In the 21st century, educators seem to have more capacity for thinking pluralistically about teaching than they did a few decades ago. It is now commonplace to talk about multiple intelligences, a variety of teaching and learning styles, different acceptable outcomes of education. If we take the lead from archetypal psychology, the Greek pantheon…

This article argues that the traditional idealist-realist divide on educational thinking have been and shall continue to be regarded as "normal" so long as education is a continuum which derives its being from the disparity in human thought. To commute one to the other--specifically, idealist to realist--to meet desperate industrial needs would be…

A common geography curriculum for Australian schools was approved in May 2013. This paper describes the conceptual and philosophical foundations of the curriculum through a discussion of its definition of geography, selection of concepts, integration of skills into the process of inquiry, and specification of learning about countries and…

It has been argued that Paulo Freire's concept of conscientization, where critical awareness and engagement are central to a problem-posing pedagogy, provides the philosophical principles to underpin Problem Based Learning (PBL). By using dialogue groups and a combination of learning strategies to discover the nature of a problem, understand its…

Accountability is among the least understood policy issues in higher education (Burke 2005). The rapid rise in tuition costs in both public and private institutions (Heller 2006) in all corners of the globe (Altbach, Reisberg, and Rumbley 2009) has challenged the idea of higher education as a public good. Student learning outcomes is one…

The economic purpose of getting a job, or getting into college in order to get a better job, has evolved into the de facto primary purpose of K-12 (and higher) education. Business model solutions are seen by businessmen as the answer to education problems. But the business models they advocate and help fund are not a good fit for education…

In this article authors Kip Kline and Kathleen Abowitz write that the "new breed of accountability-driven schools is more interested in reaching some number at the end of the school year" than in actually constructing places where teachers can create meaningful learning experiences for students. In this article they argue that…

This paper is a cross-cultural comparative study in education philosophy. A comparative and philosophical approach is used to interpret texts from the Analects of Confucius and to find connections with ideas of critical educators. In comparing Confucius' educational thought with that of Paulo Freire, John Dewey and other theorists in critical…

This article explores some of the key themes of John Macmurray's recently published lecture, "Learning to be Human". It focuses initially on three elements of his argument: relationships in education; education and the economy; and our corrosive obsession with technique. It then utilises Macmurray's views to develop a typology of…

The question addressed in this paper is whether action learning as a management development technique can be more effective in promoting ethical decision-making than more traditional approaches. Recent examples of moral failures which have emerged in both corporate and public sector organisations in the UK during recent years have prompted a…

Participation in the arts is a form of practical reason and as such has the potential to form and transform the faith of individuals. The findings from Katherine M. Douglass's 2011 study on the role of the arts in the faith lives of young adults provides examples of the transformative potential of the arts as they foster expression,…

This article offers a critical examination of the role that conservative corporate philanthropy played in initiating the assault against the Ethnic Studies discipline during the Academic Culture Wars of the 1980s and 1990s. This research focuses on the development of movement conservatism as an emerging political force that brought together…

In this article, the author offers Manet's last paintings as metaphors for a bygone, psychically healthy conception of loss and mourning, what is called the pre-Freudian, Victorian notion of loss (Otto 2008), which contrasts with the post-Freudian, Modern notion of loss and mourning (Otto 2008). Otto argues this liminal, transitional moment…

In the field of higher education Newman has been dismissed as irrelevant and out of date. Ronald Barnett, for example, is highly critical of his "value-laden" vision of a particular kind of university. This article seeks to consider the question of values more carefully, suggesting that Newman's writings do have strong resonances…

Current debates regarding justice in university admissions most often approach the question of access to university from a technical, policy-focussed perspective. Despite the attention that access to university receives in the press and policy literature, ethical discussion tends to focus on technical matters such as who should pay for university…