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The essays in this international collection are a response from twenty two educators to political changes brought about by the collapse of old empires and the rise of new democracies. Their ground-breaking work provokes a reassessment of some of the fundamental principles which shape educational thought and practice. They focus in particular on four key clusters of issues to do with the role of education in cultivating national identity, market principles, personal autonomy and democratic citizenship.
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EDUCATION, AUTONOMY AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP Across the globe educators are being required to respond to a changing political environment. New nations emerge out of the collapse of old empires; new democracies struggle out of old structures of oppression. Driven on by the fierce competitiveness of the ‘tiger economies’ of the east, old social welfarebased democracies are transformed into new market led enterprise societies. The essays in this international collection are a response from twenty-two educators to these changes and to the reassessment that they provoke of some of the fundamental principles which shape educational thought and practice. They focus in particular on four key clusters of issues to do with the role of education in cultivating: • national identity Authors from political settings as culturally distant as Lithuania and Taiwan consider what role, if any, nationalistic education might play in the context of a democratic liberal education. • market principles Contributors offer different perspectives on the internationally pervasive application of the principles of the market economy to education and the consequent ‘commodification’ of learning. • personal autonomy Different dimensions of the contested notion of autonomy are examined along with the related discourses of ‘edification’ and ‘empowerment’. • democratic citizenship From post-Soviet Russia to the new South Africa, in schools and in the context of professional training, educators examine what education for democratic citizenship might mean in practice and tease out some of the conflicts of principle which are raised in its implementation. The contributors are distinguished scholars drawn from every continent. They write consciously for an international readership and there is constant cross reference to developments in different parts of the world. All are practitioners in education sharing an interest in the philosophical issues underlying social change. The philosophical discussion is clearly rooted in and referred back to the world of educational practice and its political context. David Bridges is Professor of Education in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. His recent publications have included Education and the Market Place (edited with T.H.McLaughlin) and Consorting and Collaborating in the Education Market Place (edited with C.Husbands), both published by Falmer, and Developing Teachers Professionally (edited with T.Kerry) for Routledge.
ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
1. EDUCATION AND WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN, GERMANY AND ITALY Edited by A.Jobert, C.Marry, L.Tanguy and H.Rainbird 2. EDUCATION, AUTONOMY AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP Philosophy in a changing world Edited by David Bridges
EDUCATION, AUTONOMY AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP Philosophy in a changing world
Edited by David Bridges
London and New York
First published 1997 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprnt of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. © 1997 Selection and editorial matter, David Bridges; individual chapters to their authors All right