Beyond the Present and the Particular (International Library of the Philosophy of Education Volume 2): A Theory of Liberal Education 2

Charles Bailey advances a modern characterization and justification of liberal education and defends such a view of liberal education against contemporary challenges. The book will be of special value to those guiding educational policy, designing curricula and reflecting on their own teaching practice. An introductory part of the book describes the need for justification and the special nature of liberal education as compared with other characterizations of education in utilitarian terms. The author offers a positive account of the content of liberal education, after a consideration and critique of the work of Paul Hirst, Philip Phenix and John White and follows this with an account of teacher strategy, attitude and methodology appropriate to liberal education. The final part of the book describes contemporary trends and challenges to the idea of liberal education and shows how they fail to provide a coherent alternative to liberal education as a basis for universal compulsory education. Cover......Page 1 Beyond the Present and the Particular: A Theory of Liberal Education......Page 3 Contents......Page 6 Epigraph......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1 Introduction—Theory and education......Page 11 Part I: Justification of Liberal Education......Page 17 2 Education and its justification......Page 18 3 Types of education......Page 23 4 The justification of liberal education......Page 30 Part II: Content and Method......Page 45 5 Some preliminary ideas......Page 46 6 Three accounts considered......Page 60 7 The content of a liberal education......Page 89 8 The methods of a liberal education......Page 113 Part III: Challenges to Liberal Education......Page 133 9 The challenge of economic utility......Page 135 10 The challenge of relativism, ideology and the state......Page 155 11 Teachers, assessment and accountability......Page 184 Notes and references......Page 193 Index......Page 203 Presents a modern characterization and justification of liberal education and defends such a view of liberal education against contemporary challenges. This book offers a positive account of the content of liberal education, and follows this with an account of teacher strategy, attitude and methodology appropriate to liberal education