Springer Texts in Education
2 total works
This short book provides an introduction to the study of education, outlining the dual purpose of education - to help people live well and to help develop a world worth living in. It argues that education initiates people into forms of understanding, modes of activity, and ways of relating to each other and the world that not only help individuals to live good lives, but also help secure a culture based on reason, productive and sustainable economies and environments, and just and democratic societies. Subsequent chapters address the history of education in the West; explore how education reproduces the practices and forms of life in societies and groups, and also how it transforms them; and introduce the theory of practice architectures to explain what practices are composed of, and how they are enabled and constrained by local and more general conditions and circumstances. The book closes by showing how the theory of practice architectures unfolds to offer a theory of education - a theory that underpins the definition of education offered at the start of the book. Understanding Education is essential reading for anyone interested in the theory and practice of education.
This textbook shows how people can and do transform the world through transforming their practices and the practice architectures that shape them, and contributes to contemporary practice theory. It provides an authoritative, comprehensive, and contemporary account of the theory of practice architectures, illustrated through examples drawn from years of research by participants in the Pedagogy, Education, and Praxis international research network from Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Colombia, and the Caribbean. Its content provides a variety of resources for researchers who are new to research using the theory of practice architectures. It includes tables to assist with the analysis of practices, and provides clear examples to aid understanding and application. This textbook provides readers with a thorough grounding in the theory and ways the theory of practice architectures has been used in investigations of social and educational practice.