For two reasons, we are particularly proud to include Wolfgang Brezinka's Philosophy of Educational Knowledge in this series of books on Philosophy of Education. Thefirst is the philosophicalinterestoftheworkitself-its remarkablescholarship and the importance ofthe philosophical positionswill beobvious to allreaders. The secondisthat it brings to the English-speaking world a wonderful example ofeducational philosophy as now being practiced in the German-speaking world. All too often philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition have not seen the sort of perspective on educational thinking that infuses this work. And since this book has been widely read in its original version, it has had a considerable impactupon philosophy ofeducational research and science in the German-speaking countries. An understanding of this may help in the development of evenmore cooperativerelations amongstudentsofeducationin all countries. C. 1. B. Macmillan D. C. Phillips PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDmON '1 am not unmindful how little can be done... in a mere treatise on Logic, or howvague and unsatisfactory all precepts of Method must necessarily appear, when not practically exemplified in the establishment of a body of doctrine. Doubtless, the most effectual mode of showing how the sciences... maybe constructed,would be to construct them". JOHNSTUARTMILL (1843)1 Parents have a duty to educate their children, teachers to educate their pupils. For this reason there is widespread interest in education. Knowledge of education has long beenoffered under names like"pedagogics", "pedagogy"or"educational theory". Originally this meant practical knowledge based on common sense. Since the Enlightenment, however, attempts have been made to acquire scientific knowledge of education.
This collection aims to explore different conceptions of epistemological inquiry and their influence on pedagogy and the curricular content of primary and secondary education. It is arguable that curriculum policy makers have continued to subscribe to a foundationalist paradigm of rational educational planning. This is, however, considered largely untenable by educational philosophers in light of the impact of 'postmodern' philsophical critiques on the notions of objectivity, truth and authority in our claims for knowledge. This volume fills a major gap in the current literature of educational philosophy by calling for the establishment of a coherent route between rational foundationalism and intellectually promiscuous postmodernism in order to address the point and purpose of contemporary education.
Cromer (physics, Northeastern U.) exposes the chasm that separates scientists from science educators. He argues that Constructivism makes students slaves of their own subjective opinions, and offers a defense of the knowability of the world, both as an objective reality and as a finite landscape of discovery. He also presents practical suggestions on developing curricula that advance students' understanding in an orderly manner, and shows how physical science offers a new direction for reforming the social sciences. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
A general introduction to key issues in the philosophy of education. The chapters are accessible to readers with no prior exposure to philosophy of education, and provide both surveys of the general domain they address, and advance the discussion in those domains.
The papers in this volume provide a coherent philosophical study of a group of important and pressing educational issues such as the selection of objectives for less able children, the fundamental characteristics of teaching and the integration of the curriculum. A thesis on the necessary differentiation of knowledge into logically distinct forms is outlined, and is defended against recent philosophical criticisms. Its implications for curriculum planning are examined, with particular reference to the urgent problems of adeqately characterizing liberal education and those forms of moral and religious education that are appropriate in maintained schools.
Philosophy is vital to the study of education, and a sound knowledge of different philosophical perspectives leads to a deeper engagement with the choices and commitments you make within your educational practice. This introductory text provides a core understanding of key moments in the history of Western philosophy. By introducing key transition points in that history, it investigates the plight of present day education, a period in which the aims and purposes of education have become increasingly unclear, leaving education open to the rise of instrumentalism and the forces of capital. Accessibly written, the book carefully analyses the common assumptions and conflicted history of education, provoking questioning about its nature and purposes. The authors argue vigorously that thinking critically about education from a philosophical perspective will give practicing and trainee teachers, as well as students on undergraduate Education and Masters-level courses a fuller command of their own role and context.
This introductory text, now in its fourth edition, is a classic in its field. It shows, first and foremost, the importance of philosophy in educational debate and as a background to any practical activity such as teaching. What is involved in the idea of educating a person or the idea of educational success? What are the criteria for establishing the optimum balance between formal and informal teaching techniques? How trustworthy is educational research? In addition to these questions, which strike to the heart of the rationale for the educative process as a whole, the authors explore such concepts as culture, creativity, autonomy, indoctrination, needs, interests and learning by discovery. In this new updated edition, the authors draw on the latest research in genetics to argue that education is uniquely human and is essentially what develops us as humans. Resisting modern tendencies to equate knowledge with opinion, and value judgements with taste, this book leads the reader into the business of philosophising and champions the cause of reason in education.
