Making Sense of Education provides a contemporary introduction to the key issues in educational philosophy and theory. Exploring recent developments as well as important ideas from the twentieth century, this book aims to make philosophy of education relevant to everyday practice for teachers and student teachers, as well as those studying education as an academic subject. The book is divided into three parts: Education, Teaching and Professional Practice: conceptual issues concerning education; the role of the teacher; the theory/practice divide; moral dimensions of education and teaching; Learning, Knowledge and Curriculum: behaviourist and cognitive theories of learning; language and meaning; curriculum aims and content; Schooling, Society and Culture: social and political aspects of education, including liberalism and communitarianism, differentiation, authority and discipline. This timely and up-to-date introduction will help those studying and working in education to understand the major philosophical influences that have formed modern thinking about education, teaching and learning.

"In one sense, my story is a common one, a white boy misdemeanant who lands in a ditch and is restored to sanity through the love of his family, a God of his understanding and a support group that will go unnamed. But if the whole truth is told, it does not end there. "The book will be fundamentally different than a tell-all, or more commonly, tell-most. It will be a rigorously clear-eyed reported memoir in which the process of discovery will be part of the narrative motor...For instance, my brother asked if I was going to give him credit for bailing me out after I was arrested for possession of pot as an 18-yr.-old in a Wisconsin state park. I had not even remembered the incident. "You remember the story you can live with, not the one that happened."

This book provides an authoritative, yet accessible guide to the Philosophy of Education, its scope, its key thinkers and movements, and its potential contribution to a range of educational concern. The text offers a balanced view of three key dimensions: first, in giving an equal weight to different styles and modes of philosophy; second, by including past and present perspectives on philosophy of education; and third, in covering both the general "perennial" issues in philosophy and issues of more contemporary concern.