Today, the influence of economic thought on educational theory is evident. It seems to weaken, however, the further we travel back in history. In this article, Tal Gilead examines the historical origins of this influence. He shows that it first emerged in French educational thought during the second half of the eighteenth century. Through…

There is a widespread movement today to prepare all students for college, and it is promoted in the name of democracy. I argue here that such a move actually puts our democracy at risk by forcing students into programs that do not interest them and depriving them of courses at which they might succeed. We risk losing the vision of democracy that…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the evolution of geography in the United States' K-12 education system throughout the Nineteenth Century to understand the causes of variations, shifts in focus, and relative importance placed on geography. A broad theoretical framework, based on the work of sociologists of education and education…

This article provides a reconsideration of the intellectual altercation between John Dewey and Lewis Mumford in the 1920s, and a sketch of some educational implications that follow this reconsideration. Although past scholarship has tended to focus on ways in which the altercation obscured similarities in their thought, we consider whether…

The central purpose of China's modern higher education has been to combine Chinese and Western elements at all levels including institutional arrangements, research methodologies, educational ideals and cultural spirit, a combination that brings together aspects of Chinese and Western philosophical heritages. This, however, has not been achieved.…

Even though classified as a new phenomenon, Islamic counseling is actually as old as the Islamic preaching activities among the people. It is because of counseling genuinely is an essential part from the religious activities as depict in a number of Islamic spiritual terminologies. For the context of Moslems society, the existence of…

Scholars who have taken interest in "Theaetetus'" educational theme argue that Plato contrasts an inferior, even dangerous, sophistic education to a superior, philosophical, Socratic education. I explore the contrasting exhortations, methods, ideals and epistemological foundations of Socratic and Protagorean education and suggest that Socrates'…

This is the fourth of five commentaries discussing Zongjie Wu's essay, "Interpretation, autonomy, and transformation". It argues that he may have committed two methodological mistakes in his contrast between traditional Chinese education and contemporary Chinese (and Western) education: reverse-Orientalism and a form of fundamentalism.…

This paper examines the role of Harriet Martineau as a public educator in the light of her Unitarian upbringing and heritage. First, it explores the Unitarian contribution to educational philosophy, psychology and practice at the end of the 18th century and then subsequent developments in the 19th, singling out the work of those people who…

The aims of education, and the appropriate means of realising them, are a recurring preoccupation of utopian authors. The utopian socialists Robert Owen (1771-1858) and Charles Fourier (1772-1837) both place human nature at the core of their educational views, and both see education as central to their wider objective of social and political…

In this paper I draw some distinctions between the terms "cultural diversity" and "plurality" and argue that a radical conception of plurality is needed in order both to re-imagine the boundaries of democratic education and to address more fully the political aspects of conflict that plurality gives rise to. This paper begins…

The theme of intellectual courage can help anyone re-conceive the activity of philosophizing as a "moral" virtue. For Aristotle, courage was the first of the moral virtues, empowering noble action in the human realm, contemplation the last and highest of the intellectual virtues, enabling the union of the human mind with the eternal and divine,…

The London Day Training College (LDTC), founded in 1902, soon became the leading institution for the study of education and for the training of teachers in England. In 1932 it was transmuted into the Institute of Education of the University of London. Its title and pre-eminence have continued to this day. In the period 1919-1945 it was closely,…

This article considers the philosophies of unknown Japanese educator Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) and his Russian contemporary Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) as an Asian-Pacific pedagogical foundation for addressing the fierce urgency of human-induced environmental destruction and global climate shock. Specifically, the author compares…

This introduction to this special issue offers an overview of R. S. Peters' seminal role in the development of modern philosophy of education, acknowledging the originality and range of his work, and indicating his continuing importance to the field. It explains the structure and organisation of the collection and provides a rationale for this…