This article focuses on a critical reading of two texts by Derrida: "Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question" (1989) and "Memoirs of the Blind" (1993). In these two texts, Derrida explores some of the dominant tropes and metaphors of a language of spirit in two distinctively different, but interrelated, genealogies in the West: one in philosophy and…

Metaphors are powerful in describing organizations (Morgan, 1986; 1998) and stories reveal the meaning of experiences (Kouzes & Posner, 1993). As an avid skier and school change leader, the author has drawn on her personal experiences and the literature to develop the idea of improving skiing as a metaphor for improving leadership, particularly…

Criticisms have recently been voiced of constructivism, the leading metaphor of human learning since the 1970s. Inspired by inconsistencies in interpretations of constructivism in current literature, we examine the underlying epistemological beliefs of popular constructivist theories and their criticisms. We find that popular constructivist claims…

A self-paced reading experiment investigated processing of sentences containing a noun-phrase that could temporarily be mistaken as the direct-object argument of a verb in a subordinate clause but actually constituted the syntactic subject of the main clause (often referred to as an "early" vs. "late closure" ambiguity). Subcategorization…

The purpose of this study was to discuss the dance technique class experiences of students in a university dance program. Working within a post-positivist methodological framework, I interviewed five university dancers. Using the lenses of phenomenology and hermeneutics, I compared and contrasted the women's stories with each other's and my own.…

It is suggested that educators look to an environment in which qualitative research can be learned in more flexible and creative ways--an online learning community known as the Research Park Online (RPO). This model, based upon Walt Disney's 1966 plan for his "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT) and university cooperative…

In two experiments, dysphoric and nondysphoric students first concentrated on either self-focused or other-focused phrases and then performed an ostensibly unrelated task involving the interpretation of homographs with both personal and impersonal meanings. In Experiment 1, they constructed sentences for the homographs; dysphoric students'…

In a series of three papers, I examined the identity-development of three Chinese women teachers as they moved back and forth between Eastern and Western cultures and languages amid the rapidly changing events of the last four decades. I use a river metaphor to explore three phases in the cross-cultural lives of these women: in the first paper,…

Since the dawn of time, human imagination has resulted in creating extensions of self (that is, tools) as a means to overcome obstacles produced by genetic limits. Whether the tool extends thought or sense; whether the tool is organic, such as language, or inorganic; and whether electronic, digital, or analog, the artist plies the science or…

The practice of science has been characterized as the systematic application of common sense. This view, frequently held by scientists themselves, holds that the same qualities that allow pre-industrial societies, pioneers, cast-aways, and common folk everywhere to cope with their environment and prosper also make for good scientists. However,…

Drawing on a single case study in the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC-FE) project, discussed in the introduction to this volume, this article explores contrasting perspectives of tutors' and students' experiences of a General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ). The "case in point" is an Intermediate level…

There is a general sense today that constructivist teaching is not up to the task of preparing students for high-stakes exams. In this article, the authors describe a highly effective constructivist approach used to teach students in a learning situation that takes the meaning of "high stakes" to another level. They talk about teachers of "cane…

In this article, the author relates her teaching experience with seventh and eighth graders using poetry activities, and she describes how she teaches poetry by using "published" poems and by engaging the students in classroom activities. Though students in seventh grade usually have knowledge of poetic conventions, the author takes time to review…

This is the first book to bring into focus the full scope of professional practice in educational leadership. This book probes the limitations of traditional research in fully comprehending the true nature of leadership, and points out how future research must be expanded to deal with understanding the complexity of educational leadership…

In his influential book "Dialogues with Children" (1984), Gareth Matthews presents strong evidence that children as young as six can and should engage in philosophical discourse. His findings form the basis of this article, a theoretical and practical guide for parents and teachers seeking respectful and creative ways to encourage…