In this research-based, reflective narrative, five educators across diverse educational contexts reflect on the influence of their lifeworlds on their experience and practice. As reflective practitioners, the authors demonstrate how they have applied lifeworld fractions to affect their educational practice with purposeful action. They discuss the…

The ongoing ecological crisis and the more recent Coronavirus crisis challenge the grand narrative of Enlightenment that human beings are 'masters of nature'. For millennia, human "social learning" has allowed "Homo sapiens" to outpace most of our competitor creatures and live a comfortable life, but this competitive success…

In our response to Tilhou's article published last issue, "The Morning Meeting: Fostering a Participatory Democracy Begins with Youth in Public Education," we share and discuss ethnographic data from Morning Meetings in two U.S. elementary classrooms. We detail ways the democratic potential of Morning Meetings is being cultivated in…

Purpose: This paper aims to attempt to provide an overview of the valuable scientific contribution on learning organization in social science from the perspectives of Professor Silvia Gherardi and discusses the evolution of Silvia's work over her long career. Design/methodology/approach: With the collaboration of this leading scholar, Professor…

Timothy San Pedro and Valerie Kinloch are among a powerful cohort of scholars who are pushing the ontological boundaries surrounding how we think about the conduct of educational research. A longstanding tension in the history of educational research has been conceptualizations of the goal of such work as discovering foundational principles about…

This article presents the author's response to "Surviving the War: A College Counselor's Journal" by Philip Clinton. He argues that Clinton's engrossing account of the 1990-91 school year at Cairo American College (CAC) gives individuals wonderful insights into the unusual challenges occasionally encountered by an international…

Educator Bell Hooks acknowledged the fundamental truth that teaching, caring, and transformation are closely linked, that is, that true teaching must be accompanied by a deep level of care in order for learning to take place. No matter how young or old, no matter the subject matter, and no matter where teaching and learning take place--a…

While the educational project privileges signifying speech, the psychical significance of the "voice" has become an institutional "vanishing mediator." Against the commonplace assumption that the voice functions as a benign vehicle for conscious meaning-making, this article examines the sublimated privilege and function of the voice in the context…

Anglican school inspectors will usually be Christian. Is it possible that their beliefs might compromise their inspection judgements? Neutrality is impossible when holding opinions or making judgements about matters of signal importance. Religious beliefs are strongly held. Using the concept of "ordinary theology" I argue that religious beliefs…

Scotland has a strong learner-centred system of adult literacy and numeracy education. Examination of the Scottish system can usefully highlight the issues associated with application of this approach in adult education more generally. Two important aspects are the need for highly skilled educators and the difficulty of evaluating such systems.…

Despite unquestionably good intentions on the part of most people who call themselves intercultural educators, most intercultural education practice supports, rather than challenges, dominant hegemony, prevailing social hierarchies, and inequitable distributions of power and privilege. In this essay I describe a philosophy of decolonizing…

The recent editorial in this journal by Bull et al. ("Connecting Informal and Formal Learning Experiences in the Age of Participatory Media" Vol 8, Iss 2) discussed the challenges of bridging formal learning practices and informal learning opportunities within the context of today's Web-enhanced world. In this commentary, Christine…

Three views of the compatibility of Piaget's theory and educational practice are considered. More research is needed to establish the validity of Piaget's most educationally relevant constructs. Features of Piaget's theory that have attracted teachers and the implications of Piaget's more recent theoretical emphasis on social factors are…

Discusses how educational practice is influenced by economic, political, and social forces that reside outside the schools or school district. (CM)

Explores schooling in the United States with regard to its successes, failures, relationship to social influences, objectives, philosophy, and influence on students' self-images. Suggests that educational reform will succeed only when genuine social and individual liberation are recognized as desirable. (DB)