PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION[1]

Briercrest College

PHI300

 

Joel L. From, Ph.D                                                                         Office:        Room # 132

Winter 2010                                                                            Office Hours:        By Appt.

3 Credit Hours                                                                       Office Phone:       756-3203

jfrom@briercrest.ca                                                               Home Phone:        756-2847

Web-page: www.joelfrom.com

 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

 

This course provides a philosophical analysis of classic, modern, analytic, and post-analytic theories of education. Major theorists studied include: Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Whitehead, Dewey, Hirst, Peters, and Rorty. Particular attention will be paid to varying conceptions of the nature, scope, purpose, and social implications of education. Each student will participate in a semester-long project involving philosophical research, writing, peer review, and public defense.

 

 

COURSE TEXTBOOKS:

 

Classic and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Education. First Edition. Edited by Steven M. Cahn. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997.  ISBN-13: 9780070096196

 

Each student is required to purchase a Philosophy of Education course package. It will be charged to your student account after it is delivered to you in class after add/drops. For no cost to the student, your instructor will distribute the first required reading on the first day of class.

 

Each student is required to purchase Philosophy of Education class notes which will be distributed each day in class. They will be charged to your student account after add/drops.

 

Quick Reference Format Guide 2007-2008: Each student is required to have a copy of the current Briercrest College Format Guide.

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

 

A.      Cognitive Objectives

 

          1.       To develop competence in reading philosophically

          2.       To provide a foundation for understanding contemporary educational thought and practice

          3.       To encourage reflexive awareness of one’s own educational assumptions

 

B.      Affective Objectives

 

          1.       To cause the student to feel the force of well-crafted arguments, especially when they differ from his or her own view

          2.       To help the student appreciate the beauty of new and penetrating insights

          3.       To initiate the student into the realm of fundamental ideas

 

C.      Skill Development Objectives

 

1.       To facilitate argument reconstruction, analysis, and composition

2.             To assist the student in detecting and appreciating sound reasoning

3.       To encourage reading with historical and conceptual understanding

 

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

 

A.      Each student will read the Required Readings prior to the relevant class session. Unannounced quizzes will be given in class. Quizzes will cover the required readings for that day. 

          Value:          10%

 

B.      Each student will participate in a semester-long project involving philosophical research, writing, peer-review, and public defense. In order to accomplish this, the student will select a major philosopher of education from among Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Whitehead, or Dewey and a specific philosophy-of-education problem that emerges in his writing. The topic should be cleared with your instructor. It is imperative that your project focus on the philosophical evaluation of an educational thesis advanced by your chosen author.

 

Each student will produce a draft of a thesis-defense paper (10-12 pages in length) on this philosophy of education problem by class # 15 (Mar. 4). Students should bring copies of their drafts for two other students as well as their instructor.

 

Each student is expected to produce a 3-page evaluation of the argument contained in his or her peers’ drafts by class # 17 (Mar. 18).  At that time, a copy of each student’s evaluations should be returned to the draft’s author and to your instructor. By class # 20 (Mar. 29) your instructor will provide an evaluation of each student’s draft and the peer-to-peer evaluations. Students will be expected to revise their drafts in light of all of their evaluations.

 

Your instructor will select up to three of the strongest papers for oral presentation. These presentations (based on revised drafts) will held in class on April 6, 8, 13. Students selected will be eligible for up to a 5 percent bonus on their final grade. If you are chosen to present, please give your instructor a copy of your revised draft 24 hours prior to your oral presentation. Your instructor will duplicate your paper for each member of the class.

 

Each student will submit a final draft of his or her paper no later than 5:00 p.m. on the last day of our course (April 13). These final drafts must be clearly responsive to the issues raised in the oral presentations (if applicable), your peers’ comments, and the comments of your instructor.

 

The grade for this project is itemized as follows:

 

1.              First draft—30%

2.              Evaluation of peers’ drafts—15%

3.              [Class presentation—5%]

4.              Final draft—15%

 

C.      Each student will build a portfolio of his or her work in the class.  A portfolio must be accompany each document submitted to your instructor. Submissions without portfolios will not be accepted.

 

D.      Each student will write a Final Exam (as scheduled by the Registrar) worth 30% of the final grade.

 

 

COURSE OUTLINE AND REQUIRED READINGS:

 

 

Unit

Section Title

Required Readings[2]

Class #

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Ozmon & Craver, “Introduction” [Handout]

“Introduction” [CCR]

1

 

 

 

 

Unit 1.

