The Philosophy of Education

Description

This book for the first time brings together Professor Pring's thoughts on the philosophy of education. His writings reflect a consistency of thought about educational theory and educational aims - and the consequence of both for the nature and practice of educational research. Professor Pring draws together the different themes, providing a distinctively philosophical perspective on educational theory and practice. This perspective challenges many of the ideas which underpin government policy, impoverish educational practice and weaken educational research in a way unacknowledged even by the research's most ardent critics.

Richard Pring is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Education, and Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, UK. He was Lead Director of the six year Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training for England and Wales, and until 2003, Professor of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, UK, where he was Director of the Department.

" ... I find this volume outstanding. I know of no other book that will be so helpful to anyone wanting to make sense of, and to evaluate, three decades of British educational innovation. It should be widely read...I conclude by suggesting that one important but neglected virtue is synoptic understanding, a kind of understanding that involves not just a breadth of awareness of things and their inter-connections but depth of appreciation of their sources and motivations - an educational virtue that is rare in educational writing but splendidly evident in this volume." Dr M. Degenhardt, University of Tasmania '...This is a much richer model of a curriculum than anything to do with the cirrently predominant managerial discourse of target setting...As a classroom practitioner in the early 1970s trying to make sense of the ways that some of the mroe obscure educational reatch described the world that I shared with my pupils and colleagues it was always a relief and pleasure to read the cogent and clear analyses that characterized what Pring refers to in his book as 'philosophical puzzling'...this book will provide a welcome source of light.' Education Review, Volume 58, Number 1 -- Neil Burtonwood * Education Review * '...a revelation and a treat...it provided...a robust defence of teaching as an essentially moral practice, a careful examination of the place of vocational education in liberal education, a critique of the language of the marketplace in education, and a careful evaluation of subject-centured versus child-centered education...Combining a review of an established philosophical position with sharp insights into current practice to develop a thoroughly though-provoking read is no mean feat... A useful primer on the philosophy of John Dewy combined with a thoughtful review os some current issues in educational policy - what more could one ask of a book?' Higher Education Review, Volume 38, Number 1 -- David Turner * Higher Education Review * 'A provocative and original book that engages a remarkably wide variety of thinkers in recent Continental Philosophy ... The scope of this inquiry is broad, and its author's familiarity with 20th century European philosophical landscape quite extraordinary ... The Philosophy of Education is an admirable effort to combine rigor and creativity, philosophical reflection and artistic expression.' * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *