Early media theorists can help us to link the past and present of media literacy to pose new questions and gain new knowledge. Historian, author and Librarian on Congress Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004) played an important role in increasing public awareness of the constructed nature of media representations. Connections are explored between…

William Torrey Harris and John Dewey were the two most important philosophers of education in America at the "fin de siècle." This paper discusses their rival idealisms through an examination of their philosophical and educational pronouncements. As I will show, both are indebted to, and align themselves with, Hegel. However, each…

In this commentary, I briefly discuss the excellent articles included here. At the same time, I emphasize the importance of a historical perspective on curriculum and leadership, but also raise cautions about what is omitted and neglected through such a perspective. Similarly, it behooves us to find a balance between purely philosophical and…

In the field of education, evidence means an objective ground for setting or judging an educational policy, plan or method, as an effective means to attain a given political end or educational objective. Evidence-based education has been regarded as a decisive device to pursue the accountability and improve the quality of education by connecting…

Background/Context: This essay takes up McClintock's (2004) critique of educational discourses as overly dependent upon a distributive model of justice and largely ignorant of the formative assumptions that ground educational policy and practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The question that McClintock's analysis begs is…

The Netherlands are quite unique in that the Dutch have always learned various foreign languages. Until 1940, French was the most important foreign language. Between roughly 1870 and 1970, Dutch learners in grammar schools and higher secondary schools were even obliged to learn three foreign languages: French, German and English. Since 1970,…

This short account of R.J.W. (Dick) Selleck's career and research suggests how he reoriented study of the history of education in Australia. Using a historicist method, he examined educational theories and practices to elucidate the educational purposes they were intended to serve. Through major biographies of leading educationists and…

Personal experience participating in a Community Massive Open Online Course (cMOOC) discussing rhizomatic education ("Rhizo15") helped to ground some of the theoretical issues connected with trying to "apply" Deleuzian work to education. Notions of connectivity and community as a learning resource are compared with the more…

This paper focuses on the most abstract and most boring question of pedagogy or, as I prefer to call my field of interest, the theory of pedagogy. My aim is to try to rehash and re-pose this question--maybe even answer it? In this regard, Ottó Mihály advises us to be careful; in the preface to his notes on the philosophy of pedagogy he asserts…

Several authors have suggested that the contract between the university and society formulated in the nineteenth century is breaking down, and a new relation between knowledge and society is being installed. This paper investigates what is at stake in this shift by re-visiting the roots of disciplinary knowledge, examining Durkheim's social…

Over many decades, educators have developed countless interventions and theories about how to create lasting change. Implementation research is the study of these efforts with a set of basic questions: What are we doing? Is it working? For whom? Where? When? How? And, Why? In other words, implementation research is an endeavor to understand if and…

Child-centered pedagogy is at the ideological core of progressive education. The simple idea that the child rather than the teacher or textbook should be the major focus of the classroom is, perhaps, the single most enduring educational idea of the era. In this historical study, the author argues that child-centered education emerged directly from…

The paper presents one of the most prominent Greek women teachers and educators of the nineteenth century, and a leading figure of Greek women's education in Ottoman territory, Sappho Leontias (1830-1900). Within a transnational framework and based on the study of the writings of Sappho Leontias, the paper presents her educational views, theory…

A broad exploration of the roles and practices of working with, and for, children and families "Foundations and Best Practices in Early Childhood Education" helps teachers connect early childhood education beliefs and philosophies to professional practice. It provides insights into common program models or approaches, including Reggio…

This article describes the development of the Swedish curriculum-theory tradition with a focus on different curriculum practices, educational message systems, arenas, and curriculum makers. Attention has been paid to different places, spaces, and times in relation to the selection, ordering, and manifestation of knowledge, norms, and values, as…