Education: A Contested Concept

Journal of Philosophy of Education

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 25-31

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EID: 1542711283     PISSN: 03098249     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9752.1996.tb00377.x     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. See, for example, Hamm's construal of Peters's account in Philosophical Issues in Education, 1989, pp. 38-39: 'Education is the achievement of a desirable state of mind characterised by knowledge and understanding in breadth and depth with cognitive perspective and by corresponding appropriate emotions and attitudes, these brought about deliberately, in a manner not to infringe upon the voluntariness and willingness of the part of the learner.'
2. In this book the term 'liberal' as it applies to education means the conception of education as primarily concerned either with personal fulfilment or with the achievement of an acquaintance with a cultural heritage. According to many liberal theorists, the achievement of the latter is a precondition for the achievement of the former. Neo-liberalism on the other hand refers to a set of political doctrines that advocate the minimum of state regulation and the maximum of exposure to market forces.
3. With the change from an oligarchal to a democratic society, it is natural that the significance of an education which should have as a result ability to make one's way economically in the world, and to manage economic resources usefully instead of for mere display and luxury, should receive emphasis. Cp. John Dewey, Democracy and Education, 1916, Chapter IX, p. 119.
4. National Commission on Education, Learning to Succeed, 1993, p. 151: 'The vast majority [sc. of children] believed that schools should help them to do as well as possible in their exams and teach them things that would be useful when they entered jobs.'
5. The term is originally due to W. B. Gallie, Essentially contested concepts, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1955-6, pp. 167-198. For a later account, see M. Naish, Education and essential contestability, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 18.2, 1984, pp. 141-154.
6. The term is originally due to W. B. Gallie, Essentially contested concepts, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1955-6, pp. 167-198. For a later account, see M. Naish, Education and essential contestability, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 18.2, 1984, pp. 141-154.
7. For example Gray, op. cit., p. 27; P. Abbs, Training spells the death of education, The Guardian, 7 January 1987; James Muir, The Isocratic idea of education and the irrelevance of the state versus market debate, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, 1994, pp. 21-27.
8. For example Gray, op. cit., p. 27; P. Abbs, Training spells the death of education, The Guardian, 7 January 1987; James Muir, The Isocratic idea of education and the irrelevance of the state versus market debate, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, 1994, pp. 21-27.
9. For example Gray, op. cit., p. 27; P. Abbs, Training spells the death of education, The Guardian, 7 January 1987; James Muir, The Isocratic idea of education and the irrelevance of the state versus market debate, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, 1994, pp. 21-27.
10. See Ralf Dahrendorf, On Britain, 1982, Chapters 7 and 8.
11. The origins of the liberal conception of education can be found in the work of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. There it was considered a suitable preparation for the kind of life of contemplative leisure favoured by those philosophers.
12. See M. Sanderson, The Missing Stratum: Technical Education in England 1900-1990, 1994, however, on the enthusiasm which the Junior Technical Schools excited among many employers, as well as among children and their parents.
13. Ibid., Chapters 5-8 in particular.
14. See H. Entwistle, Education, Work and Leisure, 1970; C. Winch, Vocational education: a liberal interpretation, Studies in Philosophy of Education, 1995, for developments of this theme.
15. See H. Entwistle, Education, Work and Leisure, 1970; C. Winch, Vocational education: a liberal interpretation, Studies in Philosophy of Education, 1995, for developments of this theme.
16. See Anna Coote and Naomi Pfeffer, op. cit.
17. Coote and Pfeffer term this the 'scientific' or expert approach, op. cit. pp. 5-9. For a recent account of 'payment by results' see Harold Silver, Good Schools, Effective Schools, 1994, Chapter 3.
18. Coote and Pfeffer term this the 'scientific' or expert approach, op. cit. pp. 5-9. For a recent account of 'payment by results' see Harold Silver, Good Schools, Effective Schools, 1994, Chapter 3.
19. See, in particular, Chapters 8 and 11.
20. See Coote and Pfeffer, op. cit., for a useful account of these definitions. For an account of different kinds of public goods, see Orchard and Stretton, op. cit., pp. 54-55.
21. See Coote and Pfeffer, op. cit., for a useful account of these definitions. For an account of different kinds of public goods, see Orchard and Stretton, op. cit., pp. 54-55.
22. Plato, The Republic, Book IV; also Book X.
23. Something like this appears to have happened in 1994, in relation to British higher education, against a background of concern about 'falling standards' in the newer (ex-polytechnic) universities.