Relational "(e)pistemologies"

The Author: Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. As Professor of Education, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on philosophy and history of education, social philosophy, and cultural diversity in the Cultural Studies Program at the University of Tennessee. Her primary areas of research as a philosopher of education are pragmatism, feminist theory and pedagogy, and cultural studies in education. She is an active member in numerous professional organizations such as the American Educational Research Association, the American Educational Studies Association, and the Philosophy of Education Society, and presents papers regularly at their annual conferences. She is the author of several book chapters and over fifty journal articles published in professional journals such as The Journal of Thought, Educational Theory, Studies in Philosophy and Education, Inquiry, Educational Foundations, and Educational Studies. She has written two previous books, Philosophy Applied to Education: Nurturing a Democratic Community in the Classroom (with Charles S. Bacon as a contributing author) and Transforming Critical Thinking: Thinking Constructively.

«Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon has written a book in a rare genre; it is both a textbook by its scope and thoroughness, and a work of original scholarship by the level of theoretical contribution. Both teachers and scholars interested in theory of knowledge and feminist theory will find it informative, provocative, and accessible. The author easily mixes heavy theoretical discussion with personal anecdotes and observations. Thayer-Bacon invites us to an intellectual adventure in search of the building blocks for the emerging relational view of the universe. We visit traditional Western epistemologists and their feminist, pragmatist and postmodernist critics. The author tackles the big scary ‘R’ word (relativism), and travels through multiple forms and layers of human relations. She is not afraid to enter territories many would consider too far from mainstream philosophy; along the way we meet God, Native American spirits, Buddha and some very unorthodox scientists. This is a courageous attempt to save epistemology from itself by bringing the notion of relation into the center of attention.» (Alexander Sidorkin, Bowling Green State University)