Michel Jeanneret's "A Feast of Words. Banquets and Table Talk in the Renaissance" (1987; English translation published in 1991) highlighted the celebration by Renaissance humanists of food and drink as catalysts of intellectual exchange. The author convincingly argued that Renaissance banquets served as a paradigm for the humanist body…

Drawing on life-history interview data collected as part of a research project funded by the Froebel Trust, this paper explores the family backgrounds and educational experiences reported by nine women who attended Froebel College located in London in the United Kingdom (UK), in the 1950s and 1960s. Informed by Bourdieu's theories of habitus and…

In the present paper, I discuss the internal conflict that accompanies the work of fellow pedagogical supervisors in teacher training institutes. Such internal conflict is manifested in the difficulty that pedagogical supervisors face in successfully integrating the subjective (the personal) and objective (the professional) dimensions of the work…

Numerous popular figures currently espouse the importance of spirituality. Some prominent voices, such as Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, and Eckhart Tolle, advocate a more spiritual existence, warning that the earth and humanity are engaged in a seismic change. The shift of spiritual leaders from fringe to fairly mainline attention is…

This dissertation explores the growing epidemic of academic dishonesty in the United States in order to propose an Aristotelian-inspired model for developing moral character to curtail this epidemic. The task is laid out in four parts. Chapter one responds to the problem of "akrasia," adopting a modified version of Devin Henry's…

In this paper, the author maps three radically different visions of Marxism in educational philosophy. Each "register" contains insights but also contradictions that cannot easily be resolved through internal modifications of the theory or through theoretical synthesis with other registers. The radical function of Marxist pedagogy is to create a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of reflection that opens the way to a fuller understanding of what is meant by learning to be enterprising in schools, particularly during the basic schooling of students (at both the primary and secondary levels). Working from Dewey's philosophy of experience, the paper advances a new…

Despite the efforts made by the media literacy movement in the U.S. to institute media education as a means of addressing social issues, there still exists the potential for a more politically empowering media literacy education. While media literacy scholars and practitioners' avoidance of adopting particular political or social agendas is…

Both the language of performance management and the target-setting culture of our schools lead to a "depersonalisation" of education--a failure to respect young learners as persons. They become a "means" to some further non-educational "end". John Macmurray challenged this depersonalisation in terms not only of its impoverished educational…

This article takes as its starting point the commonplace that Rousseau's "Emile" enabled his contemporaries to discover not only childhood but physical education. Focused on what the pedestal erected for Jean-Jacques somewhat overshadows, a brief historiographic overview and a survey of some major writings on education before Rousseau (by the…

Challenging the common grand vision of Design, this article considers "design" as a humble re-forming process based on evidence to substantiate its results. The designer is likened to a tinker who respects previous iterations of a design and seeks to retain what is useful while improving its performance. A design process is offered,…

Taking a post-colonial stand and using school to work transition as an example, the author re-examines the special education discourses in Taiwan and attempts to construct alternate understandings of transition from sociological and cultural perspectives. A review of past transition literature and a survey of the educational background of the…

Sceptics of an Africanisation of education have often lambasted its proponents for re-inventing something that has very little, if any, role to play in contemporary African society. The contributors to this issue hold a different view and, through the papers included in this issue, arguments are proffered in defence of an Africanisation of…

Liberal democratic education, as advocated in recent accounts of citizenship education or civic education, is often seen as incompatible with moral education or character education rooted in specific views regarding the virtues. This contrast relies on well established philosophical differences between liberal views of justice and democracy, on…

In the UK, as elsewhere in the world, the global financial crisis has focused attention on the cost of public services and the need to reduce expenditure, not least in respect of higher education. This, however, raises a set of prior questions: What kind of society do we want? What is important to democratic society? What kind of higher education…