Philosophy of Education

Citation

Noddings, N. (2015). Philosophy of Education (4th ed.). Westview Press.

Chapter Summary

The fourth edition runs to about 300 pages (xvii + 281 in the library record): twelve chapters with a preface, notes and a bibliography. The publisher describes a text designed to give education students a comprehensive look at philosophical thought in relation to teaching, learning, research and educational policy, introducing the evolution of educational thought from the founders to contemporary theorists and covering both analytic and continental traditions. The chapter list shows a clear two-part shape: four chapters on the history and schools of philosophy, then eight chapters that apply philosophy to particular areas of education.

Chapter 1: Philosophy of Education before the Twentieth Century

The historical starting point, covering educational thought before 1900, the period of the "founding fathers" in the publisher's description.

Chapter 2: The Philosophical and Educational Thought of John Dewey

A whole chapter on Dewey, the only thinker given his own chapter in the table of contents.

Chapters 3–4: Analytic Philosophy; Continental Philosophy

The two major twentieth-century traditions, presented in turn; the publisher emphasises that the book considers both.

Chapter 5: Logic and Critical Thinking

Revised for this edition to make the topic more accessible to students, according to the publisher, and to examine the role of critical thinking in light of the Common Core standards in the United States.

Chapters 6–7: Epistemology and Education; Philosophy of Social Science and Educational Research

Two chapters on knowledge: theories of knowledge and their bearing on education, and the philosophical questions behind educational research.

Chapters 8–9: Ethics and Moral Education; Social and Political Philosophy

Ethics and moral education, then social and political philosophy as it bears on education.

Chapters 10–12: Problems of School Reform; Multiculturalism and Cosmopolitanism; Feminism, Philosophy, and Education

The book closes with three chapters on contemporary issues: school reform, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism, and feminist philosophy in relation to education.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–4: Traditions of thought

• Analytic philosophy of education: the tradition that clarifies educational concepts and arguments through careful analysis of language and logic.
• Continental philosophy: the European traditions treated alongside analytic philosophy.
• Dewey's educational thought: the only individual philosophy given a chapter of its own, placed between the earlier history and the twentieth-century traditions.

Chapters 5–7: Reasoning and knowledge

• Critical thinking: reasoning well about claims and arguments, discussed here in relation to logic and to the Common Core standards.
• Epistemology: the theory of knowledge, and its implications for what and how schools teach.
• Philosophy of social science: questions about what educational research can establish and how.

Chapters 8–12: Values, society and reform

• Moral education: how schools should approach the ethical development of students.
• Multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism: responses to cultural diversity within and across nations.
• Feminist philosophy of education: the perspective given the final chapter of the book.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth in one volume. History, Dewey, the analytic and continental traditions, and applications to research, ethics, politics and reform fit in about 300 pages, which suits a one-semester foundations course.
• Both major traditions. The publisher stresses coverage of both analytic and continental philosophy, so students meet both ways of doing philosophy of education in one book.
• Philosophy applied to education. Eight of the twelve chapters take a topic in education, from critical thinking to school reform, rather than a philosopher or school of thought.
• A respected author and a long record. Noddings is Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education Emerita at Stanford and a past president of the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society. The first edition was described in Teaching Philosophy as the best overview in the field and predicted in Educational Theory to become a standard textbook (quotations reproduced by the publisher).

Limitations

• Survey depth. A dozen large subjects in about 280 pages of text means each chapter introduces rather than explores; students need primary texts to engage with any thinker seriously.
• United States focus in places. The revised critical-thinking chapter is framed around the Common Core standards, an American policy; readers in other systems will need to supply their own examples.
• Dated in its policy references. The 2015 edition's discussion of current standards and reform reflects that moment.

Where It Fits in the Course

Noddings is the survey textbook among the course's foundations books. Gary Thomas's Education: A Very Short Introduction is a briefer and more general starting point on the big questions of education; it works well before Noddings. Most of the other books in the course are primary texts that Noddings helps students place: Dewey's Democracy and Education and How We Think (read them after Chapter 2), Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and hooks's Teaching to Transgress in critical pedagogy, and Illich's Deschooling Society as a radical critique of schooling.

Jarvis Givens's Fugitive Pedagogy is a history of Black educational thought and teaching, a useful complement to the chapters on multiculturalism and on social and political philosophy.

How to Use This Book

Written for education students and future teachers, the book assumes no previous study of philosophy, and the publisher also presents it to anyone needing a survey of current trends in the field.

A suggested route:

• First four chapters in order. They give the historical and methodological background the later chapters assume.
• Then by topic. Chapters 5–12 can be read in any order that suits the course; trainee teachers might prioritise Chapters 5 (critical thinking), 8 (moral education) and 10 (school reform), while research students should not skip Chapter 7.
• With primary texts. After each historical chapter, read a short extract from a thinker it discusses, for example Dewey after Chapter 2.

Use the notes and bibliography to find further reading for essays, and for each applied chapter, try to state the competing positions in your own words and decide where you stand before moving on.