This volume explores the reception of John Dewey’s ideas in various historical and geographical settings such as Japan, China, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Russia, and Germany, analyzing how and why Dewey’s thought was interpreted in various ways according to mediating local discursive and ideological configurations and formations.

Lei Wang researches John Dewey’s pedagogical influence on the historical context of China and compares his observations and his basic democratic approach with the concepts and practical implementation of his Chinese students. As a result, it turns out that the spread of pragmatic philosophy in China was accompanied by reductionism, misunderstandings, Confucian doctrine and nationalism and that Dewey’s reform proposals can open a democratic perspective on current challenges in Chinese society. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Dewey’s research trip to China, the author emphasizes the contemporary significance of his work. The results of her study can clarify and correct errors that continue to have effect today.

Focused on the appropriation of John Dewey’s ideas on progressive education in revolutionary Mexico, this book reconsiders the interpretation and application of Dewey’s ideas in the world. Rodriguez examines the use of Dewey in Mexico’s state-building projects as a vantage point to assess the global impact of Dewey’s pedagogy. As these projects converged with Dewey’s desire to employ education as a tool for effective social change, Rodriguez understands Dewey not just as a philosopher but as an integral part of the Americas’ progressive movement and era.

This book provides an unconventional account of post-1989 education reform in Romania. By drawing on policy documentation, interviews with key players, qualitative data from everyday school contexts, and extensive textbook analysis, this groundbreaking study explores change within the Romanian education system as a process that institutionalises world culture through symbolic mediation of the concept ‘Europe’. The book argues that the education system’s structural and organisational evolution through time is decoupled from its self-depiction by ultimately serving a nation-building agenda. It does so despite notable changes in the discourse reflecting increasingly transnational definitions of the mission of the school in the post-1989 era. The book also suggests that the notions of ‘nation’ and ‘citizen’ institutionalised by the school are gradually being redefined as cosmopolitan, matching post-war patterns of post-national affiliations on a worldwide level.

China’s investment in U.S. higher education has raised considerable debate, but little research has been directed to the manner in which this investment unfolds and takes shape on the ground in local contexts. Confucius and Crisis in American Universities fills this gap by closely investigating how Chinese-funded U.S. programs are understood and configured in the modern American university. Drawing on interviews with Chinese teachers and their American students, as well as conversations with university administrators, this book argues that Chinese investment in American higher education serves as a broad form of global policy, harnessing the power of intercultural exchange as a means of managing international diplomatic relations through the experiences of university students. A transnational study, Confucius and Crisis in American Universities questions and reframes conventional notions of economic globalization and flexible citizenship, demonstrating how Chinese investment in U.S. education advances the lives of the already-privileged by creating access to overseas labor and markets, but to the exclusion of middle- and working-class students. A valuable and timely resource for scholars of education and anthropology, this book will also be useful to anyone interested in education policy or international affairs.

The visionary legacy of Aldous Huxley is as relevant today as ever. Huxley possessed a sober understanding of the human condition as well as an inspired vision of the human potential. This volume presents an interdisciplinary examination and appreciation of Aldous Huxley’s three visionary novels – Brave New World (1932), Ape and Essence (1948), and Island (1962) – to reveal the extent to which Huxley’s prognoses into our possible futures was prophetic. The author assesses each novel to reveal the foresights that define our current educational, social, religious, political, and economic institutions, while also exposing our conflicts within those institutions. This volume examines the educational, cultural and technological changes that have shaped our society since Huxley’s work, with special reference to the enduring legacy of educational philosopher John Dewey. It offers profound insights into the educational forces and moral foundations of our society that shape us, both inside and outside of our schools. It is the first of its kind to focus exclusively on all three of Huxley’s visionary novels and detail their relevance to our world today.

The 1980s were an important decade for educational inquiry. It was the moment of the “linguistic turn,” with its emphasis on the role of language as a constructor of reality, a structuring agent for institutions such as schools, and a medium for translating knowledge into elements of power for processes of social regulation. Drawing on the work and insights of educational researcher Thomas S. Popkewitz, this book shows how the linguistic turn provided an alternative to both mainline educational research grounded in the ideals of political liberalism and the effort of neo-Marxists to challenge liberal thinking in favor of a scholarship based on class conflict and economic determinism.

John Dewey was the foremost philosophical figure and public intellectual in early to mid-twentieth century America. He is still the most academically cited Anglophone philosopher of the past century, and is among the most cited Americans of any century. In this comprehensive volume spanning thirty-five chapters, leading scholars help researchers access particular aspects of Dewey's thought, navigate the enormous and rapidly developing literature, and participate in current scholarship in light of prospects in key topical areas. Beginning with a framing essay by Philip Kitcher calling for a transformation of philosophical research inspired by Dewey, contributors interpret, appraise, and critique Dewey's philosophy under the following headings: Metaphysics; Epistemology, Science, Language, and Mind; Ethics, Law, and the Starting Point; Social and Political Philosophy, Race, and Feminist Philosophy; Philosophy of Education; Aesthetics; Instrumental Logic, Philosophy of Technology, and the Unfinished Project of Modernity; Dewey in Cross-Cultural Dialogue; The American Philosophical Tradition, the Social Sciences, and Religion; and Public Philosophy and Practical Ethics.

Challenging the theory of induction in teacher education, this book proposes a knowledge-building framework based on the critical rationalism of philosopher of science, Karl Popper. The Objective Knowledge Growth Framework developed in this book is designed to be an effective critical analysis framework for empowering teachers and schools to build and share professional knowledge. This book is essential reading for educational scholars, researchers, professionals, policymakers, and all those interested in exploring the application of Popperian philosophy to the field of education and re-envisioning educational practice.

This edited volume reflects on how the “transnational” features in education as well as policies and practices are conceived of as mobile and connected beyond the local. Like “globalization,” the “transnational” is much more than a static reality of the modern world; it has become a mode of observation and self-reflection that informs education research, history, and policy in many world regions. This book examines the sociocultural project that the “transnational turn” evident in historical scholarship of the last few decades represents, and how a “transnational history” shapes how historians construct their objects of study. It does so from a multinational perspective, yet with a view of the different layers of historical meanings associated with the concept of the transnational.