenth century, the debate around the process of professionalization of higher education has been characterized by two extreme positions. For some critics the process carries the risks of instrumentalizing knowledge and of leading the university to succumb under the demands of the market or the state; for other theorists it…

The problem with authenticity--the idea of being "true to one's self"--is that its somewhat checkered reputation garners a complete range of favorable and unfavorable reactions. In educational settings, authenticity is lauded as one of the top two traits students desire in their teachers. Yet, authenticity is criticized for its tendency…

The apparently simple question, "Does philosophy of education have a future?", is without a simple answer. Like so many other questions, it all depends on what we mean, and in this case, what we mean by the expression "philosophy of education". I shall look at it in all of three ways: as a social institution, as an academic…

In this paper, I connect John Dewey's notion that growth occurs through interaction with a diverse community to contemporary discussions of inclusive education. I highlight the importance of materials that offer different access points, the chance for students to listen to one another, and the teacher's openness to each child's potential. Though I…

This essay is on liberal education as a medium for the cultivation of the expanded understanding of "adulthood" so urgently required in order to address the problems we face in the global era. It argues that one element of cultivation is the reappropriation of the traditional resources oriented to this task that were so enthusiastically…

This article offers a reading of the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Theravada Buddhism across and through their differences in order to rethink an education that is committed to "negative capability" and the sensibility to uncertainty that this entails. In fleshing this out, I first explore Buddhist ideas of impermanence, suffering…

In this essay, Winston C. Thompson questions the rigidity of the boundary between ideal and nonideal theory, suggesting a porosity that allows elements of both to be brought to bear upon educational issues in singularly incisive ways. In the service of this goal, Thompson challenges and extends John Rawls's theory of justice as fairness, bringing…