Epistemology of Education

How does the idea that knowledge is power play out in our schools and universities. How does it feature in our education systems and how does it impact upon the intellectual characters of students. Specifically, how does the pervasiveness of this idea in our schools and classrooms affect students’ willingness and ability to be intellectually humble. In this paper, I suggest that this idea presents itself in contemporary classrooms as a barrier to the development and exercise of intellectual humility. Simply put, when we equate knowledge with power, we make it harder to be intellectually humble. In its most prevalent manifestation, this barrier arises in the form of answer-oriented education. I spend the majority of the paper outlining the nature and impact of answer-oriented education and, towards the end, suggest one way to remove this barrier by shifting from answer-oriented to question-oriented education. The latter, I argue, warrants further attention in philosophical and educational research.

This paper offers an in-depth examination of the intellectual virtue of inquisitiveness. A characterisation of inquisitiveness is developed in Part I in which the inquisitive person is identified as one who is characteristically motivated to engage sincerely in good questioning. Part II then examines the place of inquisitiveness among the virtues. Inquisitiveness is seen to bear a defining relationship to the process of inquiry as a fundamentally motivating intellectual virtue. On this basis it is argued that inquisitiveness plays a distinctively valuable role in the intellectually virtuous life placing it at the heart of autonomous virtue epistemology.

The landscape of contemporary epistemology has significantly diversified in the past thirty years, shaped in large part by two complementary movements; virtue and social epistemology. This diversification provides an apt theoretical context for the epistemology of education. No longer concerned exclusively with the formal analysis of knowledge, epistemologists have turned their attention towards individuals as knowers, and the social contexts in which epistemic goods such as knowledge and understanding are acquired and exchanged. As such the concerns of epistemology have once again aligned with questions lying at the heart of the philosophy of education regarding the nature, aims and practice of education. Employing the conceptual tools and frameworks of the contemporary field, these questions are addressed by both epistemologists and education theorists in the emerging epistemology of education literature. *** The epistemology of education raises and addresses epistemological questions concerning the nature, aims and practice of education. These questions have come to the fore in light of a changing epistemological landscape in which the focus and content of epistemological inquiry has significantly diversified in recent decades. The epistemology of education employs the conceptual tools and frameworks of the contemporary field in order to contribute to core debates in the philosophy of education. In order to provide a clear sense of the theoretical terrain in which this emerging field is situated some context-setting is worth doing at the outset. A number of long-standing debates in the philosophy of education are addressed in the epistemology of education literature. This reveals both the philosophical heritage of the discourse

Quello sulla natura epistemica della pedagogia è un dibattito aperto da oltre cinquant’anni e incentrato sul rapporto tra filosofia e scienza empirica, sulla capacità conoscitiva della pedagogia, sulla sua dibattuta funzione pratico-poietica, sui suoi molteplici linguaggi e sulla relazione tra pedagogia e al-tre scienze dell’educazione.
Da un lato, questo volume vuole offrire nuovi spunti alla riflessione e proporre nuovi argomenti e nuove tesi, alcune anche provocatorie e controcorrente; dall’altra, intende rievocare e discutere il contributo di uno studioso importante e, per certi aspetti, curioso nel dibattito italiano degli anni Sessanta-Ottanta del Novecento sull’epistemologia pedagogica. Si tratta di Sergio De Giacinto, uno studioso ancor oggi frequentemente citato ma poco studiato, quando invece un dialogo intellettuale con i suoi scritti può dare – e questo libro lo dimostra – frutti vivaci di riflessione teoretica e per la formazione critica dei giovani pedagogisti.

La parabola compiuta da Sergio De Giacinto (1921-1989) in merito all’epistemologia pedagogica è quanto mai affascinante. Iniziata negli anni Sessanta con una progressiva messa a punto delle metodologie di ricerca e con una definizione sempre più precisa dello statuto della scienza pedagogica, da lui intesa come disciplina unitaria, pratica e multifunzionale, la produzione degiacintiana ha preso nei primi anni Ottanta una svolta decisiva: non più una razionalità e un linguaggio pedagogici di tipo scientifico - legati a quelli che definiva i nomi comuni delle cose del mondo - ma una pedagogia come poesia, come metaforicità, come narrazione, capaci di restituire i nomi propri, cioè la vitalità inesauribile e non schematizzabile dell’esistenza umana e dell’agire educativo.
Questo volume, il primo, sull’opera di De Giacinto introduce i temi dell’epistemologia pedagogica presentando le principali soluzioni che nel dibattito italiano di secondo Novecento sono state avanzate; in seguito, ricostruisce l’opera dell’autore, seguendola cronologicamente e interpretandola in maniera complessiva. In tal modo, cerca di colmare una lacuna nella storiografia pedagogica contemporanea, attingendo anche a fonti inedite, alle carte di De Giacinto e fornendo il catalogo completo delle sue pubblicazioni.

