The Aims Of Edu

Presents the texts of a series of lectures delivered between 1912 and 1928 on the purposes and practice of education.

Here international philosophers of education explore and question diverse strains of the liberal tradition, discussing not only autonomy but other key issues such as: * social justice * national identity * curriculum * critical thinking * social practices. The contributors write from a variety of standpoints, offering many interpretations of what liberalism might mean in educational terms.

John White's study is the most substantial work on what the aims of education should be since Whitehead's Aims of Education of 1929. It draws on material not only from schools and colleges, but also from the broader educative or miseducative nature of the 'ethos' of society and some of its major institutions. Sifting the different views about aims which are now prevalent and circulating in the world of education, he integrates the more defensible of them into an articulated set of positive recommendations. The study takes a broadly philosophical and non-technical st∧ it is written to help practitioners orient themselves in what is often bewildering territory, at a time when the question of what the aims of education ought to be has acquired a new urgency for politicians and educational administrators, as well as for those directly involved in educational institutions, head teachers and their staff.

This book features a group of top-notch philosophers tackling some of the biggest questions in higher education: What role should the liberal arts have in a college education? Should colleges orient themselves to the educational demands of the business sector? What is the role of highly selective colleges in the public sphere? To what extent should they be subsidized directly, or indirectly, by the public? Should they simply teach students skills and academic knowledge, or should they play a role in shaping character, and if so to what end? Should highly selective colleges admissions practices give an edge to racial minorities, or legacies, or poor students? How much should the public purse subsidize disadvantaged students attending such institutions? These questions are fundamentally about moral and political valuesquestions of distributive justice and of what constitutes valuable education. Philosophers are trained to identify value considerations in great detailindeed, often with more precision than is ever needed for practical purposes!but most disagreements about policy and practice proceed with minimal attention to the values assumed on either side, and all sides can benefit from more clarity about exactly what moral values are at play. The philosophers here, then, address some of the fundamental questions underlying debates about higher educationand in ways that are interesting and accessible to others."

International Law on the Aims of Education is a practical and tangible guide to the international legal standards on the aim and content of education. Using Article 29 of The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a reference point, the book provides a detailed legal analysis of international minimum standards on how a child should be educated. The book adopts a traditional legal positivist approach to explore the scope and nature of international law on the aims of education. It is divided into three main questions: 1) What is international law and are the aims of education valid legal obligations? 2) What is the content and scope of these laws on the aims of education? 3) What are the obligations of authorities and teachers to respect and fulfil the law? The book is unique as the first book on international law dedicated separately to the aims of primary and secondary school education, not only focusing on human rights education. This book will be of great interest for teacher students, scholars and post graduate students in the field of education. It will also appeal to legal scholars as well as policymakers.

This book develops a conception of student flourishing as the overarching aim of education. Taking as its basis the Aristotelian concept of eudaimonia, it provides a theoretical study of the foundations of flourishing that goes well beyond Aristotle’s approach. Flourishing as the Aim of Education argues that the ‘good life’ of the student, to which education should contribute, must involve engagement with self-transcendent ideals and ignite awe-filled enchantment. It allows for social, individual and educational variance within the concept of flourishing, and it engages with a host of socio-political as well as ‘spiritual’ issues that are often overlooked in literature discussing character education. Each chapter closes with food for thought for practitioners who can directly facilitate student flourishing. An outgrowth of the author’s previous monograph Aristotelian Character Education, this book follows new directions in questioning how to educate young people towards a life of overall flourishing. It will be of great interest to researchers, academics and post-graduate students in the fields of character education, moral education and moral philosophy, as well as to educators and policy-makers.