Most countries are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). In 1999, the Government of Wales was devolved from the UK, and in 2011 the "Children and Young Persons Rights Measure" put the UNCRC as the basis of all its work. Any programme introduced in schools should therefore promote the UNCRC. To…

This paper considers different conceptualisations of school discipline within both UK education policy and wider educational and philosophical literature. Initially, it is noted that notions of "behaviour management" dominate discourses about school discipline. It is suggested that this is unhelpful as behaviour management skills are…

During 2009-2012, one Sixth Form College (SFC) introduced Building Learning Power (BLP) as a new philosophy and framework for learning and teaching. This short paper sets out to explain why and how BLP was introduced, and discusses how effective this process has been.

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) has become a common theme in both school and higher education in recent years. It suggests a model of curriculum development and practice that moves educational debate beyond teacher or student-based approaches towards a model of teaching and learning in which the endeavour is shared. This paper discusses an…

Irish society has experienced unprecedented demographic change since the turn of the twenty-first century, and increasingly, educators are facing the prospect of having to respond to the changing nature of cultural diversity in their classrooms. Traditionally characterised as"Catholic, white and Gaelic", Irish schools are said to be…

Education for wholeness continues to remain a contentious issue within a liberal and progressively democratic culture. McLaughlin's work can help us conceptualise wholeness as it has been understood in traditional and progressive education, what he describes as "wholeness as comprehensiveness" and "wholeness as…

The principles of interaction and continuity (intersection between experience and education) form a major part of John Dewey's philosophical discourse. According to Dewey, these principles determine the quality of educative experience for meaningful life-long learning. In this article, I argue that nowhere is the relationship between experience…

In this autoethnographic, conceptual philosophical reflection, the author inquires: "Can my students and I, in a technologically mediated virtual space, harness the work of philosophy of education scholars to engage in a shared experience of (re)considering paths to sensitivity to diversity for equity and equality?" The author engages…

This article examines the emergence and persistence of curriculum differentiation in the comprehensive high school. We argue that curriculum differentiation has roots in Plato's Republic, where it is proposed that education (and later work, especially the work of ruling) should be distributed on the basis of ability. The concept of…

Recent reflection on the professional knowledge of teachers has been marked by a shift away from more reductive competence and skill-focused models of teaching towards a view of teacher expertise as involving complex context-sensitive deliberation and judgement. Much of this shift has been inspired by an Aristotelian conception of practical wisdom…

Quality and equality in education is the dream of many. In South Africa hope was pinned onto the transformation that was to follow the major political changes of the 1990s. The promotion of inclusive education is rooted in a philosophical and principled position that all children should have educational rights and opportunities as encased in the…

Despite the increase in marine science curriculum in secondary schools, marine science is not generally required curricula and has been largely deemphasized or ignored in relation to earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics. I call for the integration and implementation of marine science more fully in secondary science education through…

Schools of education have seen many changes over the last 100 years (Labaree 2004). More recent modifications have included the slow and steady elimination of the social foundations of education in lieu of a more direct attention to teacher skills and basic training. The increased focus on the so-called "nuts and bolts" of teacher education trumps…

Reclamation work denotes the process of uncovering the lost contributions of women to the philosophy of education, analyzing their works, making them accessible to a larger audience, and (re)introducing them to the historical record and canon. Since the 1970s, scholars have been engaged in the reclamation work, thus making available to students,…

This paper begins with an analysis of global problems shaping education, particularly as they impact upon learning and life chances. In addressing these problems a range of philosophical positions and controversies are considered, including: traditional romantic and institutional views of schooling; and more recent maximalist, neo-liberal,…