Presents three philosophical orientations as a means of better understanding the meaning of home economics with a guiding mission as central. Suggests the need for home economics to clarify its philosophical orientation as a means of affirming itself as a community committed to contributing to the common good. (Author)

Presents 14 reflections about the role of teachers. Topics include taking a stand on a select group of issues; decision making; teachers' judgment; teaching self-respect; teachers as lifelong students; respect for adversaries; the power of ideas; and the optimum environment. (RJC)

Two articles comment on the debate over the utility of science in educational administration. Critiques of various positions on the topic point out the possible effects of conservatism and positivism on inequality and inequity in educational administration. (CB)

Responds to Robert Pattison's "The Stupidity Crisis" (see EJ 371 867). Examines his conclusions about what this massive change in students' sensibilities means for teachers in the humanities. (SR)

Replies to David Rankin's response (same issue) to the author's essay "The Stupidity Crisis" (see EJ 371 867). (SR)

Self-directed learning's contributions to understanding of adult learning include (1) insights into the learning process; (2) challenge to define and debate learner characteristics; and (3) expansion of thinking about formal learning. (SK)

Expands on Richard Poirier's interpretation of pragmatism and his discussion of Dewey as an Emersonian pragmatist, discussing linguistic issues related to Dewey and to Emerson's responses to the temptations of external-world and other-minds skepticism. The paper concludes with remarks about the relevance to education of Dewey's and Emerson's work…

The shift in philosophic paradigms from positivism to postmodernism appears to have gone unnoticed in U.S. nursing. Neomodernism, an alternative and more inclusive approach, might center on explicating commonalities of warrantable evidence and scientific progress. (Contains 31 references.) (SK)

The Blackwell Companion and Blackwell Guide to the philosophy of education, edited respectively by Randall Curren and by Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith and Paul Standish, are potentially field-defining volumes. The present essay moves back and forth between the two books to assess the overall impression they provide of the "state of the…

James Marshall's work on Foucault exemplifies a break with tradition in philosophy of education and if taken appropriately as a new methodology, a new logic, portends a different future for the field. This article begins from a misunderstanding of Marshall. It then posits Marshall as situated in a particular Foucauldian root: a logic break out of…

Educational Research is commonly regarded as a rational pursuit aimed at the production of objective knowledge. Researchers are expected to avoid value bias by detaching themselves from the normative conceptions of education that shape practice in schools and classrooms, and by casting themselves in the role of the impartial spectator. It is…

Ethics penetrates every aspect of Western education. Many of its dominant narratives-- education as salvation, as progress, as panacea, and as liberation, for example--are infused with the ethical. Educators are compelled by ethical callings; in fact, education as the call of the ethical informs the singular and collective identities of educators.…

Progressive educators have given a vision of the whole child and the perspectives of school reforms. The overall mission of the school best serves the young when it reflects a holistic orientation to education.

This article looks at the practice of educational questioning using the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer. It first looks at questions and statements from a hermeneutic perspective, demonstrating some of the differences and similarities between the two. It then details Gadamer's notion of the "true question", asking whether it is…

This article argues that a philosophical approach to education needs a comparative dimension and that a comparative approach to education needs a philosophical dimension. An analysis of the proper relationship between a philosophical and a comparative approach to education is developed with reference to needs, difficulties and opportunities.