Philosophy of Education An Anthology

by Curren, Randall

• ISBN13: 9781405130233
• ISBN10: 1405130237
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-15
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This volume provides the most comprehensive and systematic collection of essential writings on the philosophy of education. Offering a balanced treatment of the fundamental questions and philosophical issues regarding the nature and aims of education, as well as the central debates in current educational policy, this book explores topics such as teacher professionalism and accountability, the commercialization of schooling, multicultural education, parental choice, educational equality and disabilities, and curricular controversies. Selected for their focus on important issues of educational practice as well as their philosophical merit and readability, the readings include seminal selections from Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, and Dewey, as well as numerous contemporary writings. The five major sections of the text correspond to the five basic normative dimensions of educational practice: its nature and aims, the authority it rests on, its responsibilities, the manner in which it is conducted, and the content that is communicated or learned. This innovative framework gives the collection its comprehensive scope, while keeping the focus on the fundamental philosophical issues of educational practice and policy.

Author Biography

Randall Curren is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department and Professor of Education at the University of Rochester, NY. He has published in philosophy of education, law, ethics, and history of philosophy, including Aristotle on the Necessity of Public Education (2000). He is the editor of A Companion to the Philosophy of Education (Blackwell, 2003) and of the journal Theory and Research in Education.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xii
A Note to Instructors on the Classics	p. xvi
General Introduction	p. 1
The Nature and Aims of Education	p. 5
Introduction	p. 7
What is Education?	p. 15
Turning the Psyche	p. 16
Knowing How to Rule and be Ruled as Justice Demands	p. 26
An Educated Person Can Speak Well and Persuade	p. 28
The Exercise of Reason	p. 35
The Education of Nature	p. 43
The Democratic Conception in Education	p. 47
Education as Initiation	p. 55
Banking v. Problem-solving Models of Education	p. 68
Liberal Education and the Relationship between Education and Work	p. 76
Liberal v. Mechanical Education	p. 77
Learning the Value of Work	p. 83
Education for Labor and Leisure	p. 89
Education and Standards of Living	p. 95
The Liberal Studies in a Global World: A Self-examination	p. 102
Autonomy and Exit Rights	p. 111
The Child's Right to an Open Future	p. 112
Justice, Autonomy, and the Good	p. 124
"Mistresses of their Own Destiny": Group Rights, Gender, and Realistic Rights of Exit	p. 134
Educational Authority	p. 149
Introduction	p. 151
The Boundaries of Educational Authority	p. 155
Education and the Limits of State Authority	p. 156
Democracy and Democratic Education	p. 159
Justice, Inequality, and Home Schooling	p. 166
Is Teaching a Profession: How Would We Know?	p. 175
The Crisis in Education	p. 188
The Commercialization of Schooling	p. 193
The Role of Government in Education	p. 194
Commercialization or Citizenship: The Case of Education	p. 200
Channel One, the Anti-Commercial Principle, and the Discontinuous Ethos	p. 208
Educational Responsibilities	p. 221
Introduction	p. 223
Educational Adequacy and Equality	p. 229
The Law of Zero-correlation	p. 230
Interpreting Equal Educational Opportunity	p. 236
Whom Must We Treat Equally for Educational Opportunity to be Equal?	p. 243
Diversity and Nondiscrimination	p. 254
Culture, Subculture, Multiculturalism: Educational Options	p. 255
The Promise of Racial Integration in a Multicultural Age	p. 266
"Getting Religion": Religion, Diversity, and Community in Public and Private Schools	p. 283
Impairment, Disability, and Excellence	p. 290
The Myths of Learning Disabilities	p. 291
A Capability Perspective on Impairment, Disability, and Special Needs	p. 298
Educating Gifted Children	p. 314
Perfectionism and Educational Policy	p. 320
Teaching and Learning	p. 325
Introduction	p. 327
Teaching	p. 335
Real Teaching	p. 336
The Teacher's Grasp of Subject-Matter	p. 347
Understanding Students	p. 351
Beyond the Reflective Teacher	p. 357
Discipline and Care	p. 367
Social Control	p. 368
The One-Caring as Teacher	p. 372
School Sexual Harassment Policies: The Need for Both Justice and Care	p. 377
Inquiry, Understanding, and Constructivism	p. 389
Learning by Discovery	p. 390
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Many Faces of Constructivism	p. 398
Constructivisms and Objectivity: Disentangling Metaphysics from Pedagogy	p. 410
Education and the Advancement of Understanding	p. 417
Critical Thinking and Reasoning	p. 423
Reasoning with Children	p. 424
Against Reasoning with Children	p. 425
Education for Critical Thinking	p. 427
The Reasons Conception	p. 435
The Value of Reason: Why Not a Sardine Can Opener?	p. 448
Grading and Testing	p. 458
A Discourse on Grading	p. 459
Coercion and the Ethics of Grading and Testing	p. 465
What is at Stake in Knowing the Content and Capabilities of Children's Minds? A Case for Basing High Stakes Tests on Cognitive Models	p. 477
Curriculum and the Content of Schooling	p. 491
Introduction	p. 493
Moral Education	p. 497
Moral Conventions and Moral Lessons	p. 498
Cultivating the Moral and Intellectual Virtues	p. 507
Motivation by Ideal	p. 517
Curricular Controversies	p. 527
Should We Teach Patriotic History?	p. 528
Should Creationism be Taught in the Public Schools?	p. 539
Conflicting Philosophies of School Sex Education	p. 553
The Artistic-Aesthetic Curriculum	p. 561
Index	p. 567
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