Dr CM Kwenda

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHICAL
ISSUES IN EDUCATION
THE THREE BRUNCHES OF EDUCATIONAL STUDY
THE CHILD LIES AT THE CENTRE OF ALL YOUR WORK AS AN
EDUCATOR

•Theories of •Theories of child

childhood development and
learning

The
Mind
Child

Reality Society
•Fundamental •The social context
questions about of child
existence and our development and
place in the world learning
PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING
In groups of four or five discuss the following
questions and write your answers down for a
class discussion later:
1. Who are you? (give an answer each in
your group)
2. How do you know who you are?

3. What is the purpose of living?

4. What is justice and who decides this?

5. What is knowledge and who decides this?

PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION

Philosophical perspectives in education

 Questions about what the purpose of education is/should be.

 Who determines what children should learn?

 What is the political role of education in society?

 What are the assumptions of education regarding the ‘nature of

being a child/person’?
 Is education just one way of ‘brainwashing children’ and turning

them into the kind of ‘citizen’ those in power want?

 Is education ‘empowering’ or ‘disempowering’ to the individual?

 Are children born ‘innocent’ or is there ‘intrinsic sin’ which

education should target?

 What is the place of ‘religion’ in education?

 What/whose knowledge is considered to be ‘superior’ by society?

 Does education truly respect ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’ in society?

DEVELOPING PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING
Think about these questions: 
 What is the purpose of life/living?

 Does God (A higher immortal being) exist?

 What is the most important thing in the universe?

 What is knowledge?

 Who decides what people should know?

 Should some people rule over others?

 What is justice, and who decides?

 Who are you, and how do you know?

Can you comment on these questions, i.e. do they

have anything in common?
DEVELOPING PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING
 These questions do not have one easy or correct
answer but are open to different interpretations based
on the perspective and positioning of the interpreter
(personal and group beliefs and values, vested interest,
personal philosophies, life experiences, etc.).
 Humans try to make meaning of life by finding answers
to deep questions regarding their existence and
circumstances.
 It is through asking questions such as these that early
philosophical thought emerged.
 We will look at early Greek and Roman philosophy and
philosophers.
EARLY GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHERS

In Greek ‘philosophy’ means ‘the love of wisdom’. 

 Greek philosophers:

1. Socrates- the father of critical thought.

 Believed in challenging the ‘taken-for-granted’ beliefs

and values in his society.

 Challenged kings and the politics and religion of his

time.
 Was executed for embarrassing those in power.

2. Plato- ‘the objective world of phenomena only

reflects the real world of ideas’.
 We perceive reality based on our experiences and the

context within which we live, which gives us our

‘worldview’.
EARLY GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHERS

Greek philosophy and education

 Emphasis is on the need to question

nature/reality and not to conform to it. How

real is our world? Is that reality real, or is it
simply in our minds (what we want to believe
it is)?
 Education should open up the mind to

alternative possibilities (Reflection and critical

thinking, cognition and meta-cognition).
 Education should create thinking rational

beings.
EARLY GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY
 Roman philosophers:
 E.g. Cicero, Syrus, Seneca and

Aurelius (‘To live is to think’, ‘It is

not every question that needs an
answer’, ‘Wisdom does not
demand much teaching’, ‘The
world order is a unity made up of
multiplicity’, etc.)
Do you think such statements make
 sense??
EARLY GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY
Roman philosophy and education:
 Emphasis here is on the need for human action to conform

to nature/reality.
 Education is a tool to enable the mind to be in tune with

nature. 
 A good education should equip people with the knowledge

and the skills they require to live in peace and harmony

with all creation (the environment, nature, other people,
etc.).
 Education should help us understand how nature works so

that we can fit into this reality harmoniously.

 Question: What are your views regarding these two

opposing philosophical positions concerning the role and

purpose of education in our lives?
THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY
 From the discussion about Greek and Roman philosophy
above a number of issues can be identified:
1. Philosophy is political;

2. Philosophy is about trying to understand our world by

framing our thinking within particular paradigms (lenses
through which to view the world and understand our place
in it);
3. Philosophy is about always questioning our thinking and our
understanding of life (cognition and meta-cognition);
4. In educational terms philosophy enables us to interrogate
educational issues such as justice, ethics, the nature and
politics of knowledge (epistemology), issues around power
and privilege and marginalization in education, etc.
CNE PHILOSOPHY
“We believe that the calling
and task of White South Africa
with regard to the native is to
Christianise him and help him
on culturally… we believe that
the teaching and education of
natives must be grounded in
the life and worldview of the
Whites most especially those
of the Boer nation as senior
White trustees of the
native…” (Article 5)
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
BIKO’S PHILOSOPHY
“Free participation by all members
of society, catering the full
expression of self in a freely
changing society as determined by
the will of the people. For one
cannot escape the fact that the
culture shared by the majority …
must ultimately determine the
..direction taken by the joint
culture of that society.. A country
in Africa, in which the majority.. are
African must inevitably exhibit
African values and be truly African
in style” (Biko, 1987)
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
We can summarize and define this as a discipline dealing
with:
 What children should learn (the politics of knowledge,

language, curriculum, etc.);

 How they should be educated;

 The political purpose of education in society

(ideological underpinnings of the educational agenda);

Why are these issues important?
 Because society understands itself through how it

socializes and educates present ad future generations;

 National identity, citizenship and loyalty all stem from

how we understand and organize our lives around the

educational system which defines us.
PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS IN EDUCATION

So we ask ourselves these questions:

 Education for autonomy or for compliance or both?

 Transmission of knowledge or fostering inquiry and questioning

knowledge?
 Education as conservative or as transformative/progressive?

 What kind of curriculum, for whose benefit?

 Academic or vocational/practical skills education?

 Education or enculturation/indoctrination/training?

 Should education perpetuate social classes or help remove them?

 Should everyone receive the same type of education?

 The place of culture and religion in education?

 The place of traditional knowledge in formal education?

 The rights of children in education, whose rights are more

important (parents’, children’s teachers’)?