Education, Knowledge and Truth: Beyond the Postmodern Impasse

by David Carr (Editor)

Overview

This collection aims to explore different conceptions of epistemological inquiry and their influence on pedagogy and the curricular content of primary and secondary education. It is arguable that curriculum policy makers have continued to subscribe to a foundationalist paradigm of rational educational planning. This is, however, considered largely untenable by educational philosophers in light of the impact of 'postmodern' philsophical critiques on the notions of objectivity, truth and authority in our claims for knowledge. This volume fills a major gap in the current literature of educational philosophy by calling for the establishment of a coherent route between rational foundationalism and intellectually promiscuous postmodernism in order to address the point and purpose of contemporary education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138881068
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/02/2014
Series:	Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of Education
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

David Carr

Table of Contents

List of Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: The post-war rise and fall of educational epistemology David Carr Part I: Knowledge in General 1. Knowledge, truth and education HArvey Siegel 2. Interpretation, construction and the 'postmodern' ethos David E. Cooper Part II: Knowledge in Particular 3. Science, education after postmodernism Jim MacKenzie 4. Truth in religion: Wittgensteinian considerations Fergus Kerr 5. Truth, arts education and the 'postmodern condition' Graham McFee 6. Fictional Truth Lynne McFall 7. Moral Education and the objectivity of values David Carr 8. Virtues and human flourishing: a teleological justification Jan Steutel Part III: The Wider Socio-Political Context 9. The politics of difference and common education Eamonn Callan 10. Epistemology, politics and curriculum construction Denis C. Phillips 11. Feminism, epistemology and education Shirley Pendlebury Part IV: Knowledge and Learning 12. Learning as invention: education and constructivism Christopher Winch 13. Education, knowledge and critical thinking Kevin Williams Postscript Index

Editorial Reviews

'...Carr's volume of readings should be welcomed as an intellectual challenge to those responsible for current educational planning. Frank R. Adams, University of Edinburgh

This book sets out to provoke, and it succeeds... Carr is right to claim in his concluding words that if teachers are more than purveyors of second-hand information or deliverers of someone else's curriculum, they need to be able to ask philosophical questions about the discipl9ines they are concerned with. This collection brings together essays appropriate to the task.' - Philosophical Quarterly

'...Timely...this is an important book for any person in the 'world' of education, and especially for courses in professional ethics.' - Educational Philosophy and Theory

From the Publisher

Contributors from an international team of educational and other scholars reinstate conceptual problems concerning knowledge, truth, and the curriculum on the agenda of educational philosophical debate. They explore different epistemological conceptions in relation to their influence on the pedagogy of primary and secondary education, with the ultimate aim of carving a coherent route between rational foundationalism and intellectually indiscriminate postmodernism. Contains sections on knowledge in general, knowledge in particular, the wider socio-political context, and knowledge and learning. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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