Interrogating Values of Adult Education Practice in Hong Kong

The practice of adult learning and education (ALE) in Hong Kong is lesser known to the wider community of ALE practitioners due to lack of exchanges with international peers. There is a small community of full-time ALE practitioners working mainly in university continuing education schools but a larger body of uncharacterised or alternative practitioners can also be found. Essentially, both types of practitioners are conservative in their outlook and they adopt strategies that align with market needs and priorities set by public funders. Under the backdrop of neoliberalism which has harmonised ALE practice worldwide, a dominant form of individualised learning makes it difficult to promote group learning for societal advancement. ALE practitioners in Hong Kong are no exception to this influence and have been found to profess philosophical orientations favouring the behaviourist/narrowed progressivist notions of learner empowerment for economic and personal gains. Given recent worldwide renewed enthusiasm in making ALE responsive to societal issues, this paper examines the options and learning areas that ALE practitioners in Hong Kong can make their contributions to, such as: health advocacy, climate justice, and media literacy. Through engaging in these aspects of work, practitioners will have to incorporate methods of facilitating group learning in formal and non-formal ALE programmes and courses. An embrace by practitioners of the original notion of progressivist philosophy in adult education may emerge as one of the outcomes to make ALE practice inclusive, relevant and socially responsible. Even with the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, it is deemed even more pressing to pursue a balanced practice approach that can take care of individual's skills transformation for post-COVID economy as well as developing human bonds that would help to make society progressive as a countercheck to neoliberal-inspired individualistic adult learning.

11. Gender and feminist criminology

This chapter focuses on criminological studies of gender, particularly women’s experiences as offenders and victims, and the extent to which women’s offending and victimisation are interlinked. It begins with an overview of how gender features in criminological studies then considers the origins and principles of feminist criminology, which is a strand of criminology that has heavily influenced criminological studies of gender and crime. The chapter also explores the main theoretical traditions within feminist criminology and the philosophical orientations that influence feminist research. This exploration includes the criticisms levelled against feminist criminology. Finally, the chapter examines how more recent strands of feminist thought have tried to respond to these criticisms.

Fundamentals of Hermeneutics as A Qualitative Research Theoretical Framework

This article is written to inspire researchers to use hermeneutics as a qualitative research theoretical framework. Given the extensive scope inherent to this subject matter, it was decided to delimit the discussion to the fundamental information one may seek to know about hermeneutics. Though introductory in nature, it is still hoped that the readers may be able to gain meaningful insights which may serve as a catalyst for understanding this topic. The article has four phases. Phase one traces its historical dimension and presents its varied definitions. Phase two is focused on the four philosophical orientations. Phase three enumerates its contributors and their respective contributions. Phase four elaborates the steps researchers need to undertake when using this framework. This article may be of interest to all academics especially the neophytes who are interested in utilizing hermeneutics either as a method or methodology of a philosophical cum scientific endeavor being undertaken.

Female Soul and Feminine Spirit: Philosophical Prolegomena to a New (Women) Culture in the Interwar Radio Lectures Alice Voinescu’s and Constantin Noica’s.

Female Soul and Feminine Spirit. Philosophical Prolegomena to a New (Women) Culture in the Interwar Radio Lectures Alice Voinescu’s and Constantin Noica’s. The newly founded Romanian Radio (1927) invited since 1930 the most important personalities of the Romanian culture to speak in the frame of different radio conferences. Two of these personalities were the philosophers Alice Voinescu (1885-1961) and Constantin Noica (1909-1987). Although they represent two different philosophical orientations (Alice Voinescu as a post-metaphysical thinker and Constantin Noica as a philosopher, who tries, like Heidegger in the German culture, to rebuild metaphysics), the two interwar Romanian thinkers meet each other in some philosophical topics. One of these is the critical manner, how they are thinking about the movement of the emancipation of women in the 20thcentury. Both of them agree that the female soul and the feminine spirit have not to lose their specific features in the tendency to become active in the frame of the public sphere. In their critical thinking, Alice Voinescu and Constantin Noica meet the philosophical ideas of German philosophers like Georg Simmel and Martin Heidegger.

