Philosophical Thinking in Educational Practice

Designed for those wanting to be teachers, administrators, or other educational practitioners, this work shows how the study of educational philosophy should and can be of considerable practical value. The author provides students with a method—one of questioning—and a set of principles of moral agency for assessing the purposes and decisions of educational practice. Students can see the practical value of educational philosophy through case studies which include: a school district committee's efforts to write a mission statement; a disciplinary hearing for a middle school student; a teacher's instructional evaluation; a high school committee trying to reform an occupational studies program; and an elementary school committee examining how to improve students' academic performance.

Each case study contains background information and a description of the facts of the case, an identification of the central topic, a specification of the features of moral activity that appear in the case, a questioning of the case from the standpoint of the generic norms of moral agency, and recommendations on what needs to be done in the case.

ROBERT D. HESLEP is Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Georgia, and a past president of the Philosophy of Education Society.