This article seeks to demonstrate a particular application of Foucault's philosophical approach to a particular issue in education: that of personal autonomy. The paper surveys and extends the approach taken by James Marshall in his book "Michel Foucault: Personal Autonomy and Education." After surveying Marshall's writing on the issue I extend…

In the 1980s and 1990s the discipline of philosophy of education had an impact on schooling and the public service in New Zealand because of the contracted work of James Marshall and Michael Peters. This personal reflection by Robert Shaw is a tribute to James Marshall and provides insight into the relationship between Ministry officials, the…

This paper deals with the highly personal way an individual makes sense of the world in a way that avoids the pitfalls of the so-called private language. For Wittgenstein following a rule can never mean just following another rule, though we do follow rules blindly. His idea of the "form of life" elicits that "what we do" refers to what we have…

In his writings Jim Marshall has helpfully emphasized such Wittgensteinian themes as the multiplicity of language games, the deconstruction of "certainty," and the contexts of power that underlie discursive systems. Here we focus on another important legacy of Wittgenstein's thinking: his insistence that human activity is rule-governed. This idea…

Drawing on themes found in James Marshall's writings on Nietzsche, the arts and the self, this paper explores the nature of influence in the arts and its relevance to education. It considers what Harold Bloom has called the "anxiety of influence" and amplifies this in terms of broader questions concerning Emersonian self-reliance. The particular…

James Marshall's work on Foucault exemplifies a break with tradition in philosophy of education and if taken appropriately as a new methodology, a new logic, portends a different future for the field. This article begins from a misunderstanding of Marshall. It then posits Marshall as situated in a particular Foucauldian root: a logic break out of…

A kind of "neo-Aristotelianism" that connects educational reasoning and reflection to "phronesis," and education itself to "praxis," has gained considerable following in recent educational discourse. The author identifies four cardinal claims of this "phronesis-praxis" perspective: that a) Aristotle's epistemology and methodology imply a stance…

At the center of every well-constructed theory of education is a philosophical anthropology-reasoned speculation as to the origins on man's conditions in the history of culture, especially the particular phenomenon of consciousness that underlies historical periods. Using the lens of one of the most significant theories of culture produced, we…

In this article, the author will investigate the extent to which Bhikhu Parekh believes that a person's cultural/religious background must be preserved and whether, by implication, religious schooling is justified by his theory. His discussion will explore--by inference and implication--whether Parekh's carefully crafted multiculturalism, enriched…

The past two decades has witnessed the mushrooming of Islamic schools in Europe, the United States and South Africa. Initially, these schools were concerned essentially with providing an Islamic ethos for learners. More recently, however, they have begun to focus on the process of Islamization. The Islamization project was initiated in the United…

In this paper, I discuss globalisation as an empirical reality that is in a complex relation to its corresponding discourse and in a critical distance from the cosmopolitan ideal. I argue that failure to grasp the distinctions between globalisation, globalism, and cosmopolitanism derives from mistaken identifications of the Is with the Ought and…

This article looks at the practice of educational questioning using the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer. It first looks at questions and statements from a hermeneutic perspective, demonstrating some of the differences and similarities between the two. It then details Gadamer's notion of the "true question", asking whether it is…

This essay serves as a guide for scholars, especially those in education, who want to gain a better understanding of Heidegger's essay, "The Question Concerning Technology". The paper has three sections: an interpretive summary, a critical commentary, and some remarks on Heidegger scholarship in education. Since Heidegger's writing style is rather…

This article explores the significance that environments play in terms of the learning process. In the United States, the legacy of John Dewey's intellectual efforts left a theoretical understanding that views the architectural composition of learning environments as instrumental mediums which house the educational process. This understanding of…

To examine Heidegger's pedagogy is to be invited into a particular era and cultural reality--starting in Weimar Germany and progressing into the rise and fall of the Third Reich. In his attempt to reform the German university in a strictly hierarchical, authoritarian and nationalistic mold, Heidegger addressed one group of students and professors…