This book is an edited collection of essays made by undergraduate and postgraduate students and lecturers of education, particularly reflecting the experiences and thoughts that developed sparked by a series of lectures and readings on Pragmatist Epistemology given by Paniel Reyes-Cárdenas. The essays explore different routes of application and action that are released after considering the thoughts of the classical pragmatists: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Josiah Royce, Jane Addams, and George Herbert Mead.

Inquisitiveness is a paradigm example of an intellectual virtue. Despite some extensive work on the characterisation of the intellectual virtues however (e.g. Roberts and Wood, 2007; Baehr 2011) no detailed treatment of the virtue of inquisitiveness has been forthcoming in the recent literature. This paper offers a characterisation of the virtue of inquisitiveness considered within the framework of educating for intellectual virtue. As such, it presents the case in support of educating for inquisitiveness. The characterisation offered seeks to highlight in particular the distinctive relationship that inquisitiveness bears to the activity of questioning. When considered within the context of educating for intellectual virtue, this distinctive relationship is seen to have particular significance. The activity of questioning is a ubiquitous feature of everyday learning. Young children in particular are often observed to be avid question-askers and this natural tendency is manifest in a wide variety of contexts including the school classroom. There is, therefore, a natural association between inquisitiveness and learning. On this basis it is argued, the natural inclination exhibited by young children towards questioning provides us with a valuable tool in the promotion of intellectual flourishing. Moreover, the distinctive relationship that inquisitiveness bears to questioning highlights its special significance in the intellectually virtuous life in virtue of its defining role in the initiation of intellectually virtuous inquiry. Insofar as the nurturing of intellectually virtuous inquiry is a central aim of the project of educating for intellectual virtue, this places inquisitiveness centre-stage. As such, inquisitiveness is a primary intellectual virtue to educate for.

Este artículo aborda el modo en que en las últimas cuatro décadas se ha configurado la Teoría de la Educación en España. Para ello, los autores utilizan, a modo de metáfora, el concepto de «ecuación», y presentan una serie de entrevistas realizadas a tres personas que han tenido un papel fundamental en el desarrollo del conocimiento teórico de la educación: Gaston Mialaret, Paul H. Hirst y Wilfred Carr. La «ecuación» está compuesta de dos valores conocidos y de una incógnita. Los valores son el referente francés de las ciencias de la educación y el referente británico de las disciplinas aplicadas a la educación. La incógnita a despejar es la propia Teoría de la Educación. El artículo señala que la Teoría de la Educación que se ha venido desarrollando en nuestro contexto ha tratado de aunar elementos heterogéneos desgajados de sus tradiciones de origen, concluyendo que para entender la ecuación de la educación lo que se necesita hoy es una teoría más centrada en investigar la educación misma.

Questioning is a familiar, everyday practice which we use, often unreflectively, in order to gather information, communicate with each other, and advance our inquiries. Yet, not all questions are equally effective and not all questioners are equally adept. Being a good questioner requires a degree of proficiency and judgment, both in determining what to ask and in deciding who, where, when, and how to ask. Good questioning is an intellectual skill. Given its ubiquity and significance, it is an intellectual skill that, I believe, we should educate for. In this paper, I present a central line of argument in support of educating for good questioning, namely, that it plays an important role in the formation of an individual’s intellectual character and can thereby serve as a valuable pedagogical tool for intellectual character education. I argue that good questioning plays two important roles in the cultivation of intellectual character: good questioning (1) stimulates intellectually virtuous inquiry and (2) contributes to the development of several of the individual intellectual virtues. Insofar as the cultivation of intellectually virtuous character is a desirable educational objective, we should educate for good questioning.

One natural application of Linda Zagzebski’s exemplarist moral theory (EMT) is found in the context of moral and intellectual character education. Zagzebski discusses this application in her recent book, commenting that ‘exemplars can serve as a guide for moral training’ (p. 129) and endorsing ‘the learning of virtue by imitation’ (p. 129). This theme has been pursued compellingly by authors working at the intersection of virtue ethics and education, contributing to an emerging case for exemplarist-based approaches to character education. I focus on intellectual character education and draw attention to an interesting case in which exemplarism in the classroom may be seen to inhibit, rather than promote, the development of intellectually virtuous character. This is the case of virtuous inquisitiveness.

I explore the implications of a technological revolution that many in the industry think is likely to soon come to pass: neuromedia. In particular, I'm interested in how this will constitute an especially persuasive kind of extended cognition, and thereby will facilitate extended epistemic states. I think this will in turn have ramifications for how we understand the epistemic goals of education. I will be arguing that the challenges posed by neuromedia remind us that the overarching epistemic goal of education is not orientated towards facilitating a body of knowledge (or the development of mere cognitive skills), but is rather concerned with the development of intellectual character, where this in turn essentially involves the cultivation of intellectual virtues, character-traits that are not amenable to extended cognition.

It is argued that two plausible goals of the educational enterprise are (i) to develop the intellectual character, and thus the intellectual virtues, of the student, and (ii) to develop the student's intellectual self-confidence, such that they are able to have conviction in what they believe. On the face of it, however, these two educational goals seem to be in tension with one another, at least insofar as intellectual humility is a genuine intellectual virtue. This is because intellectual humility seems to require that one does not have conviction in one's beliefs. It is argued that this tension can be avoided so long as we have the right account of intellectual humility in play. This enables us to understand what educating for intellectual humility might involve, and how it might co-exist with the educational development of a student's intellectual self-confidence.

In this article, first, I analyze the characteristics of the new epistemology. Second, I argue for the importance of the implementation of the new epistemology at the framework of education. I will show the pedagogical importance of the new epistemology, that is, in what ways teachers and students transform their place as neutral observers with an already certified knowledge "out of nowhere", to a new position towards knowledge as a process bearing unique interpretative enriching the rational procedure as such. Since, according to the new epistemology, knowledge is understood as an incorporated, historical, social, cultural and gendered process, then teachers and students are able to shape it. Third, I argue that the implementation of modern epistemology of humanities studies at school, especially at religious studies creates learners who are aware of the spectrum of social stereotypes and prepares students for life issues by focusing on how we can learn through teamwork and play roles activities in order to discover the conditions in which knowledge grows.

In recent years, the reflection on intercultural education has
focused on the importance of managing everyday situations
in intercultural contexts. This focus is generally recognized
as fundamental for the shift from the perspective of multiculturalism
to a more interculturalist approach. An example
of the interculturalist turn can be found in the EU document
White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue ‘Living Together As
Equals in Dignity’, which promotes the intercultural
approach in education. In this article, referring to the later
works by Michel de Certeau I will propose a theorization of
the concept of everyday life, taken for granted as selfevident
by the EU document and by most of the promoters
of interculturalism. Furthermore, I will propose some possible
deepening of it. Moreover, I will suggest that through
the concept of everyday proposed by de Certeau it is possible
to think of more creative ways to deal with cultural
diversity.

It is argued that argumentative deliberation, which involves the interpersonal exchange and evaluation of reasons and counter-reasons, is crucial for the generation of epistemic goods given that it helps us eradicate errors and neutralise biases. However, to reap argumentative deliberation's epistemic benefits, the deliberators seem to need to instantiate a certain intellectual character: in particular, to be intellectually humble and autonomous. Given that, it is argued that the educational system should foster the development of the intellectual virtues of humility and autonomy. Moreover, some pedagogical strategies and practices as to how this can be achieved in the classroom are offered.

What does it take to convert the deliverances of an extended cognitive process into knowledge (i.e., extended knowledge)? It is argued that virtue epistemology, at least of an epistemic externalist kind (virtue reliabilism, as it is known), offers the resources to satisfactorily answer this question, provided that one rids the view of its implicit (and sometimes explicit) commitment to epistemic individualism. Nonetheless, it is also claimed that while virtue reliabilism can accommodate extended cognition, there are limits to the extent to which virtuous epistemic standings can be extended. In particular, it is argued that it is in the nature of intellectual virtue to be directed at non-extended epistemic standings. This point has important implications for an extended virtue epistemology, as is illustrated by considering how this point plays out in the context of the contemporary debate regarding the epistemology of education.

This study proposes a historic foray into the field of social pedagogy. It analyses origins, phases and the conceptual development of this area, based on the cultural model of modern society. Although social pedagogy has different emphases and approaches depending on particular historical and geographical contexts, a common theme is that it deals with the connections between educational and social dynamics, or to put it differently concern the educational dimension of social issues and the social dimensions of educational issues. Historical research methodology will be based on the principle of synchronism and diachronism social and human sciences in their own context-generally, pedagogical sciences-in particular.The historical approach to social pedagogy creates epistemological preconditions for identifying the axiomatic framework of Education Sciences, developed in the perspective of the sociocentrist paradigm. Updating and valorisation of fundamental pedagogical works and models in the history of education can help us to understand the current issues of education, in terms of the challenges of the knowledge society in a didactic, theoretical and operational perspective.The first part of this study analyzes the history of the field of social pedagogy since its german origins with a focus on two great tendencies: the kantian tradition (Paul Natorp) and the historicist-hermeneutics tradition (Herman Nöhl). The second part of the paper reviews the conceptual framework at the level of some opened epistemic models in the area of social pedagogy (axioms, laws, principles) as aspects of the process of understanding the essence of the phenomenon of education.

