For several decades, Western universities have been subject to wide-ranging structural, financial and ideological changes. These changes have problematised afresh the meaning of academic identity as evidenced by the emergence of a substantial, international, anglophone research literature. This article examines how the idea of academic identity…

In the chapter we wrote 10 years ago for "Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods" we asked instructors to free themselves from the stifling heritage of positivism that privileged tools and instrumentality above meaning. Drawing on Henry Giroux and Oscar Wilde, we urged our peers to embrace dialogue that respects the…

This issue is particularly timely, in its plea to the field to understand that human learning and development have always been on the move--always migrating--even if and when we construct sedentarist bias and territorial boundaries of the nation-state as normative or when we remember or remake as "ambulatory we's" as we engage in…

Scholars often use Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Bourdieusian analyses with the aim of studying inequities in education. Despite their usefulness and popularity, a theoretical discourse between the two frameworks has not yet transpired and the two are sometimes constructed as incompatible, if not at odds. The argument in this essay is three-fold:…

This piece critically follows David Bakhurst's 2009 article "Reflections on Activity Theory" in light of recent developments in the field. It sketches three directions for further research. First, it examines his identification of "two strands" of activity theory (AT)--the philosophical, which he associates with E.V. Ilyenkov…

How might we teach more successfully towards better relations between and among social groups? Recognizing factors that limit rapprochement with those with divergent worldviews has been a perennial concern for education research. However, more research is needed to understand how feelings of conflict arise, and thus this paper discusses terror…

The relationship between ideology and learning remains insufficiently theorized and sparsely investigated in the learning sciences. Drawing on Stuart Hall's theorization of ideology, Judith Butler's notion of the (un)grievability of lives, and Sara Ahmed's construct of stickiness, we illustrate how insights from critical social theory are…

In this article Paul Warmington examines the dystopian analyses pervading recent work by David Blacker, John Marsh, and Pauline Lipman. Their unsettling depictions of education under late capitalism bear witness to irreversible economic and environmental malaise, the colonization of education by neoliberalism, and the unsustainability of faith in…

Part two: This article is the second part of a project concerned with developing a Marxist critical pedagogy that moves beyond a critique of capital and toward a communist future. The article performs an educational reading of Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme in order to delineate what a Marxist critical pedagogy of becoming communist might…

Countries all over the world find themselves in the throes of revolution, change, transition or transformation. Because of the complexities of these momentous events, it is no simple matter to describe and evaluate them. This paper suggests that comparative educationists apply a combination of three theories as a lens through which such national…

Philosophical anthropology is philosophical inquiry into human nature that seeks to answer the fundamental question of what generally characterizes human beings and differentiates them from other creatures and things. Political theories considerably influence educational theories. We call attention to the fact that the three main political…

The economic downturn has caused governments to reassess levels of resilience and adaptability in the face of new challenges. There has been increased focus on the higher education sector, which has been blamed for developing graduates whose skills do not meet the needs of the economy. The author explores a framework to interpret and understand…

In this article, I suggest that an ideology of hope, even "educated" (Giroux, 2003) and "radical" (Farley, 2009) conceptualizations, might be problematic for curriculum theory because it operates to reinscribe White privilege and perpetuate the assumption that Whites can transcend the critique of Whiteness (Applebaum, 2010).…

This article explores the embodiment and affectivity of whiteness, particularly as it implicates educational praxis and social justice in education, focusing on the following questions: In what ways are affect and whiteness constitutive of each other in race dialogue? How does emotion intersect with racial practices and white privilege, and what…

Since the emergence of postmodern social theory, history has been haunted by predictions of its imminent end. Postmodernism has been accused of making historical research and writing untenable, encouraging the proliferation of revisionist histories, providing fertile ground for historical denial, and promoting the adoption of a mournful view of…