This paper puts in conversation Martin Heidegger's concept of "Stimmung" (mood or attunement) with Raymond Williams' notion of 'structures of feeling' to theorize 'mood work' in peace education. It is argued that the perspective of mood provides new insights in peace education that might be harder to grasp through the lens of affect or…

The present article addresses the question of whether, and to what extent, critical thinking should make attunement to current social and political landscapes central to its practice. I begin by outlining what I consider to be the basic positions in the debate about the political contextualisation of critical thinking, which are referred to as the…

In this article we focus on note taking as a practice that is fundamental to (higher) education. We argue that note-taking should not primarily be regarded as a method that supports effective learning, but as formative of the student herself (making her attentive and granting possibilities for self-transformation). Hence it is a practice that has…

This paper traces Heesoon Bai's contributions to science education. Over the course of her career, Heesoon has written many scholarly articles that explore the foundational theories relevant to the culture of science education. Drawing from Eastern contemplative traditions, Heesoon aims to repair the separation between subject and object, a…

Love is a significant, complex, and problematic aspect of early childhood teaching that is simultaneously valued, undervalued, feared, and overlooked. This article investigates complexities and tensions within perceptions and experiences of love in early childhood teaching from a posthumanist perspective. Data from a research study exploring…

What it means to be human is inherently incomplete or in a state of permanent mutability. This is excellent for it opens the way to the questions of the inhuman, posthuman, and nonhuman to take center stage in the analysis of what it means to be a subject, which is a core question for education. The question of the inhuman at the core of the human…

This paper is concerned with Catherine Malabou's reading of Heidegger's forgotten triad of change; indeed, in connection to her own notion of the 'plasticity of meaning'. The paper focuses on the emergence of meaning, on its figuration, and on the moment during which a new image of meaning comes to be seen. In light of this pursuit, the paper will…

In this paper we combine a philosophical theoretical analysis with human movement science empirical studies, in order to provide a better understanding of the possible links between free play and creativity. We deal in particular with some dialectical dynamics inherent to free play: the relation between rules and freedom, spontaneity which often…

Current education paradigms were informed by the classical Newtonian worldview of brain functioning in which the mind is simply the physical activity of the brain, and our thoughts cannot have any effect upon the physical world. However, researchers in the field of quantum mechanics found that the outcomes of certain subatomic experiments are…

The human relation to things in the world is at stake in the so-called post-humanist era where the distinction between human and non-human is blurred, as indicated in a term like 'the nano-self'. How should we understand the nature of our relation to things in this era? Or how can we describe an "educationally" meaningful relation we as…

Narcosis responds to a call for papers concerning contemporary discourses on disruptors, convergences and addictions. It concerns Martin Heidegger's distinction between history and the historiographical as an essential thinking on contemporary understandings of technology. The paper's critical milieu is the still recent uptake of education…

The empirical research on dialogue-based pedagogies shows that they improve student outcomes and, thus, teachers should make more use of these methods. However, deeper analyses about whether certain modes of dialogue are better than others is under-researched, resulting in little information about which models best help teachers develop effective…

Contemporary curricula specify the conceptual understanding that will be important for pupils in the world that they will soon inhabit. In so doing, concepts are characterised as representing the essential qualities of phenomena, the knowledge of which will be applicable in future contexts. Yet such a characterisation divorces concepts from the…

Despite how revered Socrates is among many educators nowadays, he can seem in the end to be a poor model for them, particularly because of how often he refutes his interlocutors and poses leading questions. As critics have noted, refuting people can turn them away from inquiry instead of drawing them in, and being too directive with them can…

This essay suggests that Wittgenstein's philosophy can be read as an example of what Hadot and Foucault call spiritual practices, and it uses that reading to cast light on the way certain experiences can change one's life. These experiences could as simple as reading a book or even, as might be the case with Thoreau, living alone by a pond. The…