Ongoing debates in educational philosophy and theory question the relevance of critical theory and critical pedagogy to decolonization, given their foundations in Eurocentric traditions. While some scholars critique critical theory for its failure to engage with colonial histories, others caution against conflating decolonization with broader…

In this article I draw on existing theory in a project of synthesis and integration to develop a terminological, conceptual, and graphic model for understanding the scope of critical thinking. I begin by showing why the idea of critical scope matters. I then develop a model that maps the scope of critical thinking across individual, sociocultural,…

Scholarly accounts of the training of pity in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Emile" focus on how Emile's tutor activates the psychological mechanisms necessary for the feeling of pity in book 4 of the text. This account is inadequate, for it fails to show how Emile acquires the evaluative ability to make the judgment about who deserves pity as…

This paper argues that the influential French thinker, Simone Weil, has something distinctive and important to offer educational and ethical inquiry. Weil's ethical theory is considered against the backdrop of her life and work, and in relation to her broader ontological, epistemological and political position. Pivotal concepts in Weil's…

This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the discussion of interdisciplinary knowledge in curriculum and research. As a challenge to much of the Mode 2 thesis concerned only with the importance of knowledge being socially relevant, this paper demonstrates how a Bernsteinian approach to interdisciplinarity relates to the internal…

In 1947, the Truman Commission recommended that American colleges and universities recommit themselves to civic education. Community colleges accepted this responsibility and today they offer a wide range of programs and activities designed to educate students and prepare them for the life of an engaged citizen. Still, overall, the data show that…

In a spirit of collegial support, this paper argues that Beckett and Hager's theoretical justification and empirical exemplifications do not do full justice to the complexity of group or team learning. We firstly reaffirm our support for the theoretical argument Becket and Hager make, though expressing some reservations about Complexity Theory, to…

In this article Cristoph Wulf examines the basic concepts of pedagogy and educational science in the German-speaking world, looking at education and socialization from the perspective of educational anthropology. He makes evident that the complex German concept of "Bildung," in particular, can only be fully understood by means of a…

This essay begins with the premise that Italo Calvino's Memos serve as a fundamentally educational proposition. Each of his lectures can be regarded as a substantive proposal, encouraging a revaluation of our contemporary world through unconventional forms of knowledge, especially considering the challenges posed by the new millennium. The essay's…

Can Aristotle's idea of practice be made fruitful for music pedagogical action in schools? That this is the case is repeatedly asserted in the music pedagogical discussion. This article takes up this assertion and develops a proposal for class music making based on Aristotle's theory of action.

This paper explores the fundamental tenets of Plato's philosophy of education, particularly his views on a practice of great educational potential: communal musical participation. According to Plato, music can attune the individual and the community to cosmic harmony and this, in turn, is the only way to form and maintain a community. The paper…

Hager and Beckett assert that a 'characteristic feature of … assorted co-present groups is that their processes and outputs are marked by the "full gamut of human experiences" involved in their functioning'. My paper endorses and further develops this claim. I begin by expanding on their emphasis upon the priority of relations in terms…

The following article traces the legacy of John Dewey's "A Common Faith" (1934) and Dewey's concept of "the religious" in the thought of Philip H. Phenix, a prominent philosopher of education during the 1950s and 1960s. Phenix frequently cited "A Common Faith" and echoed Dewey's commitments to naturalism, creativity,…

In this paper, I argue that the dominant assumption that educational research means empirical research narrows the range of possibilities for educational research. More specifically, research methods courses and textbooks exclude philosophy of education as a viable way of going about educational research, which limits what we can know about…

This scholarly collection is a continuation of a lecture series highlighting the essential nature of biography in the history of art education. The editors feature 16 prominent art educators, organized into one of three chronological sections spanning the past two decades. The contributing art educators explore influences that shaped their beliefs…