Common themes emerge from the writings of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead on four educational topics discussed here: (1) play; (2) science teaching; (3) history teaching; and (4) industrial education. Both men deplored the fragmentation of education and believed moral insight could be furthered through social understanding, science, and…

Jacques Rancière's "The Ignorant Schoolmaster" confronts its reader with an intellectual adventure. In this article, Michael McCreary interrogates why Rancière might have chosen to share Joseph Jacotot's pedagogical ideas with us and how the method in which he casts them might be internal to their teaching. In the first section, McCreary…

In this article, David Lewin examines the processes of educational representation, simplification, and selection, proposing the term "pedagogical reduction" in order to clarify the role these processes play within pedagogy. Although this term is virtually unknown among Anglo-American educational theorists, it reflects a substantial…

Reviews three books as potential philosophy of education textbooks: "Philosophical Documents in Education" (Ronald F. Reed, Ed. and Tony W. Johnson, Ed.); "Key Concepts in the Philosophy of Education" (Christopher Winch and John Gingell); and "Educational Philosophy: A History from the Ancient World to Modern America" (Edward J.Power). The paper…

This essay considers Jean Jacques Rousseau's conception of history in "Emile" and its relationship to Rousseau's educational curriculum. History is, for Rousseau, at the heart of the curriculum and is one of the chief instruments for imparting knowledge of the world and encouraging moral behavior. (PP)

In this essay, Steven Burik discusses Jacques Derrida's position with regard to the place of education in philosophy within the university system, and then relates these thoughts to comparative philosophy. Philosophers find themselves constantly having to defend philosophy and the importance of teaching philosophy against pressure from the powers…

In this essay, a tribute to Jacques Derrida's educational efforts at expanding access to current work in philosophy, John Willinsky examines his efforts as both a public right and an element of academic freedom that bear on the open access movement today. Willinsky covers Derrida's extension and outreach work with the Groupe de Recherches pour…

In this essay, Peter Trifonas tries to show that there is no overcoming of the techno-philosophical grounding of intellectual freedom and academic responsibility or research action within the speculum of an all-seeing, all-knowing university. Instead, he argues that through Derrida's notion of an open "community of the question," deconstruction…

In this review essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz discusses three recent books related to democratic public life and schooling: Susan H. Fuhrman and Marvin Lazerson's "The Public Schools," Walter C. Parker's "Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life," and Kevin McDonough and Walter Feinberg's "Education and Citizenship in…

Criticizes new mathematics teaching standards advocated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Changes in emphasis are requested in mathematics teacher education; prospective teachers must examine the antecedents of formalism, its compatibility with proposed learning theories, its manner of occurring in instructional practice; and the…

Hannah Arendt's essays about the 1957 crisis over efforts of a group of youth, the "Little Rock Nine," to desegregate a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, reveal a tension in her vision of the "public." In this article Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy look closely at the experiences of the youth desegregating the school,…

The historical fiction novel straddles the factual and the fictive recreation of past motivations that animate historical events. Through reading a work of historical fiction, Ursula Hegi's novel "Stones from the River," Kent den Heyer and Alexandra Fidyk offer a theoretical consideration of the following questions and their classroom…

This essay explores "modernity's" influence on school art and on educators and researchers. It argues that the deep channels of modernity have cut fine arts away from the curriculum, isolating it on an island of professional practice and specialized study. A new approach would reinterpret art as popular, political, site-specific, communal, and…