This paper examines the relation between situated cognition theory in science education, and feminist standpoint theory in philosophy of science. It shows that situated cognition is an idea borrowed from a long since discredited philosophy of science. It argues that feminist standpoint theory ought not be indulged as it is a failed challenge to…

Beginning with the publication of "Liberal Purposes" in 1991, William Galston has developed an appealing theory of liberal pluralism that entails strong commitments to expressive liberty, political pluralism and Berlinian value pluralism. However, given these commitments, Galston might be expected to be more open to a theory of "civic pluralism",…

In the context of debates on place, space, and identity in a period of globalisation, this article asks whether collaborative arts projects are a means to identity formation for participants. This is of interest, not least, because such projects are outside consumption, the latter more often discussed in work on identity in sociology. Situated…

The author critiques an article by Hipolito-Delgado and Lee ("Empowerment Theory for the Professional School Counselor: A Manifesto for What Really Matters," Professional School Counseling, v10 n4 p327-332 Apr 2007) in which they use empowerment theory as a springboard to determining "what really matters" in professional school counseling. He…

Although hip hop culture has been one of the most significant urban youth movements over the last three decades, it has only recently gained attention within the educational literature as a force to be reckoned with. And even then, much of the literature seeks to understand how hip hop can be used to engage students in the official school…

Reciprocity is one of the defining features of social exchange and social life, yet exchange theorists have tended to take it for granted. Drawing on work from a decade-long theoretical research program, I argue that reciprocity is structured and variable across different forms of exchange, that these variations in the structure of reciprocity…

How do we become the people we are? Humanist common sense proposes that people are born with a rational "self." But poststructural theory proposes a subjectivity formed in interaction with cultural discourses. Poststructural theory offers teachers fresh ways to teach critical literacy and thinking and provides students with ways to resist ideas…

In order to understand fully his educational prescriptions, we need to grasp the relationship between Rousseau's political and educational philosophies. This paper reexamines selected educational ideas from the perspective of Rousseau's social thought, with particular emphasis on his theory of human nature and his views regarding freedom and…

Suggests that evaluation research is relatively and, unfortunately, atheoretical in approach. The incorporation of empiricism is a philosophical and methodological strategy for evaluation research. As the functions of theory have defined the growth and utility of science, it will characterize the growth and usefulness of evaluation research. (JAC)

Discusses Taylor's value-added approach to information and combines it with a social theory--Gidden's structuration approach--to develop a theoretical approach that will be a useful basis for research. Topics addressed include the conceptual structure of the value-added approach and the structuration approach, information use environments, and…

This article offers a defence of critical realism in the face of objections Nash (2005) makes to it in a recent edition of this journal. It is argued that critical and scientific realisms are closely related and that both are opposed to statistical positivism. However, the suggestion is made that scientific realism retains (from statistical…

The aim of this article is to reflect on and explore questions of truth and objectivity in the sociology of educational knowledge. It begins by reviewing the problems raised by the social constructivist approaches to knowledge associated with the "new sociology of education" of the I970s. It suggests that they have significant parallels…

Choosing any one alternative out of the three educational models provided by Joel Spring (2007/this issue) may not really be adequate for a new social-sociolinguistic theory for a potentially just world order. In this article, the author contends that as an alternative to the persistently degenerating consumerist model of the education security…

"The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation" by Paulo Freire is approached as a focus for radical pedagogy's search for a critical language that stresses the primacy of a politics of emancipation. (MT)

Contends that there have been three stages or eras of social science: the philosophic, the scientific, and the as yet unnamed present era. Maintains that the three eras match, in chronological development, the successive periods of Marxian thought and the three different views of utopia offered by Thomas More, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Mannheim.…