This paper explores how the report "Learning through Life" exemplifies the dominant policy discourse on lifelong learning emphasizing strongly individual social mobility. The paper explores further how this functionalist and reductionist turn in (adult) education has come about and how concepts of democratic citizenship and education may create…

Losing one's mother naturally makes a person reflect on the really important things. The author was reminded that when faced with the Great Question, which even the best schools cannot handle competently, all other questions can seem trivial, and it's tempting to back away from them. But the "lesser" questions schools mishandle can have…

Background/Context: The background of the article is the continued interest in the ideas of Hannah Arendt. In her book The Human Condition, Arendt draws on sources of ideas drawn from Ancient Greece to deliver a critique of modernity. The main burden of her criticism is that the imperatives of work and labor have virtually supplanted the ideal of…

How do we limit our focus to mental health when Indigenous teaching demands a much wider lens? How do we respond to mental health recovery when Indigenous experience speaks to a very different approach to healing, and how can we take up the health of Indigenous people in Canada without a discussion of identity and colonization? We cannot, for the…

This study highlights on describing the experiences of Saudi Arabian female Islamic Studies teachers by exploring what is means to be an Islamic Studies teacher teaching in the current unprecedented vibrant and complex tapestry of social, religious and political debates occurring in the larger context of the country. The study draws on…

Although multicultural education and teaching for and to equity and diversity often are viewed in higher education as important around the globe, the mismatch between theory and public opinion can remain a challenge when teaching the subject. This study investigates student attitudes and learning before and after completing a course in race,…

Encouraging debate on inclusion and equity can meet with awkward silences, particularly across disciplinary boundaries. In disability studies, for example, it can be difficult to build dialogue with other disciplines; as a consequence, the different disciplinary groups within the field of education often end up working in their own "equity" silos.…

Ancient Chinese philosophers were interested in ways to promote psychological development and they made significant contributions, particularly in the area of mental testing. In the twentieth century the Chinese focused on behavioral psychology, and the field suffered a great setback during Mao's Cultural Revolution. However, more recently,…

The opening lines of Shakespeare's sonnet on the destructive power of sexual desire are equally potent as a description of the emotions aroused by warfare. Poets are the best witnesses to the dark connection between violence and the erotic, the link between sexual desire and military aggression. Initially justified by perjured claims about weapons…

This article reports on two national teachers' unions' different approaches to the 2008 U.S. election campaign. The National Education Association is ready to spend $40 million this election year, but it is not ready to endorse a candidate for president. The American Federation Teachers, by contrast, is working aggressively for U.S. Sen. Hillary…

This report seeks to confront the contemporary political challenge to the academic community by exploring how free universities contribute to the common good even as they create political tensions between themselves and society that require the protection of academic freedom. At the same time, the report suggests ways that protection may be…

Education is an important aspect of human resource development. Imparting of education leads to the improvement of understanding, perception, attitude and efficiency of working population. Education has been considered as a lever to raise one's position in the society as well as a tool to fight against poverty and ignorance. Since the independence…

This book is about the threats to education quality in the developing world that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews the observed phenomenon of service delivery failures in public education: cases where programs and policies increase the inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts--in schools and…

"Empowerment Starts Here" covers an experimental approach to social change within urban communities by way of seven distinct principles for student empowerment. Turning classroom methods into a school model, Preparatory School for Global Leadership was the first to experience student empowerment at a school-wide level. This book provides insight…

This article shows how universities, like education and social services in general, are increasingly pressured to adopt neoliberal principles that encourage privatization, entrepreneurship, standardization, assessment, and accountability. The authors examine recent efforts in the United States to develop measurement and accountability systems that…