The genesis of philosophy can be observed across a wide range of human interests such as religion, creative arts, education and economy. Noddings’ contribution to education philosophy centers around the ethic of care Her belief was that a caring teacher-student relationship will result in the teacher designing a differentiated curriculum for each student, and that this curriculum would be based around the students’ particular interests and needs.
In addition there are numerous volumes both of reprinted selections and of specially commissioned essays on specific topics, some of which were given short shrift here (for another sampling see A. Rorty 1998, Stone 1994), and several international journals, including Theory and Research in Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Educational Theory, Studies in Philosophy and Education, and Educational Philosophy and Theory.
Touching on key points in history, this valuable collection of chapters accurately appraises the global decline of philosophy of education in teacher education programs and seeks to understand the external and endemic causes of changed attitudes towards a discipline which was once assigned such a central place in teacher education.
The benign neglect†of philosophy of education by the general philosophical community—an area central to philosophy since Socrates and Plato—not only deprives the field of a huge swath of talented potential contributors; it also leaves working general philosophers and their students without an appreciation of an important branch of their discipline.
Unschooling is a range of educational philosophies and practices centered on allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play , game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction , rather than through a more traditional school curriculum.