This "master volume" is a printed archive of all papers published in a peer reviewed online journal, "The Roundtable," which ceased to exist in 2013. The volume includes a total of 22 scholarly papers by 18 authors on the philosophical foundations of education published originally in the aforementioned online journal during…

Using the viewpoint of semiotics, this paper "re-reads" Karl Marx's labor theory of value and suggests a "triple triangle" model for commodity production and shows how this model could be a model for semiosis in general. The paper argues that there are three advantages to considering homogeneity of the sign production and the…

What is deemed to be socially relevant knowledge as it comes from social educational theorists and inquirers is not a singular conception. The prevailing notion that only pluralistic and relativist, or positivist epistemological concepts of truth adequately capture social education inquiry and products, and that claims to human action based on…

Sylvia Plath's confessional poem, "Lady Lazarus" can be used to illustrate a connection between autobiography and social critique. "You poke and stir" among the institutions that form social relations--the educational system, the court system, the economic system--to find individuals whose lives, whose joys and pains, and…

A writing center serves freshmen and sophomores at Casper Community College in Casper, Wyoming and upper level classes at University of Wyoming/Casper College. The arrangement raises questions about the effectiveness of peer tutoring. Tutors were labeled "writing assistants" and those who came to the center for help were called…

The field of educational administration has a major credibility problem in academe because it is seen to lack a convincing theoretical base. In the practical world of politics, management, and teaching, it appears that educational values are easily rendered marginal in policy making and that team and institutional leaders lack a sophisticated…

The common assumption that teacher evaluation has a positive impact on the improvement of teaching is challenged. Critical challenges to the assumed contribution of teacher evaluation to learning originate from at least three areas of scholarly work: (1) revisionist/Marxist literature, which describes educational structures including teacher…

The critical examination of society's circumstances, institutions, and cultural predispositions and values can help detect problems and injustices and can suggest opportunities for improvement. Neo-Marxist critical theorists of the Frankfurt school are committed to work of this kind, but their perspective is informed by Marxian precepts, and their…

The works of 20 futurists and their predictions for the year 2000 and beyond are examined according to four perspectives: Malthusianism, Utopianism (based on theories of William Godwin), Marxism, and social structuralism. Futurists may be grouped into one of the categories according to their theories about the interdependent problems of…

Noting that words like "alienation,""ideology," and "hegemony" are cropping up in academic journals (particularly those journals that concern themselves with rhetoric) with more and more frequency, this paper explains some of the basic terms used by the political left. The paper notes that such terms tend to come up…

This paper situates the institution of copyright in the historical context of the rise of capitalism. The purpose is to provide a critical analysis of the philosophy of copyright and of the received history of copyright. A class analysis of copyright reveals the essential nature of copyright as the basis for the private ownership of intellectual…

Uses Marxist/feminist concepts to explain employment patterns among female workers in multinational maquiladoras (assembly plants) in northern Mexico. Concludes that maquiladoras have not alleviated regional unemployment for either sex, but have created a docile low-wage work force that includes a pool of surplus labor. Contains 48 references. (SV)

In composition studies, the most influential statement of what Brian Street calls the autonomous model of literacy is the work of Walter Ong. Ong bases the foundation of this model on the research on cognitive development done by Alexander Luria, a student of Lev Vygotsky. Ong finds in this research, carried out among the Islamic people of…

This paper focuses on the changes in power and control relations in the Swedish society as they relate to issues of curriculum theory and research. Two issues in particular are discussed: (1) why Marxist research is still necessary and to what purpose; and (2) some current taks and problems for Marxist research on curriculum and schooling. (SI)

This paper examines, within a framework of the world-system analysis, the process of the nationalization of education in Burma. As a significant part of the nationalist-socialist revolution launched to undermine foreign influences on the Burmese society in 1962, all schools in the country were nationalized and the curriculum…