Education about the deepest issues facing human beings mostly occur in the hurly-burly of everyday life. There and then, we learn about our faiths, and about those who challenge them. There and then, we learn about the most burning issues of our ongoing lives--our environment, health, technology, etc. There and then, we teach all these matters to our children, peers and contemporaries.
The participants in this Study Group are dedicated to highlighting the processes by which we find out what is going on around us and then deliberate what to do about it, with whom and against whom. Our projects are both research-based and policy-oriented. We seek to document systematically the ongoing efforts of people as they seek to educate themselves and each other. We also investigate the consequences of such activities for the institutions that may participate most directly in this education, including schools but also the media, health providers, the state beyond departments of education, etc.
Specifically, we emphasize three complementary approaches to the development of a more comprehensive understanding of education: