Barrow on Liberal Education and Schooling

TY - CHAP

T1 - Barrow on Liberal Education and Schooling

AU - Winch, Christopher Andrew

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - This essay takes up the issue of whether the concept of education is contestable and whether a meaningful distinction can be made between education - a worthwhile process leading to the development of an educated person and schooling - a worthwhile process leading to preparation for some aspects of life. Arguments against the contestability thesis and the education/schooling distinction are considered and rejected and the importance of the values underpinning the aims of education is emphasised, while at the same time it is pointed out that few values are genuinely universal and that relying on obvious and widely recognised universal values is not necessarily a good foundation for arguing against the contestability thesis. The essay then goes on to examine the relationship between liberal and vocational forms of education and argues that vocational education (as opposed to vocational training) and liberal education have much more in common than is often recognised, particularly in the area of personal development. These issues are discussed in relation to some of Robin Barrow’s work.

AB - This essay takes up the issue of whether the concept of education is contestable and whether a meaningful distinction can be made between education - a worthwhile process leading to the development of an educated person and schooling - a worthwhile process leading to preparation for some aspects of life. Arguments against the contestability thesis and the education/schooling distinction are considered and rejected and the importance of the values underpinning the aims of education is emphasised, while at the same time it is pointed out that few values are genuinely universal and that relying on obvious and widely recognised universal values is not necessarily a good foundation for arguing against the contestability thesis. The essay then goes on to examine the relationship between liberal and vocational forms of education and argues that vocational education (as opposed to vocational training) and liberal education have much more in common than is often recognised, particularly in the area of personal development. These issues are discussed in relation to some of Robin Barrow’s work.

U2 - 10.4324/9781315866871

DO - 10.4324/9781315866871

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780415518345

T3 - Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of Education

SP - 113

EP - 127

BT - Education and the Common Good

A2 - Gingell, John

PB - Routledge

CY - Abingdon

ER -