Closed Education in the Open Society


Book Description

Preliminary Material -- Giving Our Children the Benefit of the Doubt -- Back to Basics -- The Quest for the Good Society -- The Quest for the Good Education -- Closed Education in the Open Society -- The Kibbutz: A Closed Open Society -- Between Kibbutz and Kibbutz Education -- Faith -- The Ethical Dimension -- The Critical Approach -- The Answer from Liberalism -- The Benefits of Doubt: All That We Truly Have -- Bibliography -- Name Index -- Subject Index.




Rethinking Open Society


Book Description

The key values of the Open Society – freedom, justice, tolerance, democracy, and respect for knowledge – are increasingly under threat in today’s world. As an effort to uphold those values, this volume brings together some of the key political, social and economic thinkers of our time to re-examine the Open Society closely in terms of its history, its achievements and failures, and its future prospects. Based on the lecture series Rethinking Open Society, which took place between 2017 and 2018 at the Central European University, the volume is deeply embedded in the history and purpose of CEU, its Open Society mission, and its belief in educating skeptical, but passionate citizens.




Education in the Open Society - Karl Popper and Schooling


Book Description

This title was first published in 2000. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Karl Popper, this book provides the first comprehensive examination of the educational implications of his philosophy. Critically exploring key elements of Popper’s work, his theory of knowledge, psychology of learning and politics, Richard Bailey also extrapolates an approach to teaching and learning in schools and the wider community.




University, Inc


Book Description

A sobering examination of the corporate funding of universities reveals the compromises being made in exchange for sponsorship, the ways in which teaching is slowly being devalued, and the changes being wrought on the futures of students everywhere. 15,000 first printing.




Rethinking Open Society


Book Description

The key values of the Open Society – freedom, justice, tolerance, democracy, and respect for knowledge – are increasingly under threat in today’s world. As an effort to uphold those values, this volume brings together some of the key political, social and economic thinkers of our time to re-examine the Open Society closely in terms of its history, its achievements and failures, and its future prospects. Based on the lecture series Rethinking Open Society, which took place between 2017 and 2018 at the Central European University, the volume is deeply embedded in the history and purpose of CEU, its Open Society mission, and its belief in educating skeptical, but passionate citizens.




Islamic Education and Indoctrination


Book Description

Islamic schools, especially madrasahs, have been viewed as sites of indoctrination for Muslim students and militants. Some educators and parents in the United States have also regarded introductory courses on Islam in some public schools as indoctrinatory. But what do we mean by "indoctrination"? And is Islamic education indoctrinatory? This book critically discusses the concept of indoctrination in the context of Islamic education. It explains that indoctrination occurs when a person holds to a type of beliefs known as control beliefs that result in ideological totalism. Using Indonesia as an illustrative case study, the book expounds on the conditions for an indoctrinatory tradition to exist and thrive. Examples include the Islamic school co-founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and the militant organisation Jemaah Islamiyah. The book further proposes ways to counter and avoid indoctrination through formal, non-formal, and informal education. It argues for the creation and promotion of educative traditions that are underpinned by religious pluralism, strong rationality, and strong autonomy. Examples of such educative Muslim traditions in Indonesia will be highlighted. Combining philosophical inquiry with empirical research, this book is a timely contribution to the study of contemporary and often controversial issues in Islamic education.




Global Catholicism, Tolerance and the Open Society


Book Description

This book systematically assesses the political and social values of the more than 1.3 billion Catholics around the globe, by far the largest denomination of Western Christianity. Based on an extensive analysis of data from the World Values Survey and other global opinion surveys, the book sheds new light on the value systems and opinions of Roman Catholics. The authors highlight core problems and challenges the Church is currently facing in adapting to the modern world, including Catholic anti-Semitism, religious and sexual tolerance, and opinions towards democracy, while also offering an anthropological reflection on how well the Church is adapting or failing to adapt to the requirements of an open society.




Childhood, Philosophy and Open Society


Book Description

​The purpose of this book is to develop a theory and practice of education from Karl Popper’s non-justificationist philosophy for promoting an open society. Specifically, the book is designed to develop an educational programme for fostering critical thinking in children, particularly when they are involved in group discussion.The study conducted an experiment to assess the effectiveness of Matthew Lipman’s Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme in promoting Hong Long (Chinese) children’s critical thinking. Forty-two Secondary 1 students volunteered for the experiment, from whom 28 students were randomly selected and randomly assigned to two groups of 14 each: one receiving P4C lessons and the other receiving English lessons. The students who were taught P4C were found to perform better in the reasoning test than those who were not, to be capable of discussing philosophical problems in a competent way, and to have a very positive attitude towards doing philosophy in the classroom. It was also found that P4C played a major role in developing the students’ critical thinking.Considering that the construction of children by adults as incompetent in the sense of lacking reason, maturity, or independence reinforces the traditional structure of adult authority over children in society, it runs counter to the goal of fostering critical thinking in children. As a way to return justice to childhood and to effectively promote critical thinking in children, the present study suggested reconstructing the concept of childhood, highlighting the importance of establishing a coherent public policy on promotion of agency in children and also the importance of empowering them to participate actively in research, legal, and educational institutions.




Digital Activism Decoded


Book Description

"The media has recently been abuzz with cases of citizens around the world using digital technologies to push for social and political change: from the use of Twitter to amplify protests in Iran and Moldova to the thousands of American non-profits creating Facebook accounts in the hopes of luring supporters. These stories have been published, discussed, extolled, and derided, but have not yet been viewed holistically as a new field of human endeavor. We call this field "digital activism" and its dynamics, practices, misconceptions, and possible futures are presented together for the first time in this book."--Pub. desc.




Open Society Unresolved


Book Description

Is the concept of open society still relevant in the 21st century? Do the current social, moral, and political realities call for a drastic revision of this concept? Here fifteen essays address real-world contemporary challenges to open society from a variety of perspectives. What unites the individual authors and chapters is an interest in open society’s continuing usefulness and relevance to address current problems. And what distinguishes them is a rich variety of geographical and cultural backgrounds, and a wide range of academic disciplines and traditions. While focusing on probing the contemporary relevance of the concept, several chapters approach it historically. The book features a comprehensive introduction to the history and current ‘uses’ of the theory of open society. The authors link the concept to contemporary themes including education, Artificial Intelligence, cognitive science, African cosmology, colonialism, and feminism. The diversity of viewpoints in the analysis reflects a commitment to plurality that is at the heart of this book and of the idea of open society itself.