After a brief outline of the profile of Piero Bertolini in the context of the Italian phenomenological thinking in the sphere of education, the A. will focus on two main areas in which Bertolini conceived of phenomenology being applied to education: Phenomenology as an approach for understanding educational experience and on Bertolini’s phenomenological thinking aiming at building the pedagogy as a rigorous science, by conceiving phenomenology as a theoretical framework for a pedagogical
epistemology. Finally, some recent developments in Bertolini’s legacy are summarized.

In Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most fundamental political and moral issue current and future citizens face. If we accept the maxim that schools should prepare citizens for participation in determining the future of their state, Israeli students must be introduced to the historical, political, and moral questions at the heart of the conflict. But this responsibility of Israeli schools and teachers is a highly contentious issue. The most important issue in Israeli political education is thus the hardest to teach. In this article I argue that, despite considerable educational and political risks, teaching Jewish Israeli students about the 1948 Palestinian Nakba (alternatively known as the Israeli War of Independence), holds substantial potential for their epistemic development as capable knowers. I begin by reviewing the political, dialogical, cognitive, and epistemic deficits in Israeli education, highlighting how the Nakba is suppressed in history and citizenship education. By analyzing the epistemic context of the Nakba in Israeli society and education, I present two pedagogical approaches for teaching controversial issues, arguing for an inquiry-based approach over the widely held approach. I demonstrate the benefits of an inquiry-based approach in the context of history education. In the final section of the article, I build on the case of the Nakba to argue for a new epistemic framework for Israeli citizenship education. I begin by outlining the shortcomings of the current epistemic framework of the subject and point to possible future directions for the subject.

It is widely thought that education should aim at positive epistemic standings, like knowledge, insight, and understanding. In this paper, we argue that, surprisingly, in pursuit of this aim, it is sometimes necessary to also cultivate ignorance. We examine several types of case. First, in various circumstances educators should present students with defeaters for their knowledge, so that they come to lack knowledge, at least temporarily. Second, there is the phenomenon of 'scaffolding' in education, which we note might sometimes involve the educator quite properly ensuring that the student is ignorant of certain kinds of information. Third, if ignorance is lack of true belief, as a number of commentators have claimed, then in those cases in which students believe something truly without knowing it and teachers show that they lack knowledge, students may abandon that belief and thus become ignorant. In examining the role of ignorance in education, we explore exactly which kinds of ignorance are valuable in teaching situations and draw attention to important epistemic differences between ignorance on different levels.

This book is an edited collection of essays made by undergraduate and postgraduate students and lecturers of education, particularly reflecting the experiences and thoughts that developed sparked by a series of lectures and readings on Pragmatist Epistemology given by Paniel Reyes-Cárdenas. The essays explore different routes of application and action that are released after considering the thoughts of the classical pragmatists: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Josiah Royce, Jane Addams, and George Herbert Mead.

This paper describes a pilot study devoted to developing the teaching of philosophy within prison education in Scotland. The study paired the CoPI (community of philosophical inquiry) approach to learning and teaching with a set of educational resources created around a high-profile MOOC (massive open online course) that introduced students to core topics in philosophy. The primary goal of the study was to determine the extent to which the teaching of philosophy in prisons in this specific manner could enhance the intellectual virtues, and thereby the intellectual character, of the students. The results that were collected suggested that the project generated significant success on this front. In addition, the study had a further consequence, which had not been anticipated, in that it also helped the students to develop important personal and interpersonal skills, and thereby also enhanced their character more generally.

The article deals with Alexius Meinong's concept of disposition and its role in education. It introduces the newly translated text General Remarks on the Theory of Dispositions and contextualises this late work by Meinong. Taking the lead from Meinong's definition of disposition as Zweckkönnen, the underlying assumptions are presented and put into the context of the German discourse on Bildung. The remarks of Eduard Martinak are taken into account as a point of reference, since they directly address Meinong's theory in the context of pedagogy. Finally, it is asked how the idea of forming dispositions might contribute to a historical epistemology of education.

