Paul A. Wagner, PhD, is the author of over 130 publications including nine books. He is chair of the Department of Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Houston.Frank K. Fair, PhD, has a number of publications in a variety of academic journals, co-authored two books on innovation, quality management, and team creativity in business. Two other recent publications especially relevant describe the successful replication of empirical experiments on the effects of the Socrates in the Schools program.

• DedicationPreface AcknowledgementsIntroduction Chapter 1: Conceptions of Knowledge I: Realism Versus Skepticism Chapter 2 Why Children and Their Parents are Natural Realists Chapter 3: Conceptions of Knowledge II: Contextualism and PragmatismChap. 4 Policy-makers and Administrators as Contextualists and Pragmatists Chapter 5 Conceptions of Knowledge III: Instrumentalism , Evidentialism, and Social Constructivism Chapter. 6 Educational Researchers as Instrumentalists, Evidentailists, or Social ConstructivistsChapter 7 Bringing the Perspectives TogetherChapter 8 Sketching a Path Forward Glossary: 20-25 definitions of key terms ReferencesAbout the AuthorIndex

Paul Wagner and Frank Fair ask readers to consider what is involved in engaging in an idealistic quest they call The Great Conversation of Humankind. They see schools as the constructed but necessary arenas for what they call student building, and part of that work is learning about domains of knowledge and engaging with them in a community of inquiry. Wagner and Fair draw upon philosophical texts and years of educational practice to make their case for student building, a vibrant metaphor for teaching and learning that captures the hope and energy of this text. I will use it in graduate classes.