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The article presents the discussion on international scholars and readers interested in contemporary Chinese Marxism. Topics include focusing on the research progress of contemporary Chinese Marxism in the fields of social sciences and philosophy of education; and studying the foundational theory of contemporary Chinese Marxism from the perspective of humanities.

The article presents the discussion on important theory in the humanities and social sciences, philosophy including the philosophy of education. Topics include young scholars with academic positions in universities specializing in foreign philosophy and logic; and discussing the important topic of the relationship between excellent traditional Chinese culture and Marxism.

This paper challenges the apparatus of knowledge in the reproduction of the nationalist narrative of historical trauma that leads to the making of exclusive nationalism and unequal citizenship, particularly in East and Southeast Asia. I take the case of the 1965-66 genocide in Indonesia as an example to illustrate how the cultural trauma that took place in the Cold War Era had marked the turning point for follow-up nation-building and the cooperative distortion of the past through the politics of denial. This phenomenon does not happen only in Indonesia but also in other countries in the Northeast and Southeast Asia. The post-event juridical reform after these historical traumas established the foundation of national constitutions and planted the seeds of unequal citizenship in these countries. The legal practices of the post-colonial modern states repeat colonial strategies, and technique of governmentality reproduces itself through the education system at all levels. I want to suggest that to go beyond ideological borders and avoid the vicious circles of knowledge reproduction requires an innovative educational model of trans-local and critical pedagogy in the form of curricular decolonization. It aspires for a type of the university beyond the borders, beyond the walls. Through a trans-local, interdisciplinary, and cross-referencing critical studies, we then can attend to both the local but also the regional and global contexts. I also want to argue that such a model should bridge university and society to assist us in practicing epistemic decolonization to challenge the current cultural consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If education is to make a difference it is widely acknowledged that we must aim to educate for understanding, but this means being clear about what we mean by understanding. This paper argues for a concept of personal understanding, recognising both the commonality and individuality of each pupil's understandings, and the relationship between understanding and interpretation, analysis and synopsis, and the quest for meaning. In supporting this view, the paper advocates an emergentist notion of person-hood, and considers the neurophysiological reasons for asserting the individuality of human minds, brains, and the creation of personal meanings. The notion of personal meanings would, however, seem to run counter to the post-modern denial of the autonomous self, and the tradition in philosophy, most recently stemming from Wittgenstein, that insists that meanings and understandings are essentially social, and not personal—a view also advocated by John White in regard to education. In contrast, this paper argues that meanings and understandings are both social (interpersonal) and personal. Once we reinstate the notion of personal minds and personal understandings, alongside the social, we may see more clearly what it means to educate for understanding, and why this might begin to make a difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The split between analytic philosophy (AP) and Continental philosophy (CP) has mainly preoccupied scholars of philosophy so far, but in fact, it has broader pedagogical implications. This article argues that conventions of argumentative writing, as taught in colleges today, have their roots in analytic philosophy and its assumptions regarding ways of disseminating knowledge. Behind writing instructors' emphasis on the 'thesis and evidence' structure lie analytic tendencies such as verifiability and intersubjectivity. By contrast, Continental philosophy emphasises the subjective human experience, which leads to a more experimental form of writing. This split and the embeddedness of argumentation in analytic philosophy is indispensable in comprehending the rationale behind the conventions of academic writing taught in colleges today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the dialogue of educational philosophy to the experience of beginners entering the teaching profession. Rather than impose the ideas of any specific philosopher or theorist, or indeed official standard, the exploration presented here owes its origins to phenomenology and the use of grounded theory. Working from a narrative data base and focussing on the knowing of name in the first instance, the authors