In Jacques Maritain's text The Education of Man (1962) a Christian perspective affirming the individual's free will is presented. This study examines the validity of Maritain's argument and speculates upon some consequences for public schooling. The conclusions of the study are as follows: First. Maritain's exposition of the existence of absolute free will is unconvincing as it is not successfully reconciled with his religious world view. Second. if Maritain's views may be assumed to complement the religous educational and institutional objectives of Alberta's Catholic schools, the potential for conflict between these views and the 'secular' (i.e. the common goals, contents and processes of all public and separte schools) objectives of Catholic schools exists. / vi, 81 leaves ; 28 cm.

Jean Francois Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition provides useful tools for investigating the student-student and student-teacher relationships in a composition class conducted on a computer network via modems. Lyotard's examination of how knowledge has been legitimated in the classical to postmodern period suggests that along with the delegitimation of the grand narratives of emancipation and speculation has come a reduction in power of narrative means of legitimation, leading to the postmodern age of paralogy, in which knowledge is legitimated by local groups of experts enacting momentary rules to guide their specific discussions. Throughout this text, Lyotard dispenses with the idea that narration might hold a strong position as a legitimating structure. At best, he suggests that "little narratives" continue to exert importance, but only at the level of examples and statements made by scientists, not at the level of the laws or rules of significance. At the same time, Lyotard privileges the importance of scientific knowledge and scientific means of legitimation. Relatedly, he also privileges technology, suggesting ultimately that computer data banks will provide society with an efficient means for determining the rules needed to guide the experts involved in paralogical legitimation. Such privileging of science and technology is not fully justified, for narrative means of legitimation are still important, as is shown by the data saved from a class taught over a computer network as part of a distance education program using modems. The data from this computer modem course suggest that narration is still powerful as a force for legitimation, both in how the class is legitimated as a structure, and in how the students and teachers play legitimating roles with each other. Class members speak to each other from narrative positions of power. However, they speak from multiple narratives forming cross-cutting and blurring senses of narrative power. Thus, these narratives lead to disruptions in the class, disruptions that operate in ways similar to Lyotard's notions of paralogy, leading to a system of narrative paralogy.

This thesis is a critical examination of the history of philosophies governing public education in the United States. The first half, chapters one through six, outlines American conceptions of the role of the school in relation to the state and to democracy. The second half is an account of critical progressive philosophies that have challenged the American status-quo since the independence. The main argument that I propose here is that the creation of an education system in America has followed the philosophies of federalism and private democracy. These philosophies are economically centered and define the citizen in economic terms. Progressive educators have long questioned this definition and seek to redefine citizenship to describe participatory democracy, and communication based on experience and an ethic of care.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the implications of Paulo Freire's philosophy for education in North America. To appreciate fully the value of Freire's philosophy, this study will review six themes which are commonly found throughout his work and are significant for education. The implications of his ideas will be identified by reviewing specific case-studies conducted in the United States and Canada. / Freire's ideas are developed within the context of Latin American societies. Elements of oppression and injustice in his homeland differ from the dehumanizing elements in North America. Yet, his insistence upon reflection and action as a means to emancipate people from social and political oppression has direct implications for education in the United States and Canada. North American educators have adopted, modified, and applied Freire's methodology with remarkable results.

No description available.

Social relations are commonly seen as exchanges between entities, a view implicitly indebted to Hegel?s account of the development of independent subjectivity. It is an analysis that explains many social interactions but that cannot explain key moments in social life. These moments occur in the non-Euclidean space and time of the in-between. This concept will be elucidated in this thesis through analysis of fieldwork examples and in relation to the work of Martin Buber and Donald Winnicott. The in-between arises when adults and children play together in the way described by Winnicott as playing in the third zone. A phenomenological, interpretive analysis of forms of relations between parents and their two year old children revealed playing in the in-between during everyday family life. While the fieldwork focuses on families at home, the arguments are not restricted to this arena. It has implications for those working with young children, challenging the current emphasis on a task-oriented focus on teaching and learning. A focus on social exchange creates early childhood programs that lack opportunities for being in the present moment in an unforced, un-knowing way. Such programs achieve set goals but may lack moments of infinite mutuality and tenderness such as those observed in the research. Relations cannot form when there is a continual focus on what is understood and known, on past accomplishments and future objectives. The in-between has three aspects; being fully present, un-knowing and mutuality through love. This analysis provides new views that will encourage opportunities for children and staff to be with one another in simple but profound moments of the in-between.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2009. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-115).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1714. Adviser: Walter Feinberg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-152) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Counseling and Educational Psychology, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 9, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1667. Adviser: Jonathan A. Plucker.