Rousseau's story about Emile having his first moral lesson in property rights by planting beans in a garden plot has educationally been discussed from various perspectives. What remains unexplored in such readings, however, is the connection of the theory of the natural learner with the Lockean rationalization of appropriation of land through…

According to Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue, our being-in-the-world is to be conceived of as an existential dialogue. Elsewhere, I have conceptualized the teacher-student-relation accordingly (see Jons 2008), as a matter of calling and responding. The conceptualization rests on a secularised notion of vocation, paving way for…

This paper analyzes the entanglement of the modern concepts of freedom, autonomy, and the modern notion of the subject and how a passion for and insistence on freedom has undermined the reconstruction of human subjectivity in Heidegger and Foucault, and how such passion has also limited the educational effort at addressing the problems brought to…

In this article I will investigate a perceived tension in Swedish early childhood education (ECE) policy between reevaluating certain foundational claims on the one hand and following universal moral commands on the other. I ask the question; how is it that certain commonly held assumptions are being debunked and others left undisturbed in this…

Proponents of environmentalist views often urge the teaching of such views and the inculcation of "green" values within the educational curriculum of schools as a key component of achieving their ends. It might seem that modern versions of political morality that refuse to take a stance on controversial questions--religious, ethical,…

The paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding the work of ethical remembrance in the classroom. Using David Hansen's recent example of using Sebald's novels in his classroom to do the work or remembrance, the paper argues that the effect of Sebald's novels is best understood using Walter Benjamin's figure of the…

Amid the growing coalescence between the religion and ecology movements, the voice of Muslims who care for the earth and its people is rising. While the Islamic position on the environment is not well-represented in the ecotheology discourse, it advances an environmental imaginary which shows how faith can be harnessed as a vehicle for social…

To understand Nietzsche's pedagogy of self-overcoming and to determine its true import for contemporary education, it is necessary to understand Nietzsche's view of the self that is to be overcome. Nevertheless, previous interpretations of self-overcoming in the journals of the philosophy of education have lacked serious engagement with…

This paper argues that in foregoing the questions that emerge from the dialectical relationship between "form" and "meaning", an intrinsic fallacy mistakes the relationship between the arts and education for a simplistic mechanism of signification--a false "ease"--where empty forms are supposedly given meaning by…

The aim of this study was to examine how Muslim Arab-Israeli teachers conceptualize the Israeli-Arab conflict with their students. The findings show that Arab schools are in a constant state of tension between opposing poles of identity and belonging. The teachers emphasize their students' alienation from the Israeli establishment and their…

This article seeks to examine the special quality of Eros operative in educational practice, through the frame narrative of Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave." The subject is examined from two aspects illuminating the paradoxical nature of educational practice. The first, epistemological, considers the practicability of learning,…

The field of Philosophy and Education seems to be experiencing a renewed interest in the work of Aristotle. As recently reviewed by Curren ("Oxf Rev Educ" 36(5):543-559, 2010), most of this attention aligns with the virtue ethics movement where themes like moral development in education, and the inquiry on human flourishing as the aim of…

In this paper I explore the connection between narrative ethics and the increasing emphasis on historical consciousness as a way to cultivate moral responsibility in history education. I use Timothy Findley's World War I novel, "The Wars," as an example of how teachers might help students to see history neither simply as a…

In the educational psychology literature, self-regulated learning is associated with empowerment, agency, and democratic participation. Therefore, researchers are dedicated to developing and improving self-regulated learning pedagogy in order to make it widespread. However, drawing from the educational philosophy of Paulo Freire, teaching students…

This paper takes the position that the aim of existential teaching, i.e., teaching where existential questions are addressed, consists in educating the students in light of subjective truth, where the students are "educated" to exist on their own, i.e., independent of the teacher. The question is whether it is possible to educate in…