Online research in philosophy

Learning about ‘nature’ has particular significance for education because the idea of nature is an important source of inspiring meaning-rich experience and creation. In order to have meaningful experiences in learning and living, this paper argues for a personal subject-related lifeworld approach to the learning of ‘nature’. Many authors claim that the lifeworld-led learning approach helps to enrich educational experience. However, there can be various interpretations of the lifeworld approach, as the concept of lifeworld is diversely understood. This paper proposes (...) a personal, subject-related lifeworld approach from a Husserlian-Merleau-Pontian perspective. I suggest that it holds great potential for improving our current curriculum which suffers from meaning-impoverishment. This paper comprises the following parts: the elucidation of the lifeworld approach to learning, a demonstration of the flaws of current curricula by discussing and analysing the Taiwanese curriculum guidelines, and an exposition of the contribution of the Husserlian-Merleau-Pontian lifeworld approach towards improving our current curriculum. (shrink)

This paper aims at revealing the various meanings of schools as more than built physical environments from a geographical-phenomenological (or ‘geo-phenomenological’) perspective. This paper consists of five sections: the first explicates the meaning of ‘geo-phenomenology’; the second reveals the meaning of ‘environment’ and a dialectics of strangeness and intimacy through geo-phenomenological analysis; the third examines the meanings of environment as ‘space’ and ‘place’ and the act of naming as the process of constructing meaning between humans and environment; the fourth section (...) attempts to explore the meaning of conceiving school as a particular environment; and the final is the conclusion. (shrink)