Cultural Foundations Of Education An Interdisciplinary Exploration

Written for teachers and prospective teachers in cultural or social foundations courses, Cultural Foundations of Education, 4e, explores the cultural context of education and the impact of culture on schooling, curricula, and pedagogy.--Publisher's description.

This book offers a comprehensive look at the philosophy and history of education, going beyond traditional educational foundations books.

Originally published in 1977 and compiled over a period of 25 years of teaching and research in the fields of education and anthropology, this annotated bibliography was designed as a single source reflecting (1) historical influences (2) current trends (3) theoretical concerns and (4) practical methodology at the interfaces of these disciplines. All entries, listed alphabetically by author, are numbered for ready reference, and the material covered spans nearly three centuries, from the earliest entry in 1689 to the most recent in 1976. The volume also contains entries for items dealing with the teaching of anthropology and the use of anthropological concepts and data in teaching.

Rushdoony's study tells us an important part of American history: exactly what has public education been trying to accomplish? Before the 1830s and Horace Mann, no schools in the U.S. were state supported or state controlled. They were local, parent-teacher enterprises, supported without taxes, and taking care of all children. They were remarkably high in standard and were Christian. From Mann to the present, the state has used education to socialize the child. The school's basic purpose, according to its own philosophers, is not education in the traditional sense of the 3 R's. Instead, it is to promote "democracy" and "equality," not in their legal or civic sense, but in terms of the engineering of a socialized citizenry. Public education became the means of creating a social order of the educators design. Such men saw themselves and the school in messianic terms. This book was instrumental in launching the Christian school and homeschool movements.