This article examines the Japanese historical concept of nature in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Through modernisation, Japan was infused with Anglo-European philosophy. However, Japan's pre-modern concept of nature differed from that of the West or modern Japan and latently affected the Japanese modern educational system. The concept…

This article offers some reflections on education in the Portuguese state system, based on family experience. It contextualises the recent emergence of that system and describes characteristic elements of its organisation, culture, curriculum and practices.

To this day, Columbia College maintains one of the most robust liberal arts curricula among the tertiary education landscape, an institutional decision that has been both lauded and denounced by students, professors, and cultural critics alike. As this dissertation examines, high tensions from all angles largely stem from the Core Curriculum's…

This article takes as its point of departure an incident in which Helen Keller was accused of plagiarising a short story while residing at the Perkins Institution for the Blind: the so-called "Frost King" incident. Keller's guilt or innocence is not the subject of my inquiry. Rather, how did the culture of Perkins -- as fostered by its…

"The Forgotten Classrooms: Uncovering the Educational Experiences of Japanese American Students During World War II" explores the impact of forced evacuation and internment on the academic and social development of Japanese American students. This study delves into the unique challenges faced by Japanese American students during a time…

Torres' Rights of the Learner is a strong framework for supporting students from non-dominant backgrounds to thrive in the classroom. We look at important theoretical underpinnings of Torres' Rights of the Learner to expand the framework for the thriving of trans and queer learners. We establish the following Rights of Trans and Queer Learners:…

This article is a quick inquiry into the quest for knowledge. Preliminary steps include the idea of light as it was promulgated during the period of Enlightenment, followed by the relevant role played by education, and then focusing on the passion for knowledge, as it is found in major literary and philosophical works. Curiosity and…

We are in the midst of yet another battle in the reading wars. Before the fog of war overcomes us yet again, we should recall recent history where an attempt at a resolution--Reading First--mostly left ambiguity in its wake. Moving forward, there is a foundation upon which to build. But doing so will require learning from the past, addressing…

This essay opens with a question about what science teaching would look like in a world where categorical seams of human diversity were not probabilistic determinants of science learning. After revisiting Hewson and Hewson's description of an "appropriate conception of science teaching," I detail the ways in which the field of science…

The terms giftedness and genius entered the research literature in the 19th century. Although not synonymous, both terms were defined according to potential or actual achievement in a specific domain. However, in the early 20th century, both terms became defined according to performance on domain-generic IQ tests. Given the empirical relations…

In the HPM (History and Pedagogy of Mathematics) literature, the three mathematicians Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), Felix Klein (1849-1925), and Hans Freudenthal (1905-1990) are often mentioned in relation to having opinions about the role of the history of mathematics in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Such mentioning often appears…

The idea of the university has been a matter of intense debate for well over a century. The essential nature, role and purpose of the university have long been questioned. The debate has only intensified as universities have multiplied and expanded across the globe, and the demands made upon them by different stakeholders have grown and…

This paper offers a historical analysis of organizational identity development at a particular Dutch university, the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Our analysis contributes to the discussion on what factors contribute to organizational identity maintenance and evolution. Whereas the literature suggests a rather straightforward development,…

National governments rely on human rights and human capital rationales to justify why they seek to improve education through reform. Human rights discourse emphasizes a legal and moral right to education, whereas human capital discourse stresses the instrumental role of education in enhancing individual and national economic productivity. In…

The educational historian Brian Simon is well known for his portrayal of the social and political conflicts surrounding adult working-class education in 19th and early 20th-century England. However, the third and fourth volumes of his classic history of education in Britain, covering the period from 1920 to 1940 and 1940 to 1990 respectively,…