The Importance of Philosophy in Teacher Education: Mapping the Decline and Its Consequences

227 Pages·2020·2.699 MB·English

by  Andrew D. Colgan and Bruce Maxwell

The Importance of Philosophy in
Teacher Education
The Importance of Philosophy in Teacher Education maps the gradual
decline of philosophy as a central, integrated part of educational studies.
Chapters consider how this decline has impacted teacher education and
practice, offering new directions for the reintegration of philosophical
thinking in teacher preparation and development.
Touching on key points in history, this valuable collection of chap-
ters accurately appraises the global decline of philosophy of education in
teacher education programmes and seeks to understand the external and
endemic causes of changed attitudes towards a discipline that was once
assigned such a central place in teacher education. Chapters illustrate
how a grounding in the theoretical and ethical dimensions of teaching,
learning, and education systems contributes in meaningful ways to being
a good teacher, and traces the consequences of a decline in philosophy
on individuals’ professional development and on the evolution of the
teaching profession more broadly. With this in mind, the text focusses
on the future of teacher education and considers how we can ensure that
philosophy of education feeds into the excellence of teaching today.
This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate stu-
dents, as well as research scholars, in the field of educational philosophy
and history of education. In addition, it will be useful for those involved
in teacher education, and in particular, course, module, and programme
development.
Andrew D. Colgan is a high school Science Teacher in London, Ontario,
Canada.
Bruce Maxwell is a Professor of Education at the University of Quebec
at Trois-Rivières, Canada.
Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of
Education
Education and the Pursuit of Wisdom
The Aims of Education Revisited
John Ozoliņš
Flourishing as the Aim of Education
A Neo-Aristotelian View
Kristján Kristjánsson
Democratic Education in a Globalized World
A Normative Theory
Julian Culp
Education and the Public Sphere
Exploring the Structures of Mediation in Post-Colonial India
Suresh Babu G. S.
Epistemology and the Predicates of Education
Building Upon a Process Theory of Learning
Thomas E. Peterson
Semiotic Subjectivity in Education and Counseling
Learning with the Unconscious
Inna R. Semetsky
The Importance of Philosophy in Teacher Education
Mapping the Decline and its Consequences
Edited by Andrew D. Colgan and Bruce Maxwell
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Routledge-International-Studies-in-the-Philosophy-of-Education/
book-series/SE0237
The Importance of
Philosophy in Teacher
Education
Mapping the Decline and Its
Consequences
Edited by
Andrew D. Colgan and
Bruce Maxwell
First published 2020
by Routledge
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identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Colgan, Andrew D., editor. | Maxwell, Bruce,
1972– editor.
Title: The importance of philosophy in teacher education :
mapping the decline and its consequences / edited by
Andrew D. Colgan and Bruce Maxwell.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge international studies in the philosophy of
education | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019026859 (print) | LCCN 2019026860
(ebook) | ISBN 9781138386365 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780429426827 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Education—Philosophy. | Teaching—
Philosophy. | Teachers—Training of.
Classification: LCC LB14.7 .I48 2020 (print) | LCC LB14.7
(ebook) | DDC 370.71/1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019026859
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019026860
ISBN: 978-1-138-38636-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-42682-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Editors’ Introduction 1
ANDREW D. COLGAN AND BRUCE MAXWELL
PART I
Diagnosis and Prognosis 13
1 The Decline of Philosophy in Educational Study and
Why It Matters 15
ROBIN BARROW
2 Schools of Education and John Dewey: The End of the
Romance? 25
DAVID I. WADDINGTON
3 Habermas’s Emancipatory Interest for
Teachers: A Critical Philosophical Approach to Teacher
Education 45
MATTHEW J. HAYDEN
PART II
Philosophy and Teacher Development 63
4 Philosophy in Teacher Education 65
LEONARD WAKS
5 Philosophy for (Thinking) Teachers 86
JANET ORCHARD AND CARRIE WINSTANLEY
vi Contents
6 A Problems- Based Approach in Philosophy of Education 105
DIANNE GERELUK
7 The Contribution of Philosophy to Science
Teacher Education 121
MICHAEL R. MATTHEWS
PART III
Historical Perspectives 143
8 Philosophy, the Liberal Arts, and Teacher Education 145
DOUGLAS W. YACEK AND BRUCE KIMBALL
9 The Value of Educational Foundations in Teacher Education 165
LEE S. DUEMER
10 Philosophy, Teaching, and Teacher Education at Teachers
College, Columbia University: A Program Story 182
DAVID T. HANSEN AND MEGAN JANE LAVERTY
Index 209
List of Contributors
Robin Barrow is a Professor Emeritus of Simon Frasier University, Canada.
Lee S. Duemer is a Professor in the Educational Psychology and Leadership
Department, College of Education, Texas Tech University, USA.
Dianne Gereluk is a Professor and Dean at the Werklund School of
Education, University of Calgary, Canada.
David T. Hansen is the John L. and Sue Ann Weinberg Professor in the
Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education at Teachers
College, Columbia University, USA, where he also serves as Director
of the Program in Philosophy and Education.
Matthew J. Hayden is an Associate Professor of Education at Drake
University and the Director of International Programs for the School
of Education, USA.
Bruce A. Kimball is a Professor in the Philosophy & History of Educa-
tion Program at Ohio State University, USA.
Megan J. Laverty is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University, USA.
Michael R. Matthews is an Associate Professor in the School of Educa-
tion at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Janet Orchard is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, University
of Bristol, UK.
David I. Waddington is a Professor in the Department of Education at
Concordia University and the Associate Director of the Centre for the
Study of Learning and Performance, Canada.
Leonard J. Waks is Distinguished Professor of Educational Studies at
Hangzhou Normal University, China, and Professor Emeritus of Ed-
ucational Leadership, Temple University, USA.
Carrie Winstanley  is a Professor of Pedagogy at Roehampton
University, UK.
Douglas W. Yacek is a Lecturer and Research Fellow in the Leibniz
School of Education and the Institute for Special Education at Leibniz
University Hannover, Germany.

