Despite claims that STS(E) science education promotes ethical responsibility, this approach is not supported by a clear philosophy of ethics. This paper argues that the work of Emmanuel Levinas provides an ethics suitable for an STS(E) science education. His concept of the face of the Other redefines education as learning from the other, rather…

In this essay, I argue that Roy Bhaskar's philosophy of meta-Reality creates the middle way to theorize emancipation in critical science education: between empiricism and idealism on the one hand, and naive realism and relativism, on the other hand. This theorization offers possibilities to transcend the usual dichotomies and dualisms that are…

In this paper, I utilise key postcolonial perspectives on multiculturalism and boundaries to reconsider some of science education's scholarship on cultural diversity in order to extend the discourses and methodologies of science education. I begin with a brief overview of postcolonialism that argues its ability to offer theoretical insights to…

This paper examines the relationship among behaviorism, constructivism and Socratic pedagogy. Specifically, it asks if a Socratic educator can be a constructivist or a behaviorist. In the first part of the paper, each learning theory, as it relates to the Socratic project, is explained. In the last section, the question of whether or not a…

To what extent does the construction of any curriculum framework have to contain axiological assumptions? Educators have been made aware of tacit epistemological assumptions underlying existing curricular frameworks by the continual demands for their revision. Eisner (1979, 2002) suggested that curriculum policy should be centred around…

An ideal of education is to ensure that our children develop into autonomous critical thinkers. The "indoctrination objection", however, calls into question whether education, aimed at cultivating autonomous critical thinkers, is possible. The core of the concern is that since the young child lacks even modest capacities for assessing reasons, the…

Vulnerable student voices are a matter for concern in contemporary higher education, but that concern is directed more towards identifying vulnerable groups, and seeking to widen their participation in higher education. It is less to do with the vulnerability of certain modes of voice when students are there. The concept of student voice may be…

Drawing from literature in the social studies of science, this paper historicizes two pivotal concepts in science literacy: the definition of life and the assumption of objectivity. In this paper we suggest that an understanding of the historical, discursive production of scientific knowledge affects the meaning of scientific literacy in at least…

Following Foucault, "critique" could be regarded as being the art not to be governed in this way or as a project of desubjectivation. In this paper it is shown how such a project could be described as an e-ducative practice. It explores this idea through an example which Foucault himself gave of such a critical practice: the writing (and reading)…

The "European Space of Higher Education" could be mapped as an infrastructure for entrepreneurship and a place where the distinction between the social and the economic becomes obsolete. Using Foucault's understanding of biopolitics and discussing the analyses of Agamben and Negri/Hardt it is argued that the actual governmental configuration, i.e.…

The article problematizes in aphoristic condensation the heterogeneous concepts of creativity in philosophy, psychology and sociology and outlines their paradoxes. Creativity in these concepts is tied to the human potential to bring into being something new and to the capacity of drawing differences. In its contingency, creativity is ambivalent to…

To question power means also to ask what makes us governable and enables us to govern. This paper addresses this issue by rephrasing the question "what is power?" into the question: "to what problem can power be seen as a response?". This transformation allows us to keep the "power of power" in sight. It then elucidates the "how" of power through…

German universities come under fire: in contemporary political discourse they are considered to be antiquated, inefficient and unfit for international competition. Accordingly, the German government implemented an extensive program of reforms. Following the so-called "Sorbonne Declaration", the universities shall become part of an European higher…

Since the 1990s participation has become a buzzword in education as well as in development contexts. In those contexts, participation has more particularly been linked up with personal promises of self-fulfilment, ownership and self-determination as well as with democratic ideals such as justice, equivalence and freedom. In the paper, we focus on…

This paper investigates the role of the lifelong learning discourse in actual governmentality. Starting with a description of the origins of lifelong learning in the discussions about alternative education in the 1960s and 1970s, the current adoption of lifelong learning by the European Union is used to show its critical components. Along with the…