It is a relief to read an analysis of the Internet that is not yet another contribution to the hyped-instrumentalist discourse typified by a "gee-whiz" ethos touting efficiency gains and the lasting technical transformation of education. Hubert Dreyfus' (2001) "On the Internet" is at one and the same time, philosophical, post-Nietzschean and also…

Hubert Dreyfus' "On the Internet" provides a powerful commentary on the way that the Internet has come to influence people's lives today, and a trenchant attack on the more extreme claims that are made for its benefits for education. Dreyfus has succeeded in presenting an account that is clear, accessible and concise. The book is full of vivid…

At the micro-level of the interaction between teacher and learner, the production of docile bodies and the constitution of normalised forms of subjectivity, Michel Foucault's work on power was clearly innovative in its challenge to the authority of the teacher. He challenges it in two ways at least. First, philosophically, his work challenges…

This paper utilises some of Foucault's notions to explore the use of the "disciplinary technologies" of film/video in social guidance programmes in schools to shape, constitute and control the morality of youth. As the first section elaborates, for Foucault, "technology" is the actual practice of power that involves "the government of individuals,…

Michel Foucault sought to understand how and why it is that people in the West, in their arduous and incessant search for truth, have also built into and around themselves intricate and powerful systems intended to manage all that they know and do. While little of Foucault's work directly concerns itself with the historically recent phenomenon of…

Emmanuel Levinas has been acclaimed as "one of the most significant ethical thinkers of the twentieth century" (Kearney & Rainwater, 1996, p. 122), as "the greatest moral philosopher of this century" (Bauman, 1992, p. 41) and as one whose thought "can make us tremble" (Derrida, 1967/1978, p. 82). These outstanding accolades from leading figures in…

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…

Argues for proper engagement between educational philosophical inquiry and Maori "ways of knowing the world." Critiques positivism, hermeneutics, critical theory, and Foucault's notion of power/knowledge in this regard. Examines the success of Maori educational initiatives based in "Kaupapa Maori" theory and the need to evaluate other social…

Examines issues of Maori knowledge within a university curriculum. Discusses the reframing of Maori knowledge and world views as knowable within colonizing Western epistemologies. Examines three Maori beliefs (interrelationships and animate nature of all things and accessibility of "unseen" worlds to humans) that were considered unacceptable in…

Linguistic and cultural aspects of the Tongan notion of "malie"--the process of developing interconnected energy flows and engagement between performers and audience--are discussed in the context of the Auckland Secondary Schools Maori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival. Implications of malie as part of a transformative pedagogy for Tongan…

Examines the philosophical basis of "Terra Nullius" as a justification for colonialism and racism directed at indigenous peoples, and its persistence as a pervasive mindset that impedes true equality and reconciliation in Australia. Discusses problems that arise when biased teachers or those with little cross-cultural experience attempt to present…

Heidegger's philosophy of technology demonstrates how technology acts as an agent of performativity within the school system serving the interests of the state and global economy. Papua New Guinea provides an example of how performativity and technology have become entrenched in a non-Western developing nation, usurped traditional education, and…

The formal introduction of technology into the New Zealand curriculum and educational objectives related to creating the "knowledge society" raise philosophical questions about the nature or essence of technology, the identity of the self, and implications for Maori and their beliefs in the intertwined relationships of humans and all aspects of…