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In this essay, Barbara Thayer-Bacon considers the arguments made in favor of "zero tolerance" for immigration at the United States-Mexican border as an example of principled ethics, and she contrasts this position with a caring ethical response. She compares the U.S.'s current zero-tolerance immigration policy to the zero-tolerance approach U.S. public schools adopted in response to violence in schools. The zero-tolerance policies implemented by schools in the wake of several high-profile incidents serves as a strong illustration of the moral dilemmas that zero-tolerance policies create generally. Both examples illustrate that zero-tolerance policies are not an effective moral response to ethical dilemmas; on the contrary, such policies lead to a lack of attention to context, subjectivity, positionality, and institutional power, which in turn generates a range of new and different ethical quandaries. Ultimately, Thayer-Bacon argues that taking a zero tolerance approach to serious, complicated problems such as immigration policy is misguided; developing fair, humane, caring, and just immigration policies requires a more nuanced approach that attends to the full complexity of the issues involved.

Just as Dewey argued during the industrial revolution, from the 1890s-1930s, and Martin argued in the 1960s-1990s with our "second wave" working revolution (when middle class women joined the work force in significant numbers): today's times are out of joint, potentially dangerous conflicts exist, and teachers have some responsibility in making things right. We are in another social revolution, as work is changing significantly again, due to advances in technology. Let's call these current changes in work the technology revolution. Again, we need to rethink our school structures, curriculum, and pedagogy. In an effort to contribute to that process, I direct our attention to the need to redefine work, and re/examine the connections between work and education in this paper.

In "A Pluralistic Universe," James argues that the world we experience is more than we can describe. Our theories are incomplete, open, and imperfect. Concepts function to try to shape, organize, and describe this open, flowing universe, while the universe continually escapes beyond our artificial boundaries. For James and myself, the universe is unfinished, a "primal stuff" or "pure experience." However, James starts with parts and moves to wholes, and I want to start from wholes and move to parts and back to wholes again. This is an issue between us I further consider, for while he describes himself as a "radical empiricist," emphasizing the parts, my descriptions are in terms of w/holism. I use this opportunity to explore James's contributions to my metaphor of "pure experience" as being like an infinite Ocean and the fishing nets we create represent our ontologies and epistemologies that help us catch up our experiences and give them meaning. I also make the case for why a better understanding of ontology matters for us as educators, using Maria Montessori's curriculum and instruction design, Dinè Primary School, and Cajete's theology of place and culturally based science as examples of relational fishing nets we could be using to teach our children.

In "Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy," Lingley worried that talk of spirituality is taboo in U.S. public school classrooms. Lingley pointed out that the dominant narrative demands silence on the topic. She wanted to make the case for spiritually responsive pedagogy as vital to an inclusive democracy. I begin this responsive essay by describing Lingley's argument, and then I strengthen her argument through my work on relational ontologies. When we equate spirituality with ontology, we realize it is impossible to avoid teaching spirituality in our schools, for we begin passing on to our children our fishing nets to help sustain them within our families and communities as soon as they are born (one could even argue prior to birth). That passing on of basic categories of Being, through our various ways of describing our/their world, begins in the home and continues in our schools. I am in agreement with Lingley's aim, and I find her work an exciting contribution to discussions on democracy and spirituality. [For "Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy," see EJ1120095.]

The article discusses the educative aim associated with childhood friendship and the humanist and non-humanist challenge imposed on the philosophers of education as introduced by the author Virgina Woolf. It also discusses the novel The Waves written by Wolf to describe the educative nature and the educational aim involved with childhood friendships.

In "Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy," Lingley worried that talk of spirituality is taboo in U.S. public school classrooms. Lingley pointed out that the dominant narrative demands silence on the topic. She wanted to make the case for spiritually responsive pedagogy as vital to an inclusive democracy. I begin this responsive essay by describing Lingley's argument, and then I strengthen her argument through my work on relational ontologies. When we equate spirituality with ontology, we realize it is impossible to avoid teaching spirituality in our schools, for we begin passing on to our children our fishing nets to help sustain them within our families and communities as soon as they are born (one could even argue prior to birth). That passing on of basic categories of Being, through our various ways of describing our/their world, begins in the home and continues in our schools. I am in agreement with Lingley's aim, and I find her work an exciting contribution to discussions on democracy and spirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various essays within the issue on topics including a brief historical and philosophical analysis of the Confucius encounter by John Dewey, the China's school policy change from grade retention to social promotion, and the influences of parental expectations, involvements and self-efficacy on English academic achievement of Chinese eight graders.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the Islamic education in Egypt and Indonesia, the academic mobility in Southeast Asian countries, and the stress levels acculturation.