develop their emergent ideas on self and identity in relation to children taught, through connection to a wider literature that includes reference to Giddens, Illeris, Deleuze and Heidegger, for example. The paper is thus also an exercise in suggesting that research on practice by academics working in professional education, who are non-philosophers, can lead to constructive and relevant engagement with philosophy in developing theory from and about about practice, even though the approach, in the initial stages, may well be serendipitous and eclectic in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although postmodernist thought has become prominent in some educational circles, its influence on science education has until recently been rather minor. This paper examines the proposal of Michalinos Zembylas, published earlier in this journal, that Lyotardian postmodernism should be applied to science educational reform in order to achieve the much sought after positive transformation. As a preliminary to this examination several critical points are raised about Lyotard's philosophy of education and philosophy of science which serve to challenge and undermine Zembylas’ project. Subsequently, the three main theses of Lyotard that Zembylas considers beneficial and wishes to transpose onto science classrooms and pedagogy are scrutinized and found to be more of a hindrance than a help to curriculum reformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemplating the roles and responsibilities of intellectuals in the 21st century, the notion of ‘difference’ is significant in at least two senses. First, work on the politics of difference allows us to consider the question ‘For whom does the intellectual speak?’ in a fresh light. Second, we can ask: ‘To what extent, and in what ways, might our activities as intellectuals make a difference?’ Thinkers such as Foucault, Kristeva, Lyotard, and Bauman (among many others) are helpful in addressing these questions. This paper sketches some of the key ideas of these thinkers and assesses their relevance for an understanding of intellectual life in contemporary tertiary education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Badiou's philosophy of the ‘event’ has itself become an event of sorts for contemporary social and political theory. It has broken radically with a set of propositions concerning the operation of power, the status of knowledge, and the possibility of action that were for some time considered nearly unquestionable, in many ways defining what Badiou might call ‘the state of the situation’. After briefly outlining the manner in which Badiou's reinvigoration of the concept of ‘truth’ constitutes a serious challenge for the politics of difference and the ethics of alterity, this paper explores the significance for educational philosophy of what, borrowing from Jacques Rancière, Badiou calls the ‘axiom of equality’, or the notion that, in democratic politics, ‘equality must be postulated not willed’. I suggest that this axiom is best understood when read in relation to Rancière's The Ignorant Schoolmaster, and thus explore an intrinsic link between Badiou's more obscure philosophical claims and political assertions on the one hand, and the question of education on the other. I further propose that the limitations of Badiou's criticism of Rancière's work, which suggests that he stops short of locating an effective political subject who might oppose the parliamentary state, are revealed most explicitly when we reassess Rancière's approach to education in The Ignorant Schoolmaster, and in his more recent work on political aesthetics. Ultimately, however, I conclude that a truly democratic approach to education will have to learn from both Badiou and Rancière, and take seriously the ‘axiom of equality’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on themes found in James Marshall's writings on Nietzsche, the arts and the self, this paper explores the nature of influence in the arts and its relevance to education. It considers what Harold Bloom has called the‘anxiety of influence’ and amplifies this in terms of broader questions concerning Emersonian self-reliance. The particular twist these matters take in the lives of adolescents presents special problems for education in the arts—not least in view of the dangers of self-deception, affectation and pretentiousness—and raises in turn questions about the relation between high art and popular art. These matters connect also with questions concerning the kinds of vocabularies and ways of thought into which young people need to be initiated if they are to develop creatively and authentically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on Chinese Marxism and Chinese economy entering the Asian Century as a vital and defining force. Topics include influenced the disciplines especially in the humanities and social sciences and provided a view of history; and Chinese Marxism as philosophy and ideology playing an important role in formulating the questions of the rebirth of the nation and national self-identification.

