The possibilities for education in an era of schooling

What are the possibilities for education in an era of schooling? This is a persistent question and indeed challenge, for educators and educational researchers in contemporary times. At its core, education is always a promise for and process of renewal, growth and change; thus, the job of renewal, growth and change too must work to fulfil its promises and be irrefutably educational. What educationality stands for and stands up for in its complex of practices (learning, teaching, leading, professional learning, researching and evaluating) is signalled in and made apparent existentially and ontologically. This is a given; what happens in different places under different conditions among different peoples under the guises of education matters. These are broad, but real concerns, taken up in this chapter, and the authors in this book that has been developed and prepared as a festschrift for Stephen Kemmis.