EDU 503 : History & Philosophy of Education

EDU 503 examines the social, historical, and philosophical foundations of contemporary schooling. The course explores the metaphysical, epistemological, moral, and political problems that educational philosophers have grappled with for centuries in their efforts to answer two questions: (1) What knowledge is most worth having? (2) What is the best way to educate students? Beginning with the classical texts of Socrates and Confucius and concluding with such modern theorists of education as John Dewey, Paulo Freire, Jean Piaget, and the Japanese educator, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the course traces the changing relations of theory and practice, philosophy and rhetoric, speculative thought and applied knowledge in the historical evolution of education worldwide. Systems of thought variously described as positivistic, naturalistic, holistic, historicist, humanist, constructivist, empirical, relativistic, and pragmatic have provided the basis for extensive argument and discussion in the social sciences, humanities, and more recently, education. The course makes a thorough study of these and other ideas in the early development and contemporary expression of the history and philosophy of education.