Paradoxes & Praxis: The 21st Century Imperative for Educational Foundations

Pardoxes & Praxis

You have no doubt noticed the thick, palpable and inescapable public discontent with education. You may even be reading this text because you want to be part of the solution as an educator. Such an intention shows your bravery as teachers, students, schools, and their neighborhoods are the primary targets of blame for our schooling woes. Many of the solutions to our professed educational crisis now come from politicians, billionaires, political think tanks, and businesses; while students, parents/grandparents/guardians, teachers, and their communities struggle to influence educational practice, policy, and laws.

And yet here you are engaging with the
Foundations of Education — millennia of
educational thought, philosophy, and praxis.

Before we immerse ourselves in the readings and experiences this course offers, take some time to imagine your idea if the ideal education and sketch it out in words, diagrams, images, collage, or any other forms that express  your vision. As you sketch, consider the assumptions you make and how you came to believe is this ideal. Feel free to invite people (classmates, colleagues, friends, family, children, elders) to make their own sketches so that you can share and discuss your varied visions for the ideal education.

 

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