This paper reads the U.K. Government's "fundamental British values" project alongside two children's Gothic novels, "Coram Boy" (2000) by Jamila Gavin and "City of Ghosts" (2009) by Bali Rai. In 2011 the U.K. Government outlined what it described as "fundamental British values" (FBV), making it a requirement…

Forty-six interviews of French and Finnish Junior High School teachers clearly show a strong will to link professional commitment to common progressive values. However, the interviewees have to adjust these political or philosophical views when confronted with the reality of their professional everyday life and to the development of widely…

In this essay, I draw upon Ellen J. Langer's notions of mindlessness and mindfulness to identify and delineate Confucius' views on mindfulness. Langer's theory exemplifies a social-cognitive approach to mindfulness which is a prominent orientation in the extant research. I argue that Confucius, like Langer, rejects mindlessness that is…

Indoctrination is an ongoing concern in education, especially in debates about moral education. One approach to this issue is to come up with a rational procedure that can robustly justify potential items of moral education content. I call this the 'rationalistic justification project'. Michael Hand's recent book, "A Theory of Moral…

Purpose: To inform current international debates about educating for wholeness and purpose, this article gives a critical analysis of spiritual development as a goal of state-funded schooling in England and Wales. Design/Approach/Methods: The analysis follows a history of ideas approach. Relevant texts are examined to understand how notions of…

The article offers a theoretical analysis of the advantages and contradictions of innovative changes in modern education. The author uses the data presented in the UNESCO and Council of Europe programmes, reviews in the main areas of innovative development, but also information from the websites of international organizations, implementing…

This study explores "Strengthen Moral Education for Cultivating People" ("Li De Shu Ren") in China from the perspectives of concepts and policies. "Strengthen Moral Education" ("Li De") is identified as the "developing great virtue" ("Ming Da De"), "obeying social morality"…

This report offers insight into a reflective and critical practitioner's role in carefully planning an environment that reflects young children's need for independence. Education as an agent of liberation is the key to the child obtaining that freedom and achieving independence. It is argued that liberation can only be achieved when an effective…

Eminent historian and educator Larry Cuban provides a thorough examination of, and challenge to, past and present definitions of what constitutes educational success in the US. Cuban argues that in the history of American education, standards of achievement and inadequacy--as well as the reform efforts issuing from them--have been neither stable…

In April 2015, the "Early Years Inspection Handbook" instructed inspectors to make a judgement on the effectiveness of leadership and management to actively promote British values in the settings. This contribution discusses the paradoxical position of fundamental British values within the cultures of education underpinning the…

This article analyzes and discusses the professional values of prospective mathematics teachers. Theoretical approaches to the understanding of teachers' professional values, such as critical mathematics education and relational perspectives, are well developed. Still, there are few empirical contributions to the field. Here, professional values…

This paper examines contemporary challenges for education and democracy in Brazil. In the past decade, conservative forces headed by the Escola sem Partido (ESP) movement have led a scaremongering campaign against teachers and public education, with Paulo Freire's critical educational philosophies as their main enemy. This study investigates the…

This paper aims to explore transformative learning processes of parents involved in informal, parent-established democratic schools, which are novel educational initiatives in Poland. The author argues that the distinctive educational ideology and the practice of such schools expose parents to new understandings of education, the child and the…

This conceptual article examines the "ukama" ethic concerning the COVID-19 pandemic-induced 'new normal' in African higher education. In so doing, we endeavor to appropriate "ukama" which is a communally oriented value system to militate against socially isolated individualism in Remote Learning and an Ethic of Care that…

Educational institutions exist in reciprocal relations with broader social and moral ecologies. These ecologies involve interactions of networks of individuals and groups with wider aspects of culture, and are therefore broadly social, and they contain explicit or implicit content with regard to right and wrong, and are therefore moral. There is…