In this essay, Richard Smith observes that being a parent, like so much else in our late-modern world, is required to become ever more efficient and effective, and is increasingly monitored by the agencies of the state, often with good reason given the many recorded instances of child abuse and cruelty. However, Smith goes on to argue, this begins…

In this essay, Robert Davis argues that much of the moral anxiety currently surrounding children in Europe and North America emerges at ages and stages curiously familiar from traditional Western constructions of childhood. The symbolism of infancy has proven enduringly effective over the last two centuries in associating the earliest years of…

Due to a number of radical changes in society, the role of parents in the upbringing of their children has been redefined. In this essay, Paul Smeyers argues that "risk" thinking, and the technologization that goes with it in the context of child rearing, naturally leads to the rights discourse, but that thinking about the relation between parents…

In this essay James Conroy raises the question of how far the state should engage in the rearing of children, looking in particular at homeschooling as a site for contestation. He considers this question by looking specifically at recent developments in the United Kingdom around the elision of child safeguarding issues with concern about the…

As even its defenders admit, reflection in education suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity. In this essay, Henk Procee provides a philosophical analysis of the central concepts in this domain. In the current literature, these concepts are usually taken from the pragmatic school of John Dewey and from critical social theory associated with…

In this essay David Bridges argues that since most families choose to realize their responsibility for the major part of their children's education through state schools, then the way in which the state constructs parents' relation with these schools is one of its primary levers on parenting itself. Bridges then examines the way in which…

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…

"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)

Lawrence Dennis' fascist views of education are reviewed. Political, economic, social, cultural, and historical circumstances which have stimulated some significant fascist elements in American life and schools are traced. (MT)

This article examines major categories of classical and critical Marxism and reviews issues emerging about their usefulness for radical social theory. These issues are analyzed with regard to how they have influenced the course of radical education theory. Finally, a theoretical discourse for developing an alternative radical theory of education…

This paper presents a critical examination of the work of Christopher Lasch. The individual's growing sense of helplessness, the development of a "minimal self," the impact of mass culture on education, Lasch's proposals to resolve the culture crisis, and the relevance of Lasch's views to the reform of social education are addressed. (MT)

This article describes an approach to examining an expository work which explores and reveals the work's structure of thought by examining it from three perspectives: interpretation, method and principle. This approach is applied to the works of Durkheim and Rousseau. (IAH)

Philosophers of education tend to stress the importance of analytic and scientific thinking. A discussion of how dialectical reasoning, as developed by Jean Paul Sartre, can contribute to educational thought is offered. (DF)

Social struggles that turn on race, gender, and sexuality are struggles for recognition. At least, this has been a widespread assumption for decades. Yet this assumption has come under critique of late. In this essay, Charles Bingham looks into the debate that surrounds the recognitive paradigm. He looks both at the general (noneducational)…

Respect for individuality did not penetrate deeply into John Dewey's thought, and, consequently, mass solidarity, based on group cooperation and sharing of interests, is emphasized at the expense of individuality. Examples of Dewey's theories about art and science are used to illustrate the point. (PP)