CLASSIC THEORIES

 

 

 

“Socrates”

Meno [CCR]

2

 

Plato

The Republic [CCR]

3

 

Aristotle

Nicomachean Ethics [CCR]

Politics [CCR]

4

5

 

John Locke

Some Thoughts Concerning Education [CCR]

6

 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Emile, 163-181 [CCR]

Emile, 182-196  [CCR]

7

8

 

Immanuel Kant

Thoughts on Education [CCR]

9

 

John S. Mill

Inaugural Address at St. Andrews [CCR]

10,11

 

Alfred N. Whitehead

The Aims of Education and Other Essays [CCR]

12

 

John Dewey

The Child and the Curriculum, 274-88 [CCR]

Democracy and Education, 288-317 [CCR]

Experience and Education, 325-63 [CCR]

13

13

14

 

 

 

 

Unit 2.

ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

 

 

 

The Emergence of Analytic Philosophies

Ozmon & Craver, “Analytic Philosophy of Education” [CP]

Hirst & White, “The Analytic Tradition” [CP]

15

 

15

 

Analysis of ‘Education’

R. S. Peters, “Education as Initiation” [CP]

16

 

Analysis of ‘Teaching’

P. Hirst, “What is Teaching?” [CCR]

17

 

Analysis of ‘Liberal Education’

P. Hirst, “Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge” [CP]

18,19

 

 

 

 

Unit 3

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

 

 

 

Hermeneutics and Post-Modernism

R. Rorty, “Hermeneutics, General Studies and Teaching” [CCR]

20

 

Traditional Liberal Arts Education Revisited

J. Searle, “Traditionalists and Their Challengers” [CCR]

21

 

 

 

 

 

CLASS PRESENTATIONS

 

22-24

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. Translated by David Ross. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

 

Aronowtiz, Stanley, and Henry A. Giroux. A Postmodern Education: Politics, Culture, and Social Criticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991.

 

Augustine. Against the Academicians and The Teacher. Translated by Peter King. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995.

 

Bowles, Samuel and Herbert Gintis. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books, 1977.

 

Brickhouse, Thomas C. and Nicholas D. Smith. Plato’s Socrates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

 

Brody, Harry S. Building a Philosophy of Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1961.

 

Brubacher, John S. Modern Philosophies of Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939.

 

Butler, J. Donald. Idealism in Education. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

 

Classic and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Education. Edited by Steven M. Cahn. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997.

 

Contemporary Analytic and Linguistic Philosophies. Edited by E. D. Klemke. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1983.

 

Dewey, John. The Child and the Curriculum and the School and Soceity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

 

Dewey, John. Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1916.

 

Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1938.

 

Dewey, John. “My Pedagogical Creed.” School Journal 54:3 (Jan. 16, 1897): 77-80.

 

Dewey, John. The School and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1915.

 

Durkheim, Emile. Moral Education: A Study in the Theory and Application of the Sociology of Education. New York: The Free Press, 1973.

 

Educational Reconstruction: Promise and Challenge. Edited by Nobuo Shimahara. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Publishing Co., 1973.

 

Erasmus, Desiderius. The Education of the Christian Prince. Translated by Neil Cheshire and Michael J. Heath. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

 

Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics. Edited by Amelie Rorty. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

 

Frieri, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Seabury Press, 1970.

 

Gallagher, Shaun. Hermeneutics and Education. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.

 

Green, Thomas F. The Activities of Teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

 

Gutmann, Amy. Democratic Education. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

 

Hirst, Paul H., and Patricia White. “The Analytic Tradition and Philosophy of Education: An Historical Perspective.” In Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition. Volume I. Philosophy and Education. Edited by Paul H. Hirst and Patricia White. London: Routledge, 1998.

 

Hirst, Paul H. “Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge.” In Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition. Volume I. Philosophy and Education. Edited by Paul H. Hirst and Patricia White. London: Routledge, 1998.

 

Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

 

Jaeger, Werner. “The Origins of Educational Theory and the Ideal of Culture.” In Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. 3 vols. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1945, 1: 298-321.

 

Kant, Immanuel. Education. Translated by Annette Charton. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1960.

 

Locke, John. The Educational Writings of John Locke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.

 

Locke, John. John Locke on Education. Edited by Peter Gay. New York: Teachers College Press, 1964.

