It is important that all those concerned with education - parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers - should have a reasonable understanding of the present system and how it has developed, sometimes over a period of many years. This work traces the development of Western educational ideas from the Greek society of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, to the ideas and ideologies behind some of the controversial issues in education today.
This book discusses the continuous development of educational thought over three millennia. The focus upon the history of ideas in this volume is partly an attempt to move history of education away from an approach based on 'great men' to technological, economic and political influences on ideas and beliefs. It reviews many issues, ranging from the purposes of education from the earliest times, to the challenge of postmodernism in the present century. The authors provide an accessible and thought-provoking guide to the educational ideas that underlie practice.
Introduction - a history of Western educational ideas; the Greeks; the Romans; the Judaeo-Christian tradition; mediaeval Europe and the influence of Islam; humanism and the Renaissance; the Reformation and the counter-Reformation to the end of the 17th century; the 18th century - the Enlightenment; Romanticism; industrialism, nationalism and the cult of efficiency; the idealist tradition; the development of the social sciences in the 19th century and their influence on education; the influence of politics and political ideologies on educational ideas; the Second World War and after - peace, internationalism and universal literacy; liberal education; pedagogy; gender; conclusion - the end of education?.
