This paper draws on findings from an empirical study on the epistemic nature of teachers' practice. It particularly addresses teachers' reasoning that lies behind their practice in order to gain insight into the epistemic weights embedded in the teachers' practice. Drawing on qualitative data gathered from six class teachers in Helsinki in two…

The present article focuses on the relationship between democracy and secularism and, in particular, the presumption that a secularist approach is the most practical solution to the problem of pluralism of beliefs. It raises the question of how far those countries in the West which claim to be democratic are justified in the way that they treat…

Singapore is an example of a country where there is centralised control of the school curriculum and where political leaders wield direct influence over citizenship education. Co-ordinated and sustained effort is made to transmit the salient knowledge and values, develop the "right" instincts and attitudes, to help students become…

Although communities and schools in North America are increasingly diverse and positioned in a global web, schools continue to adhere to Western norms and the teacher workforce remains largely White, continuing an ideology of collective sameness and conformity. Hybridization of teacher identity and of science teaching are suggested as ways to…

This essay explores the ways in which the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia, defined as "frank speech and telling the truth as one sees it," can help facilitate the development of both intellectual courage and democracy as a way of life. It theorizes dimensions of parrhesia for the purpose of better educating a civic self-image rooted…

This paper explores two philosophical treasures that we often neglect: the moral faculties of children and the pedagogic virtues of film. My thesis consists of three primary claims: (1) when properly educated, children are capable of thinking critically about ethical issues; (2) moral edification ought to have the dual aims of developing this…

As students advance in their education, the use of stories and specifically the process of storytelling often wane from the central mode of learning to be replaced with more didactic methods and content-driven applications. However, the use of stories has remained a central component of moral/ethics education and continues to be used as a…

The Center for Humanistic Education (CHE) engages high-school students and teachers from the Arab and Jewish sectors in an examination of connections between the Holocaust, personal and social morals, and implications for present Israeli society. Since 1997, CHE has been working regularly with about 25 Jewish and Arab high schools, engaging about…

The traditional approach to the education of newcomer students separates English language development from content instruction. It is assumed that English language proficiency is a prerequisite for subject-matter learning. The authors take the alternate view that the integration of historical thinking and digitized primary sources enhances English…

Newcomers are a special subgroup of the student population designated as English Language Learners (ELLs). The research project described in this article investigates how a teacher integrated language and content in a single subject area, social studies, in a high school newcomer classroom. Three extended lessons were presented to newcomer…

Civic engagement in higher education encompasses a diversity of goals, strategies and activities. These include particular approaches to teaching and learning--community-based or service learning--which share an explicit civic focus and combine the features of experiential learning with opportunities for engagement. A range of…

This article describes a lesson in which students will examine several views expressed by the founders to understand the context for including freedom of the press in the First Amendment. Students will be asked to think about the role that the news media and the need to be an informed citizen continue to play in our democracy. Students will…

This article reviews a selective corpus of empirical and theoretical texts on foreign language pedagogy and teacher education, produced in Portugal between 2006 and 2011. A descriptive and interpretative approach is adopted to inquire into the transformative potential of research, with a focus on its scope, purposes, conceptual and methodological…

The implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) across the country necessitates revising the English curriculum, asking teachers to incorporate and analyze more perspectives in the classroom as society becomes more diverse. The authors wondered if this reform might provide an opportunity to examine social equity by studying an anchor…

The preparation of students for global citizenship represents a central challenge to social studies educators in the twenty-first century. Two-thirds of the world's poor are steeped in abject poverty and its grim consequences. The world refugee problem has reached staggering proportions. There is an international epidemic of human trafficking, and…