This book is an edited collection of essays made by undergraduate and postgraduate students and lecturers of education, particularly reflecting the experiences and thoughts that developed sparked by a series of lectures and readings on Pragmatist Epistemology given by Paniel Reyes-Cárdenas. The essays explore different routes of application and action that are released after considering the thoughts of the classical pragmatists: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Josiah Royce, Jane Addams, and George Herbert Mead.

What is indoctrination? This paper defends a structural epistemic account of indoctrination according to which indoctrination is the inculcation of closed-minded belief caused by ‘epistemically insulating content’. This is content which contains a proviso that serious critical consideration of the relevant alternatives to one’s belief is sanctionable, whether morally or epistemically. As such, it doesn’t demand that indoctrination be a type of unethical instruction, ideological instruction, unveridical instruction, or instruction which bypasses the agent’s rational evaluation. In this way, we can account for why indoctrination can occur for liberal democratic beliefs as much as it occurs for fascist, fundamentalist, or fanatical belief: for indoctrination is a structural epistemic phenomenon.

The intercultural education emphasizes a social reality within which a paradigm is assumed by a certain community. In this way, the social responsibilities relate to a strategic pragmatism of an educational nature. Moreover, the architectonics of the epistemology of the intercultural education legitimizes the existence of axiological structures found within the social policies. There are significant from this point of view the different intercultural modalities "responsible" for the concretization of a value hierarchy in a social system. Therefore, the comprehension of an intercultural dimension of the social reality reminds of a rational substantiation of the axiological structures through which the epistemological connections acquire meaning and significance. The activities which take place within a social system aim at a series of peculiarities meant to justify the existence of an intercultural "logic". In other words, the applicative-theoretical connections express within the educational reality situations corresponding to a social methodology. Moreover the intercultural contextual situations constitute a pragmatic operationalization of some approaches initiated at the level of the reality. Thus, the intercultural dimension projected at the level of the operationalization of the human competences illustrates the fact that the educational process in general represents a true potential of knowledge. Therefore a methodological restructuring of the social strategies which apply to the intercultural dimension generates a special form of communication through which there are emphasized the professional responsibilities. 1.2. The socio-educational phenomenon and its intercultural dimension The social flexibility validates the conceptual-theoretical structures within the educational reality. It has to do with an approach of the intercultural phenomenon from the perspective of a social epistemology. In these conditions, the scientific analysis made on the new paradigms concentrates specific modalities of approach through which the socio-educational activity becomes concrete. In fact the organization of some competences from a socio-professional standpoint can explain the methodology specific to the intercultural activities carried out in a given contextual situation. Moreover, the following of some socio-cultural criteria supposes some thorough understanding of the value principles from the perspective of an epistemological model. Therefore, the relationship competence-autonomy transposes the form of scientific reasoning in a system of the social praxis. The scientific dimension of the intercultural phenomenon reflects the idea of a social psychology through which the explanations are related to optimum forms of understanding. One can assert that at the level of a socio-educational system, a methodological strategy is necessary exactly in order to emphasize the normative nature and value of the process of understanding of the intercultural phenomenon related to different cultural spaces (Ghosh; Tarrow: 1993, 81-92). Also, one has in mind the innovative character of the social strategies applied and assumed in a contextual situation. From this point of view one has to mention the fact that the educational value of the intercultural dimension supposes the taking into consideration of some pedagogical approaches through which there are emphasized social mentalities. This situation expresses the idea that an analysis of education corroborated with an analysis of the social fact remind of various meanings of interpretation regarding the intercultural dimension of the society in general. That is why the motivation within the instructive process represents a psychological support in the process of assuming some socio-intercultural strategies where an important role is played by the style itself. In fact, the cultural style perceived as a determined and stable modality of life and human creation (Boboc: 2001, 20), reminds of a professional reorganization and moral regeneration. From this point of view we have in mind

This book is an edited collection of essays made by undergraduate and postgraduate students and lecturers of education, particularly reflecting the experiences and thoughts that developed sparked by a series of lectures and readings on Pragmatist Epistemology given by Paniel Reyes-Cárdenas. The essays explore different routes of application and action that are released after considering the thoughts of the classical pragmatists: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, Josiah Royce, Jane Addams, and George Herbert Mead.

Our aim in this paper is to argue that Socrates is an intellectual character builder. We show that the Socratic Method, properly understood, is a tool for developing the intellectual character of students. It motivates agents towards the truth and helps them to develop the cognitive skills to gain knowledge of the truth. We further elucidate this proposal by comparing the Socratic Method, so understood, with the widely held contemporary view that the epistemic aim of education is the development of the intellectual virtues.