Michel De Certeau's scholars have rarely explored the pedagogical potential of the French thinker's thought. This paper aims at reconstructing the question of the teaching practice in De Certeau's works and, building on such reconstruction, it proposes a possible 'heterological' comprehension of teaching. Moving from an early writing dealing…

Within educational philosophy and theory there has recently been a re-turn to the concept and practices of studying as an alternative or oppositional educational logic to push back against learning as the predominant mode of educational engagement. While promising, we believe that this research on studying has been limited in a few ways. First,…

The educational aims described by educational philosophers rarely embrace the full range of differences in intellectual ability, adaptive behavior, or communication that children exhibit. Because envisioned educational aims have significant consequences for how educational practices, pedagogy, and curricula are conceptualized, the failure to…

Now more than ever the role of the other has been put into question and marginalized in a redefinition of an "American national self-protective identity" in the current post election climate. In philosophical terms, an identity of a radical other implies that any change, any difference, any impurity can be conceived as posing a threat to…

I consider the case of the "simplest" living beings--bacteria--and examine how their embodied activity constitutes an organism/environment interaction, out of which emerges the possibility of learning from an environment. I suggest that this mutual co-emergence of organism and environment implies a panbiotic educational interaction that…

Critical thinking is currently much celebrated in the contemporary West and beyond, not least in higher education. Tertiary education students are generally expected to adopt a critical attitude in order to become responsible and constructive participants in the development of modern democratic society. Currently, the perceived desirability of…

Using the work of philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) to examine the nature of movement and memory, this article contributes to recent research on the role of the body in learning mathematics. Our aim in this paper is to introduce the ideas of Bergson and to show how these ideas shed light on mathematics classroom activity. Bergson's monist…

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…

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…

Classical conceptual distinctions in philosophy of education assume an individualistic subjectivity and hide the learning that can take place in the space between child (as educator) and adult (as learner). Grounded in two examples from experience I develop the argument that adults often put metaphorical sticks in their ears in their educational…

In this paper I interpret Montaigne's essay, "On Educating Children", as a pedagogical text through its performance of a distinct epistolary function, one that addresses the letter-recipient for the purpose of shaping the ideas, actions, and beliefs of that individual. At the same time, I also read "On Educating Children" within the context of the…

I articulate Charles S. Peirce's philosophy of mathematical education as related to his conception of mathematics, the nature of its method of inquiry, and especially, the reasoning abilities required for mathematical inquiry. The main thesis is that Peirce's philosophy of mathematical education primarily aims at fostering the development of the…