Editors’ Introduction
Andrew D. Colgan and Bruce Maxwell
Over much of the history of formal teacher education, from the mid-
dle of the 19th century onwards, a certain mastery of educational phi-
losophy was widely regarded as essential to the craft of teaching. For
this reason, educational philosophy as an academic discipline invari-
ably occupied a central place in programmes of study leading to teacher
certification.
Philosophy’s fall from grace in teacher training has been nothing if not
dramatic. While topics such as instructional methods, curriculum, and,
since its inception a century ago, educational psychology have always
been more or less constant features of teacher education, philosophy
of education, not long ago a staple of teacher education, has experi-
enced a marked rise and fall in prominence (Arcilla, 2002; Colgan, 2017,
2018; Hare, 2007; Kincheloe & Hewitt, 2011; Wilson, 1993; Winch,
2012). In response to a perceived need to provide future teachers with
content regarded as directly relevant to the day- to- day tasks of contempo-
rary classroom teaching, present- day professional preparation in teach-
ing is decreasingly likely to introduce students to the classic writings in
educational philosophy or even explicitly encourage the development of
the intellectual skills associated with the discipline of philosophy: criti-
cal reflection, argumentation, and conceptual clarity.
In the field of educational philosophy itself, philosophy of educa-
tion’s decline in teacher education has been extensively and passion-
ately debated. Some scholars lament the marginalization of their field,
regarding it as symptomatic of the intellectual degradation of teacher
education (e.g. Barrow, 2008, 2014). Some point to the institutional-
ization of teacher education and the expansion of policy directives in
teaching, which has resulted in a loss of a liberal form of teacher edu-
cation ( Colgan, 2017). And still, others argue that the eclipse of phil-
osophical and other humanities content in teacher education is due to
corporatism— powerful regulatory or economic forces that compel ad-
ministrators in teacher education to incrementally reduce and replace
coursework that does not provide so- called “evidence- based” research
(e.g. Carlson, 2011; Kennedy, 2011; Kline, 2012).