Philosophy of Education: An Overview of Contemporary Foreign Literature

Abstract

The article gives an overview of foreign research on the key topics in contemporary philosophy of education. The first two sections are devoted to discussing epistemic, moral and political objectives of education. The last section discusses one of the most controversial topics of contemporary philosophy of education — the professional status of teachers. Ability to comprehend critically social and political conditions of formation and spread of knowledge appears to be one of the essential epistemic objectives of education. Attention towards implicit fundamentals of expert knowledge and ability to find relevant information to verify beliefs are epistemic virtues contributing to formation of an autonomous cognizing individual. Among ethical objectives of education, we have traditionally singled out personal autonomy, ability to live a full social and economic life, comprehensive personal development, civic (democratic) competencies, and cooperation skills. The last twenty years, largely due to feminist and communitarian criticism, have witnessed development of an attitude that consists in finding the paramount goal of education in inculcating the ideals of love, care and community spirit, instead of autonomy of a rational individual. Implicitly ethical objectives of education are closely related to “distributive” objectives that define the final provider of teaching efforts. Having analyzed discussions on professionalization of teachers’ activities, we conclude that, although teaching is characterized by some prominent features of professional activity, its specific nature makes it difficult to establish distinct criteria of professionalization.