ABSTRACT

In this controversial and challenging book, first published in 1981, the author calls for a restoration of the humanistic literary and historical balance in our educational thinking. He argues that the philosophy of education, seeking to emulate the precisions of science, concerns itself more with the analysis of words than with the real problems encountered in the educational world. Social science itself, he argues, would benefit by the promptings of literary insights. These essays constitute a systematic indictment of the narrowness of contemporary thinking about education, and will be of interest to students of education, philosophy and sociology.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|130 pages

The parochialism of the present:

some reflections on the history of educational theory

chapter 2|115 pages

Literature and the social sciences:

with particular reference to the sociology of education

chapter 3|88 pages

Discovery methods

chapter 4|15 pages

The idea of a liberal education

chapter 5|61 pages

The arts in education

chapter 6|12 pages

The death of Bazarov

chapter 7|37 pages

Equality and education