ABSTRACT
The Philosophy of education has developed into a distinctive branch of study in Britain during the last twenty years. It has established itself as a foundation discipline in the study of education with its own distinctive group of theorists, a developing tradition of enquiry, and a considerable number of publications, including the Journal of Philosophy of Education. The remaining two extracts reveal how philosophers can contribute to the development of more adequate theories of primary education. The extracts in this section exemplify some of the points made by Dearden in his discussion of the potential contribution of philosophy to study and debate in education: It should make any necessary distinctions to clarify meaning, explore conceptual possibilities and try to identify what is necessary and what is contingent.
