Education, Culture, and Society

Making Sense of the World: Living, Learning and Teaching with Radical Philosophy of Education proposes that human knowledge arises from an integrated physical and metaphysical experience involving the continuing social acts of personal and community cultures and languages. It seeks to provide a means of thinking about and acting with the philosophical nature of human existence, so that the daily activities and achievements of all are respected and taken into account. Given the dominance of neoliberal politics and economics in many countries, it is unusual to find the work of educators and practitioners being framed generally by an explicit philosophy of knowledge.

The nine chapters in this book explore how the Italian education system responded to distance learning during the first wave of the pandemic. The impact of the hard lockdown on both teaching and learning revealed the inherent weaknesses of a system in which digital technology had only recently been introduced and highlighted the relevant inequalities in their access and use. While students, teachers and families adapted (albeit with difficulty) to the new learning and teaching routines, the institutions faced the challenge of ensuring quality and equality.

By including various case studies and unedited sets of data collected in different areas of the country, the book offers up-to-date insights on the impact of the pandemic on the Italian school system and provides a broad introduction to the educational emergency from a sociological perspective. The volume ends with a post-commentary comparing the Italian case with the similar situation of school closure as it occurred in the United Kingdom.

Contributors are: Paolo Barabanti, Eduardo Barberis, Nico Bazzoli, Rita Bertozzi, Stefania Capogna, Gianna Cappello, Domenico Carbone, Maddalena Colombo, Joselle Dagnes, Maria Chiara De Angelis, Maurizio Merico, Diego Mesa, Flaminia Musella, Francesco Ramella, Marco Romito, Michele Rostan, Mariagrazia Santagati, Tatiana Saruis, Fausta Scardigno, Spyros Themelis, Massimiliano Vaira and Martina Visentin.

This book examines the interplay between education and society in the 20th and early 21st centuries and addresses philosophical views and educational aims with their associated values for community-based learning in the U.S.A., India, Russia, and China. The philosophical background of community-based learning in these countries relies both on national philosophical traditions and on reformist ideas in international schools of thought—over time opposition to certain international pedagogical ideas surfaced in these countries.

The authors offer a comprehensive picture of community-based learning in education and demonstrate how teachers can make learning more functional and holistic so that students can work in new situations within their complex worlds. School-specific descriptions reveal how teachers and students implemented community-based projects at different times.

This book supports the formal education of all Indigenous children who live in different circumstances in different countries. It takes Indigenous philosophy as its starting point, while recognising that in many colonial and post-colonial circumstances, Indigenous knowledge, culture and language may not be valued. For this reason, Indigenous and non-Indigenous theorists and authors are included to demonstrate the recognised links between Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings and practices of culture, knowledge and learning and therefore common approaches to formal education. Chapters are arranged in an integrated fashion to discuss contextual issues regarding global political and economic influences and the notion of what it means to participate fully in society.

In a time of planetary crisis, Education for Transformation reimagines humanistic education as a vital response to the ethical, pedagogical, and ecological challenges of the Anthropocene. The authors depart from a relational, ecologically aware and epistemically plural interpretation of humanism. They offer fresh perspectives like ecological mindfulness, planetary interdependence, and critical takes on EdTech that can be used to reflect on ways in which educators can foster responsibility, resilience, and hope. With both moral insight and practical relevance, this book invites the reader to rethink what it means to teach and learn on a fragile, interconnected planet.

Contributors are: Hanane Abaydi, Robbert Bodegraven, Deanne Boisvert, Isolde de Groot, Doret de Ruyter, Nick Hebbink, Henk Manschot, Neha Miglani, Patrick Nullens, Wouter Sanderse, Anders Schinkel, Martien Schreurs, Fernando Suárez Müller, Carolina Suransky, Pieter van Rees and Jacco van Uden.

The expectations, hopes, dreams as well as anxieties and fears of the youth are often marginalized. This book presents answers to pivotal questions about the preferred individual and collective futures. Authors give the voice to young Polish students, who willingly and broadly describe their life projects and their desired world in the future. Qualitative and quantitative studies employed in the research document strong variations in students’ plans, aims and opinions. Certainly, their future visions may transfer you to unknown futures. Let’s remember that always and everywhere various futures are possible. Which one is preferred by you?