The article presents the discussion on debate and experimentation across the social sciences and humanities. Topics include international relations, business, political science, philosophy, economics, literature, and the arts; and linking the evolution of global systems of modernization, power, technology, and resistance to the production of subjectivity.

By any metric, the twentieth century university was a successful institution. However, in the twenty-first century, ongoing neoliberal educational reform has been accompanied by a growing epistemological crisis in the meaning and value of the humanities and social sciences (HaSS). Concerns have been expressed in two main forms. The governors of tertiary education systems—governments, private investors, university managers and consultancy firms—have focused on how HaSS can adapt to the perceived research needs of the 21st century. At the same time, a competing set of discourses has been generated by scholars and researchers employed within the critical HaSS themselves. This article considers what these differing perspectives mean for reconceptualising HaSS for the twenty-first century. After surveying the contemporary climate, this article examines the findings of key reports on the future of the humanities from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Alongside those of Western Europe, these university systems are arguably the key drivers for the global university system. It is argued that these reports provide an opportunity for emerging universities to reflect on their research priorities and developmental strategies. The article concludes with some reflections on the wider consequences of the globalising of the university system, the increase of China's influence in Asia, and ponders the prospect of post-human/ist futures of the humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the university system today, co-research may be a decolonising strategy. We evaluate teaching a 'Modernization and Social Change' course in Vietnam as an experiment in co-research anthropology training. If for visitors, the idea of 'Vietnam' is nurtured by Hollywood action cinema, 1960s–1970s protest movements and documentary television, a process of collective research can rearrange orientations for students and teachers. The essay describes the making of a 'model' film as a teaching tool for international faculty, and as an evaluation of general teaching practice. A co-research approach to the classroom, assuming the students as researchers, engaging their own collaborative interests together, invites further discussion on teaching mapping as model for ethics-oriented co-research anthropology training; on teaching Capital in Vietnam using maps and counter-mapping as collaborative practice; and on using participatory methods for foreign faculty in a politically charged field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Brian Opie, senior Lecturer in the School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Topics discussed include significance of postmodern literature, and the relations between literature and technology; importance of increasing technological society; and does distinction between freedom and control in media systems allow local autonomy in the humanities.

It is important for educators to recognise that the various calls to decentre the subject—or self—should not be interpreted as necessarily requiring the removal of the subject altogether. Through the individualism of the Enlightenment the self was centred. This highly individualistic notion of the sovereign self has now been decentred especially through post-structuralist literature. It is contended here however, that this tendency to decentre the subject has been taken to an extreme at times, especially by some designers of school frameworks and curricula, who have eliminated the subject altogether. Such elimination is argued to contribute to the numbers of youth who are dropping out of school. By adopting an existential perspective and by drawing mainly upon Kierkegaard's subjective truth and Dewey's notion of centeredness, the case is made that for education the subject should not only be included but should actually be centred—at least momentarily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the relationship between philosophy and history of education is delved into. First, it is noted that both disciplines have diverged from each other over the last few decades to become relatively autonomous subsectors within the pedagogical sciences, each with its own discourses, its own expositional characteristics, its own channels of communication, and its own networks. From the perspective of the history of education, it seems as though more affiliation has been sought with the science of history. The history of education, in any event, has in the past few years become more historicizing and less ‘educationalizing’. According to the author, (who is not a philosopher of education) there are signs that indicate that such an analogous line of reasoning, mutatis mutandis, also applies for the philosophy of education. Does this mean that there are no longer any bridges from the one area to the other or that none are possible? Probably not. In the second portion, it is shown that the modern or even postmodern ‘new cultural history of education’, with its often ironical and demythologizing traits uses or can use a considerable amount of ‘grand theory’ (à la Foucault). Indeed, the development of an adequate conceptual apparatus that also has to cope with the problem of ‘presentism’ assumes a constant dialogue with the past and for this a philosophical-interpretative (casu quo, hermeneutic) approach is still the best situated. Inversely, the Foucauldian perspective shows that philosophy in general and philosophy of education in particular equally hardly do without history. Within the reflection on pedagogical praxis, the historical and the philosophical thus probably will continue to rely on each other—if only as allies against the dominance of short-winded empirical-quantitative research. Still, it would be naive to think that, from this possible alliance, the fragmentation of historically developed knowledge systems with their own sociological and institutional foundation of scientific activities can be rectified in a trice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the curriculum vitae of philosopher James Marshall.

Focuses on the views of philosopher James Marshall concerning philosophy of education.

It is 30 years, plus a bit, since Jim Marshall arrived at Auckland University from England in 1973. His brief was to establish philosophy of education along contemporary lines as a strong presence within the Education Department’s undergraduate and graduate programs, housed within the Faculty of Arts. Previously, as in many other places, philosophy of education had been taught within the Department as a content-based study of ideas and principles associated with individual philosophers, ‘movements’ or ‘schools’, from Plato to Progressivism. Jim had been trained as an analytical philosopher within a full-fledged Philosophy department. He had strong interests in diverse fields of philosophy—notably philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy of science, ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of language. More specifically and, for some time, ‘relevantly’, so far as doing philosophy within a university Department of Education was concerned, he was well-versed in analytical philosophy of education along the lines developed by Richard Peters and colleagues, based on a particular reading of Wittgenstein.