George Mead's posthumously published works express a genuine philosophy of education. This paper contributes to the reconstruction of Mead's educational philosophy, examining a typescript of student notes from his course on philosophy of education at the University of Chicago. The essay discusses the typescript against the backdrop of Mead's…

Examines Nietzsche's rejection of mass education, arguing that it was based on his desire for education to be more self- reformulative than he thought possible, and concluding that education in schools is beneficial because it can foster radical forms of selfhood. This process can begin by listening to Nietzsche's philosophy while ignoring his…

Analysis of a training provider's capacity-building practices found that some could be characterized as functionalist. However, considerable commitment to learners, passion for learning, and awareness of the management of learning within power relations indicated that capacity building was tied to commitment for a socially progressive future. (SK)

Michel Serres is a provocative and unorthodox thinker, very little known in the English-speaking world, although he is one of the best-known contemporary French philosophers. Serres' interdisciplinary writing constructs themes that can be traced across literature, philosophy, science, mythology and painting, borrowing ideas and approaches from…

Responding to Montessori's work, the author penned this letter, which teachers should find valuable for their own practice and reflection. Sections of the response include: (1) The Key for Me; (2) Observe: Freedom of Choice; (3) Observe: The Method; and (4) And Yet. A "Montessori Timeline" is also included.

Marx's call for a materialism capable of engaging reality as "sensuous human activity" opens a question about the role of representation in relation to data. Images have increasingly been seen as significant forms of data in the history of education. Derrida's theory of the spectre -- a variation on the positions established in his earlier works…

This paper discusses the phenomena of performativity and aestheticization and their implications for education. The forces of performativity pose a threat to music and the other arts, even though some advocators try to justify music education by appealing to their alleged performative results. At first sight, aestheticization seems to accord much…

Kaki Bukit Centre Prison School (KBC) in Singapore is a bold and innovative initiative which brings together in a centralized location in one institution, different categories of inmates from both penal and drug institutions who attend academic and vocational classes. The creation of a learning environment within a prison setting is derived from…

In our internationalizing world, even countries that have had a reputation of being so-called "homogeneous" are facing cultural diversification within. Though Japan is a country often described as homogeneous or, at least, homogeneously minded, with the inflows of new types of foreigners, it is presently experiencing what has been dubbed…

This article points out an internal tension, or even conflict, in the conceptual foundations of Harvey Siegel's conception of critical thinking. Siegel justifies critical thinking, or critically rational autonomy, as an educational ideal first and foremost by an appeal to the Kantian principle of respect for persons. It is made explicit that this…

Michael Hand's recent paper, 'Religious Upbringing Reconsidered', re-opens a debate that was flourishing over a decade ago in this journal and, long before that, in the works of others. In this response I examine Hand's claims that earlier contributions to the debate passed over the central problem and that he can solve that problem. I endeavour…

This essay reviews David Halpin's Hope and Education, which aims to bring theories of hope and utopia to bear on the practical processes of schooling in contemporary Britain, and which sees education as an intrinsically hopeful and future-oriented process. It argues that the properly utopian character of Halpin's project is subverted by his…

Critique is a concept that is constantly used as an instrument for agreement or disagreement, for reflection and discussion. There is a difference, however, between critique as a historically grounded phenomenon and critique as a utopian conception not situated in any particular socio-historical context. Educational theory resists reduction to…

John Hull lost his sight more than 20 years ago. He has written extensively about the nature of blindness. In the course of this, he has developed a philosophy of disability or impairment which emphasises the many different worlds of human experience. This leads him to the thought that the teacher of special children, many of whom will be living…

Following Foucault, "critique" could be regarded as being the art not to be governed in this way or as a project of desubjectivation. In this paper it is shown how such a project could be described as an e-ducative practice. It explores this idea through an example which Foucault himself gave of such a critical practice: the writing (and reading)…