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Education
is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience
that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may
be considered educational. The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy.
Education commonly is divided formally into such stages as preschool or kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then college, university, or apprenticeship.
A right to education has been recognized by some governments, including at the global level: Article 13 of the United Nations' 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes a universal right to education.In most regions education is compulsory up to a certain age.
Philosophy of education
can refer to either the academic field of applied philosophy or to one of any educational philosophies that promote a specific type or vision of education, and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education.
As an academic field, philosophy of education is "the philosophical study of education and its problems...its central subject matter is education, and its methods are those of philosophy".
"The philosophy of education may be either the philosophy of the
process of education or the philosophy of the discipline of education.
That is, it may be part of the discipline in the sense of being
concerned with the aims, forms, methods, or results of the process of
educating or being educated; or it may be metadisciplinary in the sense
of being concerned with the concepts, aims, and methods of the
discipline."As such, it is both part of the field of education and a field of applied philosophy, drawing from fields of metaphysics, epistemology, axiology and the philosophical approaches (speculative, prescriptive, and/or analytic) to address questions in and about pedagogy, education policy, and curriculum, as well as the process of learning, to name a few.For example, it might study what constitutes upbringing and education,
the values and norms revealed through upbringing and educational
practices, the limits and legitimization of education as an academic
discipline, and the relation between educational theory and practice.
Instead of being taught in philosophy departments, philosophy of
education is usually housed in departments or colleges of education,
similar to how philosophy of law is generally taught in law schools.
The multiple ways of conceiving education coupled with the multiple
fields and approaches of philosophy make philosophy of education not
only a very diverse field but also one that is not easily defined.
Although there is overlap, philosophy of education should not be
conflated with educational theory,
which is not defined specifically by the application of philosophy to
questions in education. Philosophy of education also should not be
confused with philosophy education, the practice of teaching and learning the subject of philosophy.
Philosophy of education can also be understood not as an academic discipline but as a normative educational theory that unifies pedagogy, curriculum, learning theory, and the purpose of education
and is grounded in specific metaphysical, epistemological, and
axiological assumptions. These theories are also called educational
philosophies. For example, a teacher might be said to follow a perennialist educational philosophy or to follow a perennialist philosophy of education.