 

Lord, Carnes. Education and Culture in the Political Thought of Aristotle. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982.

 

Morgan, T. J. Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

 

Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Schopenhauer As Educator.” [1874] in Untimely Meditations. Daniel Breazeale, ed., trans. R. J. Hollingdale. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 127-94.

 

Oakeshott, Michael. “Political Education.” In Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. Indianapolis: LibertyFund, 1991, 43-69.

 

Oakeshott, Michael. “The Tower of Babel.” In Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. Indianapolis: LibertyFund, 1991, 465-87.

 

Ozmon, Howard A. and Samuel M. Craver. “Analytic Philosophy of Education.” In Philosophical Foundations of Education. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2003.

 

Ozmon, Howard A. and Samuel M. Craver. “Introduction” In Philosophical Foundations of Education. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2003.

 

Ozmon, Howard A. and Samuel M. Craver. Philosophical Foundations of Education. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2003.

 

Peters, R. S. Authority, Responsibility and Education. 3d ed. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959.

 

Peters, R. S. “Education as Initiation.” In Authority, Responsibility and Education. 3d Edition. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973.

 

Peters, R. S. Ethics and Education. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1965.

 

The Philosophy of Education. Edited by R. S. Peters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973.

 

Philosophers on Education: New Historical Perspectives. Edited by Amelie Oksenberg Rorty. London: Routledge, 1998.

 

Price, Kingsley. “Philosophy of Education, History Of.” In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 8 vols. Edited by Paul Edwards. New York: Macmillan/Free Press, 1967.

 

Putnam, Hilary, and Ruth Anna Putnam. “Education for Democracy.” Educational Theory 43:4 (Fall 1993): 361-376.

 

Rorty, Richard. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

 

Rorty, Richard. Philosophy and Social Hope. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

 

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile. Translated by Alan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1979.

 

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. On the Social Contract. Translated by Judith R. Masters. New York: St. Martin, 1978.

 

Russell, Bertrand. Education and the Good Life. New York: Buni and Liveright, 1926.

 

Russell, Bertrand. Education and the Modern World. New York: W. W. Norton, 1932.

 

Russell, Bertrand. Education and the Social Order. London: Allen & Unwin, 1932

 

Ryle, Gilbert. The Concept of Mind. London: Hutchinson, 1949.

 

Schiller, Friedrich. On the Aesthetic Education of Man. Translated by Reginald Snell. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1965.

 

Scheffler, Israel. The Language of Education. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1960.

 

Searle, John R. “Is There a Crisis in American Higher Education?” Partisan Review 60 (1993).

 

Searle, John R. “Rationality and Realism: What is at Stake?” Daedalus 122:4 (Fall 1993): 55-83.

 

Scolnicov, Samuel. Plato’s Metaphyics of Education. London: Routledge, 1988.

 

Soltis, Jonas F. An Introduction to the Analysis of Educational Concepts. 2d ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1977.

 

Taylor, Charles et al. Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition. Edited by Amy Gutmann. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

 

Teloh, Henry. Socratic Education in Plato’s Early Dialogues. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.

 

Whitehead, Alfred N. The Aims of Education and Other Essays. New York: Free Press, 1957.

 

Wilson, John. Thinking with Concepts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963.

 

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. New York: Macmillan, 1968.

 

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness.  Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1961.

COURSE PACKAGE

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

Ozmon, Howard A. and Samuel M. Craver. “Analytic Philosophy of Education.” In Philosophical Foundations of Education. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2003.

 

Hirst, Paul H. and Patricia White. “The Analytic Tradition and Philosophy of Education: An Historical Perspective.” In Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition. Volume I. Philosophy and Education. Edited by Paul H. Hirst and Patricia White. London: Routledge, 1998.

 

Peters, R. S. “Education as Initiation.” In Authority, Responsibility and Education. 3d Edition. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973.

 

Hirst, Paul H. “Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge.” In Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition. Volume I. Philosophy and Education. Edited by Paul H. Hirst and Patricia White. London: Routledge, 1998.

 

 

Sample Paper:

 

Weber, Greg. “The Role of History in Emile’s Education.” Unpublished Manuscript, 2006.

 


[1]Course content, requirements, and examinations are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances.

[2]Readings followed by [CP] can be found in the Philosophy of Education course package; readings followed by [CCR] can be found in the course textbook, Classic and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Education.