Philosophical Foundations of Education, Edited by Winston C. Thompson, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023

When I do begin this vertical pursuit, I have no doubt that I will be grateful to have begun with Philosophical Foundations of Education. This is because Thompson and the other authors of this volume clearly articulate how a philosophical perspective not only offers responses to the designated topics but informs how we should think about and question these topics in the first place. Perhaps, however, Thompson says it best in his excellent introduction when he writes, “This book is a gentle invitation to the field of philosophy of education, simultaneously provided as a description and a demonstration of the very same” (p. 6). And I, myself a philosopher of education, very much see this dynamic at play in each of the seven chapters of the volume. The overarching aim of this book is to demonstrate how the field of philosophy of education responds to contemporary educational issues. The authors have taken great care to include many diverse voices in this text. As Thompson admits in the first chapter, the field has historically maintained a primarily Western focus. This is changing, however, as the discipline itself grows more globalized, and the authors demonstrate this well by depicting “a global view of philosophy of education” (p. 1). Through reading this volume, I learned for the first time about several thinkers, including the group Ikhwan al-Safa and N’Dri Assié-Lumumba, from different times and parts of the world who have something worthwhile to offer philosophy of education. The first chapter, titled “Mapping the Field” and written by Thompson, seems well suited for people completely new to philosophy of education, as it provides an overview of some foundational aspects of the discipline. This includes an explanation of philosophical methodologies that researchers within the field typically use, as well as a discussion of philosophical movements across history that have contributed to the conversation of philosophy of education. In addition, Thompson informs the readers of topics that contemporary scholars in the field return to consistently, such as moral education and civic education. He ends by providing information on professional societies and academic journals dedicated to philosophy of education. In the second chapter, “Purposes of Education,” Liz Jackson examines how philosophers across time and place have responded differently to this fundamental topic. Because this topic has been so widely discussed for so long, Jackson addresses why it is necessary to continue discussing the purposes of education. Simply put, philosophers of education, Jackson says, regard it as essential to return to this question as educational contexts change and tensions between competing values arise (p. 36). In Jackson’s comparison of various responses, she takes care to include many diverse perspectives. For example, she examines how the purpose of education has been discussed in Indigenous philosophy, Confucian philosophy, and religious philosophies, including Islam and Christian philosophies. In chapter three, “Curriculum,” Lynda Stone and Daniel P. Gibboney, Jr. take a “histories of ideas” approach to the topic (p. 56). In other words, the authors present philosophers from three different historical periods who have contributed to our understanding of educational curriculum, including its sources, forms, and reforms. I appreciated how Stone and Gibboney’s contribution interwove seminal thinkers in the field as well as important, yet less discussed, philosophers. For example, their chapter addresses popular thinkers such as Plato, Rousseau, and Dewey alongside the Ikhwan al-Safa, Friedrich Fröebel, and Ivan Illich. Including such diverse voices provides a rich philosophical response to the question of educational curriculum. The point of this chapter is not to dictate curricula as such, but to allow readers to critically question the sources and functions of curriculum, particularly …