From a political viewpoint, education in a modern society can be said to have two functions. On the one hand, it takes care of the social reproduction; on the other, it represents society's capacity for self-reflection and conscious (political) change. Therefore, when the members of a society deliberate on educational aims and their…

Practitioners of education in South Africa (SA) struggle painfully between the extremes of its authoritarian and deeply religious roots that prescribe blind obedience to people in authority and their elders, and the demands of open-mindedness, critical thinking and also solidarity required for democratic citizenship. A particular pedagogy was used…

This article is the second of a two-part investigation, the first part of which was published in "Ethics and Education," vol. 5, issue 2, 2010, under the title "Preface to an ethics of education as a practice in its own right". Although it builds on the arguments of that "preface", this second part of the investigation can be read as a stand-alone…

This article explores how our understanding of ambivalence would shift if we saw it as an inherent and essential part of the ordinary work of education. Following Bauman's sociology of the stranger and Derrida's deconstructions of hospitality, the article unfolds in three parts. In the first part we discuss the preconditions of modern education…

An influential view of education is that it prepares young people for adult life, usually in the areas of civic engagement, leisure and contemplation. Employment may be a locus for learning some worthwhile skills and knowledge, but it is not itself the possible locus or one of the possible loci of a worthwhile life. This article disputes that view…

Education as a practice in its own right (or "sui generis" practice) invokes quite a different set of ethical considerations than does education understood as a subordinate activity--i.e. prescribed and controlled in its essentials by the current powers-that-be in a society. But the idea of education as a vehicle for the "values" of a particular…

There is an increasing interest in publications about the sources of meaning in life; books about the art of living are immensely popular. This article discusses whether one of the ancient predecessors of current "art of living" theories, the Stoa and more particularly Seneca, can be of interest to educators today. Seneca's explicit writings on…

The paper considers T.S. Eliot's "dissociation of sensibility" thesis, considering its philosophical value and attempting to defend it against published objections. While accepting some of the criticisms, it is argued that Eliot's argument is sound to a significant extent. Eliot's account retains explanatory power with regard to an enduring…

This paper is a historical and critical analysis of changes in features of educationalisation focusing on how educationalisation has been characterised over time by a peculiar interweaving of knowledge and social reform. The history of the American Social Science Association provides a backdrop; drawing on the theories of Deleuze, this paper…

This paper concerns the issue of the continual arrival of irregular immigrants in Malta and the problems that ensue. The view generally held is that we need to respond to the needs of irregular immigrants by providing services. However, with reference to some of Jacques Derrida's ideas, I argue in this paper that the "other"/immigrant is not there…