Philosophical anthropology is philosophical inquiry into human nature that seeks to answer the fundamental question of what generally characterizes human beings and differentiates them from other creatures and things. Political theories considerably influence educational theories. We call attention to the fact that the three main political…

Increasing teachers' dispositions towards critical teaching is a fundamental goal for critical pedagogy. Because critical educational change cannot occur without teachers' "buy-in," developing teachers' inclination to implement critical teaching into their classrooms is a prerequisite for any successful critical pedagogy…

This study provides a critical and close reading of "The Dreamkeepers" (1994), by Gloria Ladson-Billings. The paper focuses primarily on the gendered nature of "being a teacher" and "being a student" as revealed in the dreamkeeper text, while maintaining its engagement with race and culture as it is manifested in the United States context. It…

This paper addresses key themes in a new book of posthumously published writings by Paulo Freire, "Daring to Dream: Toward a Pedagogy of the Unfinished" (Paradigm Publishers, 2007). The paper comments on the structure and content of the book and places it in the context of Freire's wider corpus of published works. Particular attention is paid to…

This essay critically highlights the main features of a study that attaches importance to the concepts of time and optimism and their effects on the achievement and goals of high and low achievers in a North American and a Brazilian context. The focus on the time factor that serves as a leitmotif throughout the study gives this work its…

Participation has become very popular as a new strategy and approach in research, in policy, in private and public affairs. As an alternative to top-down approaches participation promises to empower people, to acknowledge and to build competence and (local) knowledge, to recognise and to be responsive to people's different and differentiated needs…

This paper, which is particularly centered on the student's learning process, is the first half of a detailed study of selectivity in Whitehead?s philosophy of education. Here, by setting forth the analogy between the creative process exhibited in Whitehead's Theory of Prehensions and the learning process through an interpretation of the term,…

The rise of standardization signals that Paulo Freire's critique of the banking concept of education continues to be relevant today. But Freire's theory of critical pedagogy has not gone without its critiques. On the one hand, the fact that these criticisms exist should not blind us to the fact that Freire's intention was to formulate an…

This response to Mayo's book emphasizes its Gramscian aspects and explores two dimensions not addressed in the original. The first is Cornel West's attempt to racialize Gramsci and examine how his ideas might serve the interests of African-Americans. The second is Michael Newman and Ian Baptiste's exploration of the partisan, directive role of…

This article reflects on Peter Mayo's synthesis of ideas from two key figures in critical educational studies: Gramsci and Freire. The author identifies a number of distinguishing features of Mayo's work and considers some of the implications of his analysis for our understanding of transformative intellectual activity.

This essay reviews the principles motivating contemporary"critical mathematics" discourses. Drawing from varied critical discourses including ethno-mathematics, critical theory, post-structural theory, and situated and ecological cognition, the essay examines the pragmatics of critiques to the privileged role of school mathematics in the era of…

Disciplinary and professional psychology have exercised considerable influence over the ways in which Western individuals and societies understand what it is to be a person. During the last half of the 20th century, educational psychologists advanced scientific and humanistic conceptions of the self that removed personhood from the historical,…