Fyodor Dostoevsky's final novel, "The Brothers Karamazov," is one of the most influential works of the nineteenth century. To date, however, the potential value of the book for educationists has been largely ignored. This article addresses a key pedagogical theme in "The Brothers Karamazov," namely, the notion that 'love is a…

Jacob Neumann provides a thoughtful reading of "Paulo Freire in the 21st century: Education, dialogue, and transformation" [v48 n6 p634-644 2016]. His comments on the importance of contextualising Freire's work and the value of openness in engaging Freirean ideas are insightful and helpful. His use of the term "apolitical" is,…

Freire's work, both as a theorist and a practitioner, has always had a strong utopian flavor. In this article, the author sets out to show how and why this is so. Freire addressed the theme of utopia directly in his writings, but he also sought to bring a utopian world view to life in his educational endeavors. Delineating the key features of a…

This paper examines Hermann Hesse's penultimate novel, "The Journey to the East", from an educational point of view. Hesse was a man of the West who turned to the idea of "the East" in seeking to understand himself and his society. While highly critical of elements of Western modernism, Hesse nonetheless viewed "the East" through Western lenses…

This paper considers Hermann Hesse's novel, "The Glass Bead Game," in the light of Paulo Freire's educational philosophy. "The Glass Bead Game" is set in Castalia, a "pedagogical province" of the 23rd century. It is argued that the central character in the book, Joseph Knecht, undergoes a complex process of conscientisation. Knecht develops an…