For Heidegger, poetics is not merely a genteel pastime, extraneous to the real work of finding shelter, food and clothing as suggested by Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Poetry has a more "essential" role in human endeavour, bringing understanding of "Being" from concealment and introducing it in original and originating ways into…

Within educational philosophies that utilise the Heideggerian idea of "authenticity" there can be distinguished at least two readings that correspond with the categories of "weak" and "strong" utopianism. "Strong-utopianism" is the nostalgia for some lost Edenic paradise to be restored at some future time.…

This dissertation considers the supportive and complementary relation between Mark Johnson's embodied realism and Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do as a philosophical practice. In exploring this relationship, the emphasis on one's embodiment condition and its relationship with metaphor and self-expression are the primary focus. First, this work involves…

This article explores two central notions of "dialectics" and "dialogics" based on the work of Vygotsky (drawing on philosophers such as Hegel, Spinoza, Engels and Marx) and Bakhtin (drawing on members of the Bakhtin Circle and writers such as Dostoevsky and Rabelais) respectively, as well their varying interanimations within…

The reactions of learners who read literature together in multicultural groups shed light on how their interpretations are interweaved in the sociopolitical context. The present study describes such dynamics in mixed Arab-Jewish teacher groups in Israel. The study's raw data were group discourse transcripts, group and individual written comments…

This article examines the shared experiences and understandings teachers draw on to teach children with an awareness of linguistic diversity. To do so, we analyzed interviews from Turkey and the United States and drew on philosophical hermeneutics as a way to develop a disruptive understanding of teachers' views regarding the role of languages in…

This article offers reflections and proposes practices that embody principles of diversity and inclusion while embracing spirituality in higher education. This approach to integral education is informed by the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and Haridas Chaudhuri, founders of the California Institute of Integral Studies. It blends Eastern philosophy…

Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews conducted in four public universities as part of an international comparative project, we examine the cultural, political, social and economic forces at play in the way the 'public good' is perceived, translated and debated within the French higher education context. Our findings indicate that a variety of…

In addition to the longstanding threat posed by narrow economism, faith in the possibility of peace and progress through democratic politics -- central to the humanistic vision of the 1972 Faure report -- today faces additional challenges. These challenges include the ascendancy of neurocentrism in the global policyscape. Whereas the effects of…

It's been 20 years since the last 'National Debate' on education led to the launch of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence with the four capacities in 2004. The curriculum was conceived to 'fully prepare today's children for adult life in the 21st century' (Scottish Executive, 2004, p. 3). These four capacities articulated the aspirational purpose…

Although the argument against poetry may have had its locus classicus in Plato's "Republic," the philosophical qualms against poetry are deeply rooted and are not unique to Plato's philosophy. We begin by considering the reasons why some philosophers once believed that philosophy was superior to poetry, and then we regard some of these…

In this essay Luc Van den Berge and Stefan Ramaekers take the idea(l) of "scientific parenting" as an example of ambiguities that are typical of our late-modern condition. On the one hand, parenting seems like a natural thing to do, which makes "scientific parenting" sound like an oxymoron; on the other hand, a disengaged…

In this paper, I discuss language learning in Wittgenstein and Davidson. Starting from a remark by Bakhurst, I hold that both Wittgenstein and Davidson's philosophies of language contain responses to the problem of language learning, albeit of a different form. Following Williams, I hold that the concept of language learning can explain…

In this essay Khosrow Bagheri Noaparast argues that, by focusing on acculturation and edification, Richard Rorty has provided a promising view for education because without acculturation, education turns into a destructive endeavor, and without edification, education risks the danger of being repetitive and reproductive. However, Rorty's view…

In this reflection on Carolyn Parker's article, I connect to my own professional work at the intersection of Latino education and science education as well as to my own personal interest in liberation theology. I use constructs central to liberation theology to indicate what a liberationist science might look like and push us, in doing so, to…