Critical Reflections on Teacher Education

Howard Woodhouse is Professor Emeritus and Co-Director of the Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He is the author of more than eighty book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals, and his Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award.

• Preface; Introduction; 1. The Demise of Educational Philosophy and the Rise of the Market Model; 2. Bertrand Russell’s Humanistic Educational Philosophy and the Renewal of Teacher Education; 3. Philosophy for Children, Teacher Education, and the Challenge of the Market Model; 4. Life-Value, The Climate Crisis, and Teacher Education; 5. A Philosophical Framework for Climate Change Teacher Education

"Woodhouse here provides a clear, cogent and compelling case for the practical importance of philosophy in teacher education. Arguing that teachers need to be more than technicians, he presents an incisive attack on the current market/managerial model of education. He suggests that current practice leads to conformity and lack of autonomy in teachers, and, drawing on the work of Bertrand Russell among others, he argues that philosophy is the means to developing instead their ‘freedom of mind’. Timely and convincing, this is a major contribution to discussion of teacher education."Robin Barrow, Emeritus Professor, Philosophy of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada"Howard Woodhouse has written an important and timely book to counter the dismal state of schooling in the English-speaking world. As he uncovers, contemporary schooling is beset with an impoverished understanding of education and ill-advised state and bureaucratic directives that undermine teachers and teacher education. Drawing upon philosophical insights from Bertrand Russell and other important thinkers, Professor Woodhouse points the way to how philosophy can enrich teaching, teacher education, and our schools."David P. Ericson, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii at Manoa"Today we don’t just find ourselves in the midst of an information hurricane. In less than a generation, we have transitioned from the information age to the misinformation age, from a time in which education was important for finding jobs to a time in which education is important for our very survival. Written for the thoughtful professional, Critical Reflections on Teacher Education provides a forward-looking vision of what it means to be educated. It reminds us that we need to have a conversation about the distinction between education and indoctrination, about how to distinguish sense from nonsense, and about how to disagree without being disagreeable. Woodhouse is to be congratulated for beginning this conversation."Andrew Irvine, Professor, Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science, University of British Columbia"In this book, Howard Woodhouse analyzes the impact of the present-day emphasis on efficiency in education, the tendency to aim education almost exclusively at future work, and the teaching of an official government line throughout the years of schooling. For Woodhouse, as for his predecessor in such criticism, Bertrand Russell, this is an unjustified and even appalling development. Woodhouse addresses this development by encouraging philosophical discussion in teacher education programs and recommending that teachers should themselves be encouraged to engage in "philosophy for children" at every level in schooling. This is an important book that should be read in all teacher education programs and by anyone who cares about the education of our citizenry in general."Ian Winchester, Professor and Past Dean, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary