Liberating education : reasserting the value of philosophy and history in teacher education programmes

Abstract

The contemporary recasting of education as a marketable commodity and a formal, institutional activity has had serious consequences for scholars working as philosophers and historians of education. In our own experience, both forms of “reductionism” have made it increasingly difficult for us to argue for the retention of courses that sustain a broader linkage between education and the human condition within teacher education programmes. Because of the predominant misperception among many of our colleagues that what we do is actually extraneous to the “real business” of teaching teachers how to become “good educators,” our research activities have likewise been called into question. Historical and philosophical understandings no longer appear “relevant” to the needs of the institution—and even to the field itself. By outlining what we do within our own teaching practice, we illustrate how students’ exposure to the history and philosophy of education contributes powerfully to a better-informed and critically conscious teaching profession.