Assessment of students' learning in school is deeply implicated in teaching for social justice. Yet classroom assessment is neglected relative to other aspects of curriculum and pedagogy in the literature on teaching for social justice. Some books have a relatively clear theory of anti-oppression education at their core but do not provide details…

This article explores the question: Why are students of worth? Educationally, an answer often involves a Kantian response: They are of worth because they are always ends and never means. This response is usually connected to a notion of autonomy interpreted as individual, rational self-determination. The article argues for a different answer. The…

The thesis of this essay is that globalization is a phenomenon that humankind must be educated for understanding as a process of global evolution. The new world evolving is being defined as requiring a new sense of collective cooperation amongst the peoples of the Earth, if we are to continue to exist on the planet. Educators are in the midst of…

Though a psychologist by training, Jerome Bruner has always been, and still is, one of the leading figures in education. His theory of education in the 1960s and the 1970s directly influenced the programs of education formulated during those decades. The influence of his theory after the 1980s seems to be less direct, and some who read his 1996…

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development signals an unparalleled opportunity to link education with sustainability. But in the age of corporate globalization, will education bow to the external pressures that have always sought to subordinate it to vested interests, or will it reach beyond these narrow confines to the…

The paper by White in this issue of Interchange contains an interesting model for a global educational perspective based on the writings of Aurobindo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. White proposes a foundation for this new perspective based on the synthesis of Aurobindo's and de Chardin's theories of global, social, and conscious evolution. In our…

In this article, the author explored the increasingly complex articulations of race and education associated with Native American mascots and the struggles over them. The author demonstrates that cultural symbols not only (mis)educate, strengthening racial ideologies and hierarchies, but that they also play a fundamental role in the creation of…

Lyotard (1988) argued that the major problem of this time may be understood in terms of two issues: the impossibility of avoiding conflicts and the absence of a universal genre of discourse to regulate them. In this article, the authors closely follows Lyotard's ideas to problematize claims about the university of justice. Then, the authors…

Dr. Nahla Abdo is a Professor of Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa. Among her many achievements her publications include "Women and Citizenship in Israel: Comparing Palestinian, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Women," (in press); "Women and Poverty in the Palestinian Territories," and UNESCO/Palestinian Women's Research and Documentation Center…

In this essay the importance of spirituality (or ethics) in the life of a research scientist is explored. The following four questions are considered: a) Why should the problem be studied? What are the benefits? and For whom? b) How should we approach this problem? c) What if the results of this investigation contradict other theories? What should…

In this commentary, some remarks are offered on David Pimm, Mary Beisiegel, and Irene Meglis' article "Would the Real Lakatos Please Stand up." The commentary focuses on relatively recent developments in the philosophy of mathematics based on the work of Lakatos; on theory development in mathematics education; and offers critique on whether…

This article is based on results from a research project which focused on chemistry teachers and student narratives from lived experience. The purpose was to find a way to make abstract chemistry more meaningful. The project began with six experienced teachers who used narratives and stories as a didactic tool. These narratives stemmed from the…

A teacher and a college student explore experimental science and its history by reading historical texts, and responding with replications and experiments of their own. A curriculum of ever-widening possibilities evolves in their ongoing interactions with each other, history, and such materials as pendulums, flame, and resonant singing tubes.…

Although Imre Lakatos described the work published in his book "Proofs and Refutations" as a study of mathematical methodology, work which has been responded to and criticized by philosophers and historians of mathematics more on its own terms, a significant body of writing in the 30 years since its appearance has used it as a pertinent cognate…

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…