Set against the backdrop of the contemporary crisis of capitalism and world-historical events, this article examines the advance of globalized imperialism from the perspective of a Marxist-humanist approach to pedagogy known as "revolutionary critical pedagogy" enriched by liberation theology. It is written as an epistolic manifesto to…

Within higher education, science departments have been making efforts to place more emphasis on improving discipline-specific teaching and learning. One such shift is the increased hiring of science faculty with educational specialties (SFES). Although SFES have begun to multiply in number, there is little published on their teaching ideologies…

China's recent education reforms are a result of selective policy borrowing from "the West". Although comparativists have highlighted the importance of cultural context in policy borrowing in China, what remains relatively under-explored is the epistemological basis for cultural views that mediate policy transfer. This article argues…

Engagement is one of the hottest research topics in the field of educational psychology. Research shows that multifarious benefits occur when students are engaged in their own learning, including increased motivation and achievement. However, there is little agreement on a concrete definition and effective measurement of engagement. This special…

In this paper I consider how Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics can complement the pragmatic theory that has informed the field of service-learning, and with its emphasis on community and respect for others, can offer an orientation to further the work of service-learning and community engagement in a mutually satisfying way for…

Elementary teachers play a crucial role in supporting and scaffolding students' model-based reasoning about natural phenomena, particularly complex systems such as the water cycle. However, little research exists to inform efforts in supporting elementary teachers' learning to foster model-centered, science learning environments. To address this…

The epistemological beliefs of pre-service teachers influence both their teaching experiences and their students' content understanding. Little research has been devoted to the interaction between teachers' epistemological beliefs and teaching practices (Schraw & Olafson, 2002). To address this gap, this study investigated primary pre-service…

Many scholars have concluded that teacher education research needs to take a complex view, resist simplification, and account more fully for teacher education's contexts and processes as well as its impact on teacher candidates' and school students' learning (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Grossman & McDonald, 2008; Opfer & Pedder,…

The Next Generation Science Standards and other reforms call for students to learn science-as-practice, which I argue requires students to become epistemic agents--shaping the knowledge and practice of a science community. I examined a framework for teaching--ambitious instruction--that scaffolds students' learning of science-as-practice as…

The extent to which teachers should make use of theoretical and expert knowledge as opposed to tacit experiential knowledge, and how these might be combined, is a perennial issue in discussions on pedagogy. This book addresses these debates through a creative development of the concept of productive uncertainty. Using case studies focusing on…

In this article, the authors argue that teacher education needs to make a fundamental shift in whose knowledge and expertise counts in the education of new teachers. Using tools afforded by cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and deliberative democracy theory, they argue that by recasting who is considered an expert, and rethinking how…

The paper reviews recent psycho-educational literature to identify features of teacher thinking which enable learners to acquire meaningful knowledge. The review establishes that one powerful mechanism to improve teaching in higher education turns on exploiting adults' epistemic beliefs: beliefs about the nature and the acquisition of…

One of the main problems in trying to understand quantum physics is the nature of the referent of quantum theory. This point is addressed in the official French curriculum in upper secondary school. Starting in 2012, after about 20 years of absence, quantum physics has returned to the national program. On the basis of the historical construction…

The transdisciplinary literature review is an opportunity to situate the inquirer in an ecology of ideas. This article explores how we might approach this process from a perspective of complexity, and addresses some of the key challenges and opportunities. Four main dimensions are considered: (a) inquiry-based rather than discipline-based; (b)…

This article argues that Robert Brandom's work can be used to develop ideas in the area of social epistemology. It suggests that this work, precisely because it was influenced by Hegel, can make a significant contribution with philosophical anthropology at its centre. The argument is developed using illustrations from education: the first, from…