The 16 Race to the Top district winners, pushed by $400 million in federal grants that put a premium on personalized learning, are embarking on vastly different makeovers of the classroom experience--from districtwide approaches to a narrower blueprint focused on middle school math. Despite the divergent approaches, a review of the winning…

The work of schools is teaching and learning. However, the current educational culture is dominated by three characteristics: (1) the mechanistic view of organization and its practice based on the assembly line model where students progress along a value added conveyor; (2) the predominance of the Essentialist philosophy of education, in which the…

During this article, I look at three images of thought which feature in Deleuze and Guattari's "A Thousand Plateaus" and consider their relevance to contemporary pedagogy. Deleuze and Guattari begin by discussing tree-like thought, which involves an insular depiction of the world. I suggest that the performative apparatus, which structures…

This chapter argues that today's dominant forms of education are insufficient for today's world because they ignore the vast and conventionally untapped resource that lies in the disciplined inwardness that is contemplative life. It then surveys a range of transformative examples that are emerging in the educational movement known as…

This article provides a commentary on the Reggio Emilia approach from a Vygotskian perspective. In particular, the article considers how Vygotskian rationalism and Vygotsky's theory of concept development cohere with the Reggio Emilia approach. The article argues that these aspects of Vygotskian theory are applicable to, and can strengthen the…

This paper explores possible important relationships and sympathies between Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach framework for understanding the human condition and the educational ideas of John Dewey and Paolo Freire. All three focus on the importance of democratic values in a fair, well-functioning society, while Sen and Freire especially…

Among the most important of the tremendous changes that have been taken place in teaching and learning throughout recent years has been a move towards 'openness' in education. This includes an increased availability of alternatively licensed resources as well as extended possibilities for formal and quasi-formal learning in the context…

Education is under pressure to respond to the changing modern world. Education system worldwide aims to develop students into well-rounded citizens and help them become creative problem-solvers. Several theories have been proposed in the research literature which emphasizes the importance of social and cultural context to creativity. Eastern and…

The dynamics of social, economic, and public life provide evidence of the increasing need to analyze current problems of children's education and giftedness. At present, work with gifted children in the municipal system of education is being conducted by many educational institutions--gymnasiums, lyceums, and institutions for supplementary…

This paper is designed to introduce readers to teacher-philosopher-practitioner, Paulo Freire and to illustrate the power of his educational ideals for the task of teaching leadership. Readers will encounter Freire, understand how one's definition of leadership needs to match one's approach to teaching leadership, review a proposed Freirean…

Learning in formal schools violates several simple principles: that no one can learn on an empty spirit; that true learning requires an absence of fear or authority; that learning is the most natural of human instincts. By making schooling compulsory, we have abandoned trust in our individual and collective experience in favour of experts and…

After a brief overview of what intellectual virtues are, I offer three arguments for the claim that education should aim at fostering "intellectual character virtues" like curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual honesty. I then go on to discuss several pedagogical and related strategies for achieving this aim. (Contains…

This paper explores how the ideas of a great political thinker and philosopher Antonio Gramsci, are relevant to education and science and to critical science education. One of the main points in Gramsci's analysis is the social value and impact of certain aspects of the superstructure. He understands that education is a means which can be used for…

As the increasing racial diversity of the United States continues to be reflected in colleges and universities across the country, academics who think and write about their teaching philosophy remain more comfortable arguing for a curriculum that deals with race and gender than for one that centers on class and social mobility. Some academics feel…

Jesuit education has gone to a renewal process in recent decades as a response to the Vatican Council II and the Society of Jesus's own call for renovation. This process has been conceived as part of our living tradition that began with the "Ratio Studiorum" and the opening of many schools and universities through the world in the late…