The act of teaching is constituted by tensions between contradictory influences of national educational systems, teachers' professional/personal identity, cultural and social values. Qualitative research methods can explore this complex situation. Indeed, narrative methods have explored teachers' "life histories". This article provides a…

The aim of this article is to examine current national early years' policy reform, which emphasises the importance of service integration, national quality standards and a quality knowledge base for educators concerning the provision of early childhood education and care. Using Queensland, Australia, as an example, a policy discourse analysis…

There are indications of a positive trend in education. International comparative investigations on academic achievement and longitudinal studies on life courses prove the need for and the importance of children's high intellectual knowledge. At the same time, new research initiatives and projects comply with the demand that aesthetic/cultural…

When Albert Barnes established an art education program at the Barnes Foundation in 1924, he asked John Dewey to become the first president and director of education. Barnes and Dewey enjoyed a sustained and fruitful relationship with regard to aesthetic experience and scientific theory as applied to education. Barnes and Dewey shared a serious…

The author wishes to thank Barry Bull for his excellent and stimulating paper, and he would like to pose five questions or points for his consideration in response. In preface to his first question, the author wants to say that he finds cogent and persuasive the discussion in the section "Issues for Political Liberalism in Higher Education" of…

It is important for educational researchers to possess an understanding that research (albeit a contentious area in terms of what indeed this constitutes) undertaken is done with certain pre-existing values and beliefs as to what we as individuals and teachers hold true. The methods and methodologies defined by Gough (2000, p.3) as "the reasoning…

This dissertation examines the legacy of scientific management and the dominance of one-dimensional thinking in the field of educational technology. Through this analysis, I demonstrate that the ways practitioners and policymakers frame educational technology, assess its effectiveness, and make judgments about its potential, often exclude…

Dewey proposed a new theory of language, in which the form (such as symbols) and content of language are not separated. The content of language includes the physical aspects of the world, which are purely quantitative: the life process, which involves functional responses to qualities, and the human life process, which involves the conscious…

Art education throughout the 20th and into the 21st century has drawn on both psychology and psychoanalysis to support approaches to teaching and learning in the arts. This article examines the concept of "psychologizing" as it appears in the writing of psychologist/philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) and psychiatrist/psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan…

Notwithstanding the general accepted understanding that Rousseau is the master of modern education reflecting the progress by enlightenment this articles suggests that Rousseau's "Emile" is--as most of Rousseau's other writings are, too--testimony to a brilliant and passionate writer expressing thoughts about his concern how to deal with…

A long tradition in the philosophy of education identifies education's most fundamental aim and ideal as that of the "fostering" or "cultivation of rationality". In this article I relate this tradition in philosophy of education to recent work inspired by Wilfred Sellars on "the space of reasons". I first offer a very brief overview of the…

Nowadays we tend to regard the idea of a university as an outdated subject. The world of universities is today so complex and diverse that no general doctrine of the university seems possible. In a recent article Alasdair MacIntyre challenges this view and points out that by giving up the question "What is university?" we also give up…

This article serves to extend a critique initiated by Allsup and Benedict in their 2008 PMER article, "The Problems of Band." Using the work of Michael Foucault as a theoretical and methodological basis, I consider ways in which today's large ensemble paradigm, particularly that of the wind band, has resulted in an ongoing antinomy in…

Dialogic or dialogical education is an umbrella term that encompasses a myriad of different and at times conflicting approaches. As there is no agreed-upon definition of "dialogue" (not that there is or should be one unified definition), and even fewer clear and systematic guidelines for application, researchers and practitioners in the DE field…

Twenty years ago Karl Newell suggested in "Quest" that the proper name for the field was "kinesiology" and that its proper subject was "physical activity." Yet, despite his success, for many the purpose of the field remains enigmatic. This has led to a lack of clarity in programs, as well as tensions between scientists and humanists in the field.…