Philosophical Foundations of Education

by Howard A. Ozmon

Presenting breadth and depth of coverage in a highly readable style, the 8th edition of this popular survey text again provides balanced treatment of all the major schools of thought about education. The authors address how philosophical ideas about education developed over time—arranging their coverage in chronological order—and pay close attention to historical context, while emphasizing each philosophy's continuing relevance to education today. For each philosophy, they show its application in aims, curriculum, methods, and teaching. Additionally, they critically assess each philosophy, and examine how numerous other scholars view it. The new edition now offers a greater emphasis on women and minorities such as Montessori, De Beauvoir, Greene, DeBois, King, and West.

Genres: Education, Philosophy

377 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[qurat]

This is a great introduction to the foundational basis for much of what has been experienced over time as education. This book explores the philosophical underpinnings of education and allows educators and policy makers to think reflectively and deeply about what it is we want students, our children, to experience in our schools. It made me understand that school vouchers are a fair and useful idea (though no such point is made in the book) because education can be successful in a variety of formats- but force feeding large and unwieldly public schools a top-down public policy based on political expedience and industry needs is getting to be a really jaded idea with little life force left. There is nothing wrong with standards but I think we deserve a change in the way public schools are set up, funded, and made a tool of government, and that change begins with understading why and how we educate.

[A.L. Bellettiere]

This is not to say that this is bad by any means. I just couldn't get into it. Reading upon this book and finding out this is required reading for a college course in Philosophical Education doesn't help me not to feel stupid . :)

[Sarah Ismael]

i need to read this book

[John Reis]

I used this in my Philosophy of Education class for four years. Quite excellent.

[Alejandro Teruel]

I was torn between giving the book two stars or three stars, but finally decided in favour of three.

There are some very interesting parts in this book, other parts are a bit galling, as one senses the authors´ urge to rush through a synopticon which they hope is interesting enough to appeal to the general reader, even at the price of oversimplification.

Having read the book in 2011, when the most recent edition of the book is the 9th (2011) edition, there are many parts which feel dated and seem to have been written with an eye on the isms of the moment.

Thus even the authors mutter that calling behaviourism a philosophy is something of a stretch. And if you are going to have a book which treats behaviourism as a "philosophy", then why not psychoanalysis, gestalt or the so-called humanist perspective?

Psychology and political theory are entwined with philosophy: unfortunately, the attempt to liven the book by ilustrating the philosophical underpinnings of the politics of educations, seem to misfire as insufficient care is taken to distinguish beween the two, thus probably leading to confusion among the students. Again, if you´re going to include a chapter on marxism, why not attempt to provide some sort of balance with a libertarian point of view?

And then if you are going to deal with philosophical foundations why not delve a little deeper into how philosophical ideas on human nature, epistemology, ethics and the role of the state.

As a textbook meant primarily for the US market, it is sometimes too narrowly focused on american educators --there is no reference at all to UNESCO reports and discussions.

It also misses the boat about the increasingly debatable role of computers in education. By focusing on computers as behaviourist learning machines, they entirely miss out on the use of computing technology as mediation technology, and the philosophical underpinnings of such fascinating approaches as Brenda Laurel´s "Computers as Theater" (1991).

A brave attempt but one can´t help but think that many students must have found the book rather heavy going. An interesting and different approach to the matter can be found in a video set of lectures at http://www.stephenhicks.org/publicati...

[Mark Schlatter]

The good stuff: Ozmon does a very creditable job of covering different philosophical movements. I was impressed in particular by the coverage of behaviorism and existentialism --- Ozmon made them understandable and more appealing than I was expecting.

The not-so-good stuff: For a ninth edition of a textbook, there are still some frustrating errors in organization (sections that change topic from the section heading, mention of four philosophers to cover when only three are then covered).

[Flash Mitchell English]

This was my textbook for a graduate-level education class, but an undergrad could handle it. The book is loaded with information, and it's arranged practically and easy to understand. Parts of each chapter, though, are very repetitive.