This essay analyzes the educational significance of the metaphysical novel, that is, how it can be used to educate ourselves and our students. Mordechai Gordon begins by describing the nature of the metaphysical novel while contrasting it to "pure" philosophy and theory building. Gordon also situates Beauvoir's insights in the broader…

This essay explores the legacy of the four philosophers now often referred to as 'The Wartime Quartet': G.E.M. Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley. The life and work of the four, who studied together in Oxford during the Second World War, is the subject of two recently published books, "The Women Are Up to Something,"…

Popular instructional approaches in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) are co-construction learning, transformative learning and ecological learning. These rely on constructivism that could challenge human-nature relationships of ECEfS. In this study, we aim to discover and reshape human-nature relationships embedded in the…

John Rawls (1985) famously argued that social justice ought not to concern itself with the metaphysical disputes that separate us as groups and individuals. Identity is supposed to be irrelevant to the deliberations of free and equal citizens. Since the recent turn toward right-wing populism, renewed attention has been devoted to the place of…

This Introduction to the Special Issue, "Teaching and Learning: Epistemic, Metaphysical and Ethical Dimensions," ponders the truism that education is of fundamental importance in human life--and its relation to philosophy. No credible natural-historic description of what a human being is could fail to give education a central place. Yet…

Where has all the hilarity gone -- and, with it, the ethics of the dark? In this article, I engage with our metaphysical entities of darkness (in Maori, Te Po) and nothingness (Te Kore). Undermining and re-declaring (only to un-declare once again) are more than just pleasurable exercise for my own indigenous group -- Maori; they are ethical…

The introduction of corporate mode into universities with the widespread of neoliberalism has posed threats to intellectuals' academic creativity and political sensitivity. To respond to the threats, I argue that it is high time we talk about educating hope. Moreover, I contend that Richard Rorty and Gilles Deleuze's theories on hope can be of…

This investigation employs the deconstruction techniques of Jacques Derrida to critique the Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 Supreme Court decision which segregated the Public Schools. Overturned by Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka 1954, Plessy's racist message reverberates today in the cultural divide, in right-wing media, in politics, and in…

Conrad Hal Waddington (1905--1975) was an English biologist who was especially interested in the big (metaphysical) questions of life. His thinking has become part of the foundation of modern systems biology. This article applies his thinking to middle-years school biology curricula (for ages 11-16), to see if their approach to epistemic questions…

Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Iris Murdoch and Philippa Foot all studied at Oxford University during the Second World War. One of their wartime tutors was Donald MacKinnon. This paper gives a broad overview of MacKinnon's philosophical outlook as it was developing at this time. Four talks from between 1938 and 1941--'And the Son of Man That…

When sexuality educators bother to think about gay anal sex, it is usually to consider, 'What can we -- or should we -- teach about it?' Rarely is the question asked, 'What might gay anal sex teach sexuality education?' Inspired by Kathleen Quinlivan's suggestion that we work together to 'create new possibilities for what else sexuality and…

Western science largely controls what is learned, funded, studied, and published, yet few scientists are aware of the particular ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions that form the foundation of the Western scientific worldview. Western science is not universal, acultural, or objective, and only the privilege and power of…

In the critical tradition, environmental education discourse interrogates how knowledge constructs experience. But environmental education also emphasises perceiving, understanding and responding to "more-than-human" beings and processes. These two motivations are in tension. One problem is that the epistemological orientation driving…

Children could internalise blame for a death, suffer as much grief as adults, and express as much emotion as adults. Research on young children's perceptions of death has been conducted primarily in Western cultures. This paper is an exploration of Chinese 5-year-olds' understanding of death. Data analyses are mainly based on children's drawings…

Can "on-line" 'place-based learning' be more than a facsimile or ritual? Using a phenomenology of my pandemic practice, I investigate the meaning of 'place-based learning:' entertaining Aristotle's seminal thought on place as a container to venture into contemporary phenomenological inquiries where places and things are not only…