(article ) What is Education?

Graham Oliver

Philosopher of education and educational theorist. Trained at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and taught at the University of Waikato for thirty years. Specialisation in the purpose of education as equipping learners to develop worthwhile lives for themselves as justified by mutual and self-respect for their intrinsic value as human beings.

The medieval in our schools: how our schools owe so much less to the nineteenth century factory

The medieval in our schools: how our schools owe so much less to the nineteenth century factory

Leave a Comment / History, Indoctrination /

An EPUB version of this article can be downloaded here Our educational problems are wrongly attributed to the 19th Century industrial factory. The introduction of universal, compulsory state schooling was more directly political – much more about engineering populations into compliant national identity. The template was the medieval school – a factory system indifferent to […]

The medieval in our schools: how our schools owe so much less to the nineteenth century factory Read More »

An EPUB version of this article can be downloaded here Our educational problems are wrongly attributed to the 19th Century industrial factory. The introduction of universal, compulsory state schooling was more directly political – much more about engineering populations into compliant national identity. The template was the medieval school – a factory system indifferent to

The questionable invention of education

The problem of the invention of education

Leave a Comment / Democracy, Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Liberal Education, Uncategorized, What is education? /

The problem of the invention of education Our understanding of the invention of education in Ancient Greece is mistaken. We miss education altogether by reading back our obsessive preoccupation with modern schooling. The conventional story tells of a competition between the traditions of the philosophers and the sophists, but the sophists contributed nothing novel –

The problem of the invention of education Read More »

The problem of the invention of education Our understanding of the invention of education in Ancient Greece is mistaken. We miss education altogether by reading back our obsessive preoccupation with modern schooling. The conventional story tells of a competition between the traditions of the philosophers and the sophists, but the sophists contributed nothing novel –

An “educational” system at odds with the educational: The incompatibility of purpose

Leave a Comment / Educational theory and practice, Indoctrination, Schooling /

The “logic” of conventional schooling is completely at odds with the requirements of education, and fundamentally unethical. School is about agendas others have for learners – not for their own sake

An “educational” system at odds with the educational: The incompatibility of purpose Read More »

The “logic” of conventional schooling is completely at odds with the requirements of education, and fundamentally unethical. School is about agendas others have for learners – not for their own sake

Authority and ego in teaching . . . and the cult of leadership

1 Comment / Ethics and justification, Respect, Schooling, What is education? /

NOTICE This piece is posted separately in the “articles” section of this blog, but it will eventually be incorporated as the second chapter of Part 3 of “Education as if our lives depended on it”. It will be posted there along with two other chapters in preparation, and when some re-ordering has been completed. I

Authority and ego in teaching . . . and the cult of leadership Read More »

NOTICE This piece is posted separately in the “articles” section of this blog, but it will eventually be incorporated as the second chapter of Part 3 of “Education as if our lives depended on it”. It will be posted there along with two other chapters in preparation, and when some re-ordering has been completed. I

Personal experience and public performance: The two sides of a genuinely educational practice

Leave a Comment / Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Respect, Schooling, What is education? /

NOTICE: This piece is posted separately in the “articles” section of this blog, but it will eventually be incorporated as the third chapter of Part 3 of “Education as if our lives depended on it. It will be posted there along with two other chapters in preparation, and when some re-ordering has been completed. I

Personal experience and public performance: The two sides of a genuinely educational practice Read More »

NOTICE: This piece is posted separately in the “articles” section of this blog, but it will eventually be incorporated as the third chapter of Part 3 of “Education as if our lives depended on it. It will be posted there along with two other chapters in preparation, and when some re-ordering has been completed. I

The vacuum at the centre of our “educational” thinking

1 Comment / Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Indoctrination, Respect, Schooling /

The vacuum at the centre of our “educational” thinking   Neglecting the job of equipping learners to develop worthwhile lives that are their own creates an educational vacuum – a vulnerability at precisely the point where they need most strength and power. This space is then available for the most significant kinds of indoctrination –

The vacuum at the centre of our “educational” thinking Read More »

The vacuum at the centre of our “educational” thinking   Neglecting the job of equipping learners to develop worthwhile lives that are their own creates an educational vacuum – a vulnerability at precisely the point where they need most strength and power. This space is then available for the most significant kinds of indoctrination –

Our educational bad faith

Our educational bad faith

Leave a Comment / Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Respect, Working for educational change /

Our  educational bad faith What we accept as “education” through conventional schooling does great harm. This has been widely known for over fifty years – not just to the researchers who have failed to speak out, but to private citizens as well. Yet we continue to do nothing about it, not even to encourage the

Our educational bad faith Read More »

Our  educational bad faith What we accept as “education” through conventional schooling does great harm. This has been widely known for over fifty years – not just to the researchers who have failed to speak out, but to private citizens as well. Yet we continue to do nothing about it, not even to encourage the

Exploitation of the learner is inevitable without a strong educational justification

The justification of education

Leave a Comment / Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Respect, Schooling, Uncategorized, What is education? /

The justification of education Education, in our practice, is so poorly justified that we literally don’t grasp what we are doing – or what is at stake. Even a modest attempt at a sound justification reveals a deep moral bankruptcy to our practice; a ready contentment to exploit learners in the service of others. Nothing

The justification of education Read More »

The justification of education Education, in our practice, is so poorly justified that we literally don’t grasp what we are doing – or what is at stake. Even a modest attempt at a sound justification reveals a deep moral bankruptcy to our practice; a ready contentment to exploit learners in the service of others. Nothing

Education for good living in the educational ecosystem

Education and the educational ecosystem

2 Comments / Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Problems of living well, Respect, Schooling, What is education?, Working for educational change /

Education and the educational ecosystem It is a commonplace to say that education should be about enabling learners to live worthwhile lives. What that would have to involve is never extensively explored, and this lack of a benchmark would help to explain why the idea of education-as-usual has no competition. This article is an introductory

Education and the educational ecosystem Read More »

Education and the educational ecosystem It is a commonplace to say that education should be about enabling learners to live worthwhile lives. What that would have to involve is never extensively explored, and this lack of a benchmark would help to explain why the idea of education-as-usual has no competition. This article is an introductory

The justification of education: a Rawlsian interpretation

Leave a Comment / Educational theory and practice, Ethics and justification, Indoctrination, Problems of living well, Respect, What is education? /

  The justification of education:a Rawlsian interpretation John Rawls’s “Original Position” offers more than a decision procedure for justifying principles of justice, as he intended. It enables a unique way of understanding and justifying education. It may help us to get past our educational myopia; of education being no more than schooling and formal teaching,

The justification of education: a Rawlsian interpretation Read More »

  The justification of education:a Rawlsian interpretation John Rawls’s “Original Position” offers more than a decision procedure for justifying principles of justice, as he intended. It enables a unique way of understanding and justifying education. It may help us to get past our educational myopia; of education being no more than schooling and formal teaching,