Teachers should be connected to, not alienated from, the philosophical underpinnings of their work. Teachers who understand themselves to be philosophers of education, and who see their work as both practical "and" philosophical in nature, may be empowered with an additional foundational and theoretical "tool" to use both in…

Teacher educators have been investigating ways to rob the demographic mismatch of this disempowering history. How can white preservice teachers be prepared to do meaningful work with communities of color? Scholars have been skeptical of the ability of white teachers to become fully culturally relevant. Aaron Schutz worries when teachers with…

While its purported aims are noble, the field of study abroad -- or education abroad as it is increasingly known -- is not immune from, and indeed embraces, discourses and practices that are, to use Gert Biesta's term, "learnified." Biesta defines learnification as "the translation of everything there is to say about education in…

This case points to the problem of the gendered precariousness of academia. While "a casual observer of academic environments might come to the conclusion that women's problems in higher education have been solved," a second look reveals that "while women in positions of power and authority on American campuses have increased, they…

Following the pioneering work of Randy Garrison and colleagues, online teachers in the US and internationally see their discussion boards as communities of inquiry (CoI) which promote sustained communication and higher-level learning. The CoI approach to online discussions is based on John Dewey's conception of education in which teachers and…

The concept of educational questions has often been taken up topically, or as a related component to topics within philosophy of education. The rabbit hole approach provides a new perspective for attempting to discover the characteristics of educational questions and to engage with six authors, Biestra, Bingham, LeGrange, Andreotti, Saeverot and…

Kevin Gary, President of the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society, argues that the standard conception of a liberal education espoused by sociologist Max Weber and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) is built on the illusions of personal autonomy, critical thought, and liberal neutrality. Gary turns to the wisdom…

This paper addresses Dewey's complex notion of vocation--particularly his idea of multiple vocational activities--and relates it to educating for vocation in colleges and universities. The author argues that higher educators can best respect a student's autonomy as a chooser--with multiple potential vocations--by giving him or her multiple…

In this article, Angela Hurley ponders a question centered on how well P-12 schooling experiences and the current accompanying education discourse on the importance of attending college actually match with traditional notions of the purposes of academic life held by college faculty. Does the current, performance data-driven system of P-12…

Until relatively recently, college was for only the few, and only loosely related to economic success. College graduates have always done economically better, on average, than those who did not graduate from college, but that was mostly because only the well-to-do could afford college. Few attended college in the hope of economic advancement in…

This essay discusses Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954), Professor of Philosophy (Howard University) and examines his experiences, reasoning, and rhetoric as they challenge the accepted notions of race, education, and democracy. As an African American practicing philosophy in a racist nation, Locke also examined value communities and value differences…