Chapters 3 and 4 of Philosophical Foundations of Education
1. Consider how Eastern philosophical and religious views treat relations with other human beings. How is this educationally significant? Take a position on whether this should play a role in education today and defend that position.
2. Discuss whether religious ideas really help or impede progress? How do modern inventions, such as the Internet, impact upon religious thinking? How do other things in the culture, music, dance, and art, relate to religious practices?
3. Compare what Dewey borrowed from Bacon and Locke, (or from Rousseau and Darwin), in developing his philosophy of education. How did he use their insights in developing his own views on education, and how did he differ?
4. What are some advantages and disadvantages to the pragmatist view on curriculum as a process rather than a mere body of subject matter?
5. Discuss what you believe to be the major implications of neopragmatism for education today. Are Rorty’s suggestions, for example, an improvement for contemporary philosophy, and what impact do they have for traditional views on education? What influence should neopragmatism have on educational theory?
6. Cornel West has suggested that pragmatism should have a “prophetic” role, that is, it should provide cultural criticism to help us address contemporary issues such as race. What other kinds of contemporary issues need this kind of critical analysis today? Suggest some directions for education this criticism might provide?
