This essay explores the ways in which the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia, defined as "frank speech and telling the truth as one sees it," can help facilitate the development of both intellectual courage and democracy as a way of life. It theorizes dimensions of parrhesia for the purpose of better educating a civic self-image rooted…

This paper explores two philosophical treasures that we often neglect: the moral faculties of children and the pedagogic virtues of film. My thesis consists of three primary claims: (1) when properly educated, children are capable of thinking critically about ethical issues; (2) moral edification ought to have the dual aims of developing this…

This paper contributes to a debate on linguistic identity and social participation in France by providing a critical reading of language policy and practice. It challenges the notion that France is a linguistically homogenous nation where a standardised French language is universally practiced and, rather, seeks to reframe linguistic diversity and…

In his reply to our paper Marangudakis raises important points regarding: (1) the measurement of environmental values; and (2) potential risks of deep ecological views to human welfare. We definitely agree that a more rigorous approach to the measurement of environmental values is needed. While the extent of belief in deep ecology remains an open…

This article presents an interview with Susan Ohanian, an educator and tireless advocate of educational social justice for young people, and a peerless guide to engaging in the "good fight" for creating socially just schools. When asked how a teacher can "fight the good fight" without giving up, Susan counseled educators to find a friend and ally,…

Despite attention in other social sciences and within other areas of psychology, social justice has received minimal attention in school psychology literature. The two studies by Shriberg et al. (2008) and McCabe and Rubinson (2008) represent significant developments in exploring school psychology's commitment to social justice. In this…

Recent scholarship treats Hugh Blair's "Lectures" on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783) as an effort to endorse either the liberal or the civic political traditions in eighteenth-century Scotland. This essay questions this orthodoxy by reading the "Lectures", and in particular Blair's attention to considerations of rhetorical…

The reforms and developments of China's higher education at a time when it faces two great challenges--the world's science/technology revolution and China's social market economy--are, on the whole, replete with achievements and fraught with difficulties and show great changes, but they are unbalanced. Everyone feels that these reforms and…

Each generation of students inevitably must confront anew the fundamental questions of meaning and value that have vexed human beings down through the ages. As students have struggled with these "Big Questions," individually and collectively, liberal education has traditionally sought to provide them with a variety of cultural and historical…

This essay presents Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential rhetoric as an iteration of an American synecdochal sublime. Eisenhower's rhetoric sought to re-aim civic sight beyond corporeal objects to the nation's transcendental essence. This rhetoric is intimately connected to prevailing political anxieties and exigencies, especially the problem of…

The corporate approach to education is groundless (because a large portion of education in the past, and even still, has always been firmly grounded in the Humanities). So, why this continuous assault on the Humanities? Because educational institutions have bought into the myth that education and the corporate world are hand-in-glove. But by…

Autistic means a subject has limited affect or may be without affect altogether. Though traditionally individuals are described as autistic, the authors find it increasingly apparent that American society is becoming autistic as a whole, as citizens are desensitized to needs of neighbors near and far, losing the commensurate loyalty of being in…

Teachers in the English and Welsh State education system have experienced a changing and turbulent relationship with the State in recent decades. This article adopts a historical analysis and argues that the concept of "partnership" is key to understanding the relationship between teachers and the State in the period since the Second…

The academy is considered by many as the major Western institution of knowledge. This article, however, argues that the academy is characterized by prevalent "epistemic ignorance"--a concept informed by Spivak's discussion of "sanctioned ignorance." Epistemic ignorance refers to academic practices and discourses that enable the continued exclusion…

This essay challenges the conventional understanding of William Bagley and Arthur Bestor, which suggests that they held similar views in curriculum and teacher education. The author thinks this view is completely wrong and provides a radical new interpretation of Bagley and Bestor that uncovers a lost tradition within the field of education.…