Education, Knowledge and Truth

In the 1960s educational philosophers showed enormous interest in the nature of knowledge and its organization for curricular purposes. However, in the light of recent socio-political and educational changes and developments, the interest has declined markedly. This volume gathers contributors from an international team of educational and other scholars to reinstate conceptual problems concerning knowledge, truth and the curriculum on the agenda of educational philosophical debate. Although it is arguable that curriculum policy makers have continued to subscribe to a 'foundationalist' paradigm of rational educational planning, few contemporary educational philosophers would consider this to be still tenable following the impact of 'postmodern' critiques of the objectivity, truth and authority of our knowldge claims. This collection, however, aims to explore different epistemological conceptions in relation to their influence and the curricula and pedagogy of primary and secondary education - with the ultimate aim of carving a coherent route between rational foundationalism and intellectually indiscriminate postmodernism. To this end, the volume fills a major gap in the literature of contemporary educational philosophy. Sharon Bailin, Simon Fraser University of Vancouver, Canada; Eamonn Callan, University of Alberta, Canada; David Carr, University of Edinburgh, UK; David E. Cooper, Univer