Leaders In Philosophy Of Education

n this book, 24 leading philosophers of education since 1970 who remain influential today present the fascinating stories of their lives and important new contributions to the field.

In the late 1950s plans were initiated to bring a higher level of professionalism to the training of educational professionals. New projects included introducing contemporary scholarship from the humanities and social sciences into colleges of education to revitalize the education knowledge base. In North America and the United Kingdom, analytical philosophers were recruited to inaugurate a ‘new philosophy of education.’ Analytical philosophy of education soon spread throughout the English speaking world. By the 1980s this analytical impulse had largely subsided. Philosophers trained in analytical philosophy and their students turned to more ambitious normative pursuits related to problems of social justice and democracy. Meanwhile, feminist philosophers opened up new issues regarding the education of women and the nature of teaching and knowing, and a new wave of pragmatist philosophers turned to issues of educational policy. By the 1990s Anglo-American philosophers of education welcomed a dialogue with counterparts in Western Europe, and the field responded to established trends in European philosophy ranging from critical theory and phenomenology to post-structuralism. New leaders emerged in philosophy of education representing all of these various strands. This volume documents the emergence of contemporary philosophy of education as seen by those spearheading these trends.

Revised and updated with 25 new essays, the fourth edition of this bestselling collection brings together more than 30 leaders in the field of educational theory. An engaging exploration of the ideas and trends shaping education in today's classrooms, Philosophy of Education includes topics on high-stakes testing, consumerism in education, and social justice issues in the classroom. How can we teach students moral values while avoiding indoctrination? How should a teacher deal with controversial issues in the classroom? What role should standards play in education, and who develops those standards? And why is the link between theory and practice in the classroom important in the first place? Philosophy of Education provides students, teachers, and administrators with a lively and accessible introduction to the central debates and issues in education today.

The Joy of Not Knowing takes every aspect of the curriculum and of school life and transforms it into a personalised, meaningful and enjoyable experience for all. It offers readers an innovative, theoretical and practical guide to establish a values-based, enquiry-led and challenge-rich learning to learn approach to teaching and learning and to school leadership. This thought-provoking guide provides the reader with a wealth of whole-class, easy-to-implement, malleable, practical ideas and case studies that can be personalised to the vision of each setting, age-group and curriculum. It brings together, as a whole-school framework, the strategies that have been shown to have the greatest impact on practitioner’s professional fulfilment and on children’s life chances, love of learning, intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm for wanting to know. The Joy of Not Knowing enables schools to launch the academic year with a bespoke JONK Learning to Learn Week that enables every student to succeed develops philosophical, creative and critical problem-solving and multi-lingual thinking skills establishes collaborative cultures of thinking, learning and leadership informs practice through active action research incorporates a values-led democratic approach to school life nurtures school-pupil-family-community partnerships Designed for school leaders and practitioners at all levels and across all ages, this practical guide shows how all students can thrive and develop the dispositions of successful lifelong learners and global citizens.

Underlying the controversy surrounding educational reform and the crisis facing American public education today is the question of leadership: Who is to exercise it and what direction should it take? In his systematic redefinition of educational leadership, Spencer J. Maxcy develops a democratic, participatory model of leadership at all levels. Drawing on the work of philosophers from John Dewey and William James to contemporary neo-pragmatists, he explores the nature of shared leadership and its potential to foster socio-cultural reform through schooling.

This book shows that educational leadership is not a science but a philosophical activity, a moral art. The central problem of administration is defined as value conflict, and Hodgkinson presents an analysis and theory of value and of conflict resolution. He examines what it means to be a leader and how to cope with the pressures of organizational life. Additionally, he deals with leadership as a human and humane process engaging consciousness and will in a context of values and ethics.

For decades, we have looked to management theorists, organizational psychologists and economists to tell us how we can squeeze the most out of people at work. The result? People are uninspired, feel like cogs in a machine and prefer to leave traditional work structures behind. Numbers and productivity can only get you so far. What Philosophy Can Teach You About Being a Better Leader offers a different route that will allow you to reconnect with the humanist values of work. By turning to philosophy, and what it teaches us about finding fulfilment and living a good life, this book uncovers the ways you can re-engage your workforce by valuing its members as people, rather than just tools within the process. The four authors argue that the rise of the 'omnipotent leader', who focuses on telling rather than leading, risks creating a new generation of feudal CEOs and needs to be resisted. With the help of Aristotle, Socrates, Kant and Nietzsche, as well as a whole host of other brilliant minds, they turn traditional management practices on their head, showing how moving away from traditional, hierarchical, risk focused control structures can lead to improved employee engagement, increased productivity and better outcomes for the entire business.

In this book Reynold Macpherson initiates a politically-critical theory of educative leadership as a fresh line of inquiry in the practice, research and theory of educational administration and educational leadership. Divided into four parts, the book introduces the sub-discipline of political philosophy to the field of educational administration, management and leadership. It does this by clarifying the knowledge domain of each and identifying how four political ideologies, specifically pragmatism, communitarianism, communicative rationalism and egalitarian liberalism, have primarily informed and surreptitiously provided contestable justifications for power in the development of practice, research and theory in the field of study. The book goes on to offer three case studies illustrating how political philosophy can be used to interpret how people become leaders and administrators of educational institutions and systems. Additional case studies then demonstrate how crises in governance in educational institutions and systems can be analyzed and improvements made using the tools of political philosophy. The final part uses the sub-discipline to critique the author’s decades of research into educative leadership, and concludes the book by both establishing the relativity of politically-critical critique and the ideology it favours; neo-pragmatism. Political Philosophy, Educational Administration and Educative Leadership will provide practitioners, researchers and theorists in educational administration, management and leadership with a deeper appreciation of power by formally introducing them to the assumptions, limits and tools of political philosophy.