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Thayer-Bacon uses this opportunity to further explore Ranciere's ideas concerning equality as described in "The Ignorant Schoolmaster" and their connection to democracy, as he explains in "Hatred of Democracy". For Ranciere, intelligence and equality are synonymous terms, just as reason and will are synonymous terms. Ranciere recommends the only way to really teach a student is by viewing the student as an equal. Thayer-Bacon learned to view students as equals through her experience as a Montessori teacher, and so she brings Montessori into conversation with Ranciere to further explore the idea of equality between teachers and students, as well as between citizens in a democracy. There are problems with both Ranciere's perspective and Montessori's that feminist theory, in the form of a relational ontology and epistemology, can help us solve by finding our way out of the paradoxes of democracy and on to trusting our students, our future democratic citizens. (Contains 3 notes.)

Thayer-Bacon tells her story in a conversational tone that traces her personal and professional roots as she describes various chapters of her life: first as a philosopher, how she became involved in education, and then how that involvement became a career as a philosopher of education, in a large teacher education program, and now at a research institution. She sketches her philosophical contributions, as a pragmatist, feminist, postmodernist, and cultural studies scholar, to philosophy, philosophy of education, and education.

This article presents the author's response to Jim McKenzie's commentary on her article, "Closing the Split between Practical and Theoretical Reasoning: Knowers and the known." In her response, the author wishes to point readers to the book that the article is derived from, for the original article clearly points readers to the preface and chapters 1, 2, and 7 of "Transforming Critical Thinking: Thinking constructively". If the reader goes to "Transforming Critical Thinking", s/he will find many references to feminist philosophers, for the text is a feminist argument for the need to transform critical thinking, and the author offers a redescription of critical thinking as constructive thinking.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to discover the perceptions and barriers of four female agriculture educators across generations in a non-traditional field of agriculture. The United States Department of Labor (2006b) defined a non-traditional job as any occupation where one gender comprises 25% or less of the total employment. Four female agriculture teachers across three generations were interviewed with the open-ended question: "What have been your personal and professional experiences in teaching agricultural education?" The teachers selected were from three generations: early Baby Boomer (Vietnam Generation), late Baby Boomer (Me Generation), Generation Xer, and Millennial. The themes revealed in the study were: qualifications to teach agricultural education, challenges in teaching agricultural education, stress in teaching agricultural education, and stereotyping of agricultural education teachers. Females teaching high school agricultural education expressed they needed to prove they were qualified; prove women can perform agricultural education duties; overcome resentment from students; balance family and work; and break the stereotype of a high school agricultural education teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author ponders on the discourse on feminist epistemologies in relation to the article "The DDI, ESK, and ME: Troubling the Epistemology of the Dominant Discourse on Indoctrination Via Feminist Epistemologies of Situated Knowledges," by James C. Lang, which was published in the December 2009 issue of the journal "Philosophy of Education." The author intends to discuss epistemologies of situated knowledges based on the work of several feminist scholars. She also mentions that the work of Lang mainly focused on the works of philosophers Harvey Siegel and Lorraine Code.

This article explores the central pragmatist and feminist philosophical assumption that knowers can not be separated from what is known, that there is a dialectical relationship between social beings and ideas that is dynamic, flexible, and reciprocal. The author seeks a closer examination of constructive thinking in relation to the practice of thinking constructively within social communities. She discusses social communities that construct knowledge as radical democratic communities always-in-the-making, and the skills of communicating and relating which help knowers be able to actively participate in the construction of knowledge. Given the fallibility of the pluralistic subjects, she shows the importance of addressing cultural influences and political power in theories about thinking. She argues for the value of embracing pluralistic and democratic commitments on epistemological grounds as well as moral grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers the separation between practical and theoretical reasoning. Split between knowers and knowledge; Distinction between objects and subjects of knowing; Definition of pragmatism; Concepts of experience in relation to knowing; Feminist and postmodern contributions to the collapse of knower/known split.