This article explores the theoretical conceptualization of the local as the preferential spatial domain for democratic participation and learning. It critiques the ideological nature of educational theory that bifurcates the local from the "the global" through the application of the Marxist concept of "fetish". The argument…

We begin by arguing that curriculum development should start with aims rather than, as is typically the case, with subjects. We, therefore, ask what might be the fundamental aims of school education. We conclude that they are twofold, namely, to enable each learner to lead a life that is personally flourishing and to help others to do so too.…

After the Civil War (1861-1865), the United States faced a problem of "reconstruction" similar to that confronted by other nations at the time and familiar to the US since at least the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The problem was one of territorial and political (re)integration: how to take territories that had only recently been…

Based on the assumption that schools can play a significant role in the citizenship development of students, in most contemporary modern societies schools are obligated to provide citizenship education. However, the effectiveness of different forms of citizenship education is still unclear. From the empirical literature on citizenship over the…

This article probes the vicissitudes of racism and how the multicultural perspectives of a Montessori preschool environment can prevent prejudices. Barbara Hacker is whole-heartedly committed to human unity transcending color differences. Racism is incompatible with a Montessori classroom that shares different holidays and cultures, builds social…

Swami Vivekananda, the great Indian legend who is known as mystic, philosopher, educationist and Yogic saint. He is recognised for his contribution in spreading the philosophy of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. He has made India proud when he gave his speech in 'Parliament of Religion' in Chicago USA in 1893. He has a firm belief that the…

This paper presents a societal perspective on academic leadership by exploring the preoccupations of academics as citizens rather than as employees, managers or individuals. It uses a listening post methodology to ask "what is it like to be a citizen of an academic institution in contemporary Britain?" Three listening posts, comprising…

Any study linking terms such as global education, internationalization, and global citizenship facing the dilemmas of local and global tensions, invariably has to address the questions of globalizations and neoliberalism, two concepts and two global movements that define our time and age, the age of interdependence. Neoliberal globalization, as I…

In this article, the author explores key distinctions relevant to aims talk in education. He argues that present formulations of aims fail to adequately capture or speak to several overlapping domains involved in schooling: qualification, socialization, and the educational in the form of subjectification (Biesta, 2010). Drawing off Egan and Biesta…

Higher education serves as an agent of social change that plays a significant role in the development of socially conscious and engaged students. The duty higher education has toward society, the role for-profit educational institutions play in enhancing the public good, and the prospect of making social change an element of these providers'…

Participatory citizenship among Black citizens in the United States has always been tied to access to quality education. In this literature review, I draw on scholarship analyzing the experiences of Black youth in the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. I compare the historic and contemporary challenges facing Black citizens' active…

American universities and colleges have always been a bastion of liberalism and progressive thought. Historically, the academic community has supported social justice issues, given a voice to the poor, minorities and the disadvantaged, and brought to light subjects that are considered taboo elsewhere. Indeed, many social movements have either…

What kind of citizenship education, if any, should schools in liberal societies promote? And what ends is such education supposed to serve? Over the last decades a respectable body of literature has emerged to address these and related issues. In this state of the debate analysis we examine a sample of journal articles dealing with these very…

This paper seeks to examine the plausibility of the concept of "Civic Friendship" as a philosophical model for a conceptualisation of "belonging". Such a concept, would hold enormous interest for educators in enabling the identification of particular virtues, attitudes and values that would need to be taught and nurtured to…

What role might education play in the reinvigoration of a robust American democracy? We argue that common understandings of democracy, citizenship, and democratic education are too anemic to right the political inequalities and stagnancies that have deadened American democracy. Instead, we look to notions of "paideia" and an educated, enlightened…