Childhood and the Philosophy of Education

Andrew Stables in Professor of Education and Philosophy in the Department of Education at the University of Bath, UK.

• Introduction: The conception of childhood; Part I: The Aristotelian Heritage; 1.1. How Anti-Aristotelian can one be?; 1.2. Aristotle's debt to Plato; 1.3. Aristotle: children as people in formation; 1.4. Histories of childhood: footnotes to Aristotle?; 1.5. Pessimism and sin: the Puritan child; 1.6. Optimism and enlightenment: the liberal child; 1.7. Trailing clouds of glory: the romantic child; 1.8. The postmodern child: less than not much?; Part II: A Fully Semiotic View of Childhood; 2.1. Living as semiotic engagement; 2.2. The meaning-making semiotic child; 2.3 Learning and schooling: Dewey and beyond; Part III: Education Reconsidered; 3.1. The roots of compulsory schooling; 3.2 The extension of the in-between years; 3.3 Teaching for significant events: identity and non-identity; Part IV: The Child in Society; 4.1 The child and the law; 4.2 Semiosis and social policy; 4.3 Doing children justice; References; Index.

'Too often, in recent years, there has been a propensity for academics writing about childhood, children's voice and growing up to offer a totalising constructionist account on the basis of too little evidence and a too unsubtle analysis. Here, Andrew Stables offers an antidote to the easy bon mot. His account of childhood relies on a careful reading of a range of historical and philosophical sources. Moreover he carefully explores the educational implications of his analysis of childhood; an analysis that avoids the twin perils of a crass essentialism on the one hand and a rootless deconstructed account on the other. To do so he draws on semiotic work to look at children as sign makers in their own right. Not everyone will agree with everything in Stables' book, but for those interested in thinking about childhood and education, it is a must read.' Professor James C Conroy, Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow, UK