This encyclopaedia is a dynamic reference and study place for students, teachers, researchers and professionals in the field of education, philosophy and social sciences, offering both short and long entries on topics of theoretical and practical interest in educational theory and philosophy by authoritative world scholars representing the full ambit of education as a rapidly expanding global field of knowledge and expertise. This is an encyclopaedia that is truly global and while focused mainly on the Western tradition is also respectful and representative of other knowledge traditions. It professes to understand the globalization of knowledge. It is unique in the sense that it is based on theoretical orientations and approaches to the main concepts and theories in education, drawing on the range of disciplines in the social sciences. The encyclopaedia privileges the "theory of practice", recognizing that education as a discipline and activity is mainly a set of professional practices that inherently involves questions of power and expertise for the transmission, socialization and critical debate of competing norms and values.
Offers a coherent philosophical study of a group of important and pressing educational issues such as the selection of objectives for less able children, the fundamental characteristics of teaching and the integration of the curriculum.
Enrique Dussel is considered one of the founding philosophers of liberation in the Latin American tradition, an influential arm of what is now called decoloniality. While he is astoundingly prolific, relatively few of his works can be found in English translation - and none of these focus specifically on education. Founding members of the Latin American Philosophy of Education Society David I. Backer and Cecilia Diego bring to us Dussel's THE PEDAGOGICS OF LIBERATION: A Latin American Philosophy of Education, the first English translation of Dussel's thinking on education, and also the first translation of any part of his landmark multi-volume work Towards an Ethics of Latin American Liberation. Dussel's ouevre is an impressive intellectual mosaic that uses Europeans to disrupt European thinking. This mosaic has at its center French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, but also includes Ancient Greek philosophy, Thomist theology, modern Enlightenment philosophy, analytic philosophy of language, Marxism, psychoanalysis (Freud, Klein, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience), phenomenology (Sartre, Heidegger, Husserl, Hegel), critical theory (Frankfurt School, Habermas), and linguistics. Dussel joins these traditions to Latin American history, literature, and philosophy, specifically the work of Octavio Paz, Ivan Illich, and the philosophers of liberation whom Dussel studied with in Argentina before his exile to Mexico in the late 1970s. Drawing heavily from the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Dussel examines the dominating and liberating features of intimate, concrete, and observable interactions between different kinds of people who might sit down and have face-to-face encounters, specifically where there may be an inequality of knowledge and a responsibility to guide, teach, learn, care, or study: teacher-student, politician-citizen, doctor-patient, philosopher-nonphilosopher, and so on. Those occupying the superior position of these face-to-face encounters (teachers, politicians, doctors, philosophers) have a clear choice for Dussel when it comes to their pedagogics. They are either open to hearing the voice of the Other, disrupting their sense of what is and should be by a newness beyond what they know; or, following the dominant pedagogics, they can try to communicate and instruct their sense of what is and should be to the (supposed) tabula rasas in their charge. Dussel calls that sense of what is and should be "lo Mismo." This groundbreaking translation makes possible a face-to-face encounter between an Anglo Philosophy of Education and Latin American Pedagogics. "Pedagogics" should be considered as a type of philosophical inquiry alongside ethics, economics, and politics. Dussel's pedagogics is a decolonizing pedagogics, one rooted in the philosophy of liberation he has spent his epic career articulating. With an Introduction by renowned philosopher Linda Martin Alcoff, this book adds an essential voice to our conversations about teaching, learning, and studying, as well as critical theory in general. ENRIQUE DUSSEL was born in 1934 in the town of La Paz, in the region of Mendoza, Argentina. He first came to Mexico in 1975 as a political exile and is currently a Mexican citizen, Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Iztapalapa campus of the Universidad Aut�noma Metropolitana (Autonomous Metropolitan University, UAM), and also teaches courses at the Universidad Nacional Aut�noma de M�xico (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM). He has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy (from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo/National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina), a Doctorate from the Complutense University of Madrid, a Doctorate in History from the Sorbonne in Paris, and an undergraduate degree in Theology obtained through studies in Paris and M�nster.