The Continuity of Experience, From Young William James to Mature Psychologist

The story of William James (1842–1910) in the making of American psychology begins with his self-formation. His family upbringing immersed him in philosophical and religious questions, and he searched through a range of fields at Harvard University’s Lawrence Scientific School and Medical School. These contexts enabled him to connect psychology both to his scientific training and to his philosophical reflections, with use of scientific psychology to enrich his emerging understanding of the interrelation of material and immaterial dimensions of human experience. Then, during 12 years of composing The Principles of Psychology (1890), he developed psychological theories about how different people develop commitments to different philosophical orientations, and he gravitated toward theories that integrated the role of body and mind in human thought and behavior. At the end of his career, James shifted to philosophy and religious studies, and his clear and vivid writing enabled him to become a popular public intellectual. Throughout his career, James tapped the wells of his understanding of human psychology, which began with youthful curiosity about his own mind and the range of theories around him. The Principles was at once the culmination of his youthful inquiries and a platform for his later work.

The Educational Philosophy among the Faculty Members at the Hashemite University: الفلسفة التربوية بين أعضاء هيئة التدريس بالجامعة الهاشمية

This study aims to determine the educational philosophy orientations of the faculty members at the Hashemite University. The educational philosophy orientations of faculty were examined using the quantitative research method, through the survey. A questionnaire was developed in order to identify the education philosophy orientations adopted by the faculty members, and results indicated that various philosophical orientations are held by the participants of the study from among the faculty members at the Hashemite University. Results showed that Reconstructionism was the educational philosophy adopted by a large percentage of the participants, followed by progressivism (m=4.17), Constructivism (m=4.15), Perennialism (m=4.10) and essentialism (m=3.67).

“I Want to Leave ASAP”: Black Women Teachers Discuss the Role of Administrative Support and Teacher Turnover

This article utilizes a qualitative case study methodology informed by a Black feminist theoretical lens to explore the experiences of Black women teachers, administrative support, and teacher turnover. Five self-identified Black women teachers discuss the impact that school leaders have on their decisions to leave their schools. Three common leadership practices emerged as contributory factors that influence teacher turnover: (a) arresting social justice efforts, (b) insufficient support for discipline, and (c) relationships with administration. This article concludes with a discussion about the requisite school leader philosophical orientations that support the unique needs of Black women teachers.

Relectures néoplatoniciennes de la théologie d’Aristote

On the question of the divine, as on others, the Neoplatonic tradition has gradually made the reading of Aristotle a philosophical preriquisite. The contributions gathered in this volume aim at understanding how the Neoplatonic readers of Aristotle’s theology interpreted, commented on and criticized these doctrines in the light of their philosophical orientations, but also how Aristotle’s philosophy was able to influence, in return, their own conceptions and nourish the Neoplatonic approach to the divine. In short, it is a question of specifying both the different hermeunetic uses to which the Aristotelian philosophy of the divine has lent itself and the conceptual effect of this reappropriation.

Philosophical orientations and theoretical frameworks in media effects

This paper explores the philosophical orientations within which agenda setting operates, and agenda setting’s place within the broader framework of the media effects tradition, specifically in comparison with framing and priming. It also responds to earlier criticisms of agenda setting for its supposed lack of theoretical richness and narrowly understood underlying mechanisms. Both ontological and epistemological statuses of the agenda-setting theory are analyzed in order to place agenda setting into the communication discipline’s broader context. This paper demonstrates that the most important distinction between framing and agenda setting is that they are based on different ways of knowing. While the epistemological bases of priming are similar to the theory of agenda setting, the paper argues that further progress will depend not only on practical studies of different aspects of agenda setting, but also on theoretical and philosophical conceptualizations in the future.