The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education

Book excerpt: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education provides a comprehensive, global, invitational, and accessible overview of contemporary issues in the field of philosophy of education. It includes a wide range of topics, ideas, and diverse perspectives from around the world, and features an editorial board composed entirely of women. Each chapter is an in-depth exploration of a philosophical topic or issue relevant to teaching, education, pedagogy, and/or schooling. Authors include well-known and emerging scholars who write in invitational ways to a non-specialist audience. Taken together, the Encyclopedia's authors illuminate the kinds of questions that philosophers ask about education and schooling, and the tools and resources they bring to bear on these questions. They show the ways in which educational philosophers uncover fundamental assumptions, describe relationships among ideas, analyze concepts, unpack taken-for-granted claims, connect disparate viewpoints, identify the validity and consistency of claims, unsettle "common sense," propose hypothetical experiments, provide critical commentary on ideas, render givens as contingent, explore the interactions of ideas and experience, and offer alternative possibilities. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education is organized into ten sections: philosophical traditions and explorations in education; non-Western, indigenous, and post/decolonial philosophies of education; race, gender, sexuality, and marginalized perspectives; globalization, democracy, and citizenship education; ethics, justice, morality, and character education; philosophical issues in research and educational practice; philosophical issues and controversies in K-12 education; philosophy of childhood, parenting, upbringing, and formation; philosophical issues in arts and aesthetics in education; and contemporary topics and issues in philosophy of education. This combination of breadth and depth makes The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education an important and essential guide to the complex philosophical issues informing all facets of education today.