The purpose of this commentary on Hodson and Wong's (2017, this issue) article is to clarify the merits of the expanded family resemblance approach (FRA) to science education, briefly alluded to in their article, and to discuss the implications of this approach relative to the question of demarcation they raise. In clarifying the merits of the…

This conversation between Peter McLaren and Petar Jandric brings about some of the most recent and deepest of McLaren's insights into the relationship between revolutionary critical pedagogy and liberation theology, and outlines the main directions of development of McLaren's thought during and after "Pedagogy of Insurrection." In the…

During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe ran a maximum security prisoner of war (POW) camp called "Stalag Luft III," which imprisoned captured Allied air force servicemen. The story of the 1944 escape from Stalag Luft III is one of the most famous stories of the Second World War as described in the firsthand written account and…

John McDowell begins his essay "Knowledge by Hearsay" (1993) by describing two ways language matters to epistemology. The first is that, by understanding and accepting someone else's utterance, a person can acquire knowledge. This is what philosophers call "knowledge by testimony." The second is that children acquire knowledge in the course of…

While there is a whole field devoted to the widely esteemed enterprise of epistemology, until fairly recently much less attention has been given to "agnotology," the study of ignorance. Epistemologists of ignorance use the concept agnotology to signify the study of the making and unmaking of ignorance, as well as the task of…

It is common to hear Maori discuss primordial states of Being, yet in colonisation those very central beliefs are forced into weaker utterances. In this process those utterances merely conform to a colonised agenda. "Matauranga", a tidy term that overwhelmingly refers to an epistemological knowing of the world, colludes nicely with its…

There is a germane relationship between qualitative and quantitative approaches to social science research. The relationship is empirically and theoretically demonstrated by poverty researchers. The study of poverty, as argued in this article, is a study of both numbers and contextualities. This article provides a general overview of qualitative…

The author argues that Michael Polanyi's philosophy of science can be understood as an (unconscious) attempt to recapture elements of experience largely forgotten or repressed in modernity. Specifically, the author argues that Polanyi's epistemology appears to draw on elements of oral-aural experience that have been relatively ignored by the…

Contemporary pragmatist and feminist scholars have proposed the possibilities for "changing the theoretical analyses and concrete practices" of both feminism and classical American pragmatism offered by its recuperation through feminism. Particularly, scholarship on Jane Addams has reached back to retrieve her activism, ethics, and…

The history of science presented by Hisham B. Ghassib (2010) on his article, "Where Does Creativity Fit into a Productivist Industrial Model of Knowledge Production?," reveals the significance of knowledge generating action throughout human history. Ghassib's (2010) paper explores the embedded nature of scientific practise and in doing so offers…

This article consists of two parts. The first one is to a large extent a commentary on John R. Staver's "Skepticism, truth as coherence, and constructivist epistemology: grounds for resolving the discord between science and religion?" The second part is a related overview of Islam's philosophy of knowledge and, to a certain degree, science. In…

This paper argues that the social foundations of education, and particularly the disciplines of history, philosophy and sociology of education, must continue to play an integral role in programs of teacher education. We report on the decline of the study of history of education within Faculties of Education in Canada as an example of the…

This is a comment on the article "An Essay for Educators: Epistemological Realism Really is Common Sense" written by Cobern and Loving in "Science & Education." The skillful analysis of the two authors concerning the problematic role of scientism in school science is fully appreciated, as is their diagnosis that it is scientism not universal…

In response to Howe (2009), the author argues that educational research needs multiple thoughtful perspectives. The author's standpoint is that of a mixed methods research methodologist. Mixed methods research provides an antidualistic and syncretic philosophy and set of approaches or possibilities for merging insights from diverse perspectives;…

Most people do not understand what religious study really is. Professors of religion are often confused with, or assumed to be allies of, professors of theology. The reason for the confusion is no secret. All too often, even at public universities, the religion department is peopled by theologians, and many of those theologians refuse to make the…