Rather than using literary texts to evidence an analytic argument, within this piece we read Julia McNair Wright's (US, 1840-1902), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette's (France, 1873-1954), and Willa Cather's (US, 1873-1947) texts through theoretical lenses that expose their educational meaning and value and that create conversation among them concerning…

This paper discusses the work of Noam Chomsky in the context of democracy, the media, and education. Through the analysis of selected works, a critical perspective emerges. This view demands that educators at all levels understand and confront the often deleterious effects the media can have on students' social and political views and further how…

Cross-cultural understanding stands as one of the great pillars of multicultural education and yet rarely do multiculturalists provide a full account of what it is and how it takes place. This paper will serve as an initial investigation into the complex nature of cross-cultural understanding. Drawing on the philosophical hermeneutics of…

There is renewed interest in what can be called an "experimentist" approach to education research. The claim is that if researchers would focus on experiments and "evidence-based" policies and practices, irreversible progress in education can be achieved. This experimentist approach cannot provide the understanding of knowledge and human beings…

Although it is commonly assumed that Paulo Freire was widely influential in the field of education in the United States immediately upon publication of his classic work, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", in 1970, the historical evidence indicates otherwise. In fact, Freire's work only began to gain wide reception in the field in the mid- and late…

The conflicts arising between the pedagogical preferences of the fields of instructional design and technology (IDT) and social foundations of education are substantial. This conflict is primarily one of pedagogical values separating the Social Foundations with its emphasis on critical and creative thinking and the presumption of value and theory…

Our article is based on a study of our integration of social foundations coursework with filmmaking and participatory action research, bringing teacher candidates and middle and high school students together. The project was carried out in partnership between an urban university and two nearby public schools within a Midwestern city known for high…

At a time when both philosophy of education and the arts are under threat within education, this article inquires into interdisciplinarity as one way of approaching the disciplines of philosophy of education and aesthetics. The article offers a retrospective autobiographical intellectual history and phenomenology of the author's own learning and…

The power of compulsory heterosexuality regulates the sexuality of adolescent lesbians as strongly as it does their heterosexual peers. Marked with a sexual(ized)identity, young Southern lesbians in this life history study made claim to moral high ground by consistently identifying with the hegemonic "good girl" construct and by participating in…

In this article, the author expresses her view on how urban agriculture can be a source of hope among people particularly the uneducated and undereducated ones. The author shares that urban agriculture is a brilliant answer to the difficulties in these times of crisis. One of its most relevant elements is its impact in education: it allows people…

Educators teaching about social difference and about minorities in society face a variety of challenges in effectively teaching students accurate and balanced understandings of different groups in society, including, particularly, the competing influence of the mass media on young people's minds. Whether one views representations in contemporary…

This article derives from an Adolescent Literacy course that had been designed to foster preservice teachers' knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach from a multiliteracies perspective. At the course's conclusion, the author designed, and secured institutional IRB approval to conduct, a self-study of curriculum, teaching, and learning…

A course in contemporary education issues is proposed as a valuable general education vehicle for citizenship education. Such a course offers the advantages of being inherently political and interdisciplinary, and relevant to students' life experience. Moreover, such a course would help satisfy the academy's responsibility to inform public debate…

In examining images of the 1950s fictional teacher, scholars have discussed gender roles and stereotypes, but media analysis generally focuses on sociological and political trends, such as the Cold War and the cultural construction of meaning through audience reception. Television and film studies also include attention to teaching media literacy…

This article examines how students enrolled in a university course focused on sociocultural influences and learning changed in their understanding of the relationship between sociocultural factors, teaching, and schooling over the duration of the semester. In this context, sociocultural factors refer to key social constructs such as race, class,…