Practical wisdom: Educational philosophy as liberal teacher education.

摘要

The undervaluing of the humanistic study of education, in liberal arts colleges and teacher-training institutions alike, is a symptom of the superstition described by Dewey that whatever is liberal must be useless, and whatever useful, illiberal. Educational studies is thought too utilitarian to constitute a true liberal art, and educational foundations are marginalized in schools of education as if their liberality were a sign of their uselessness.;I propose understanding philosophy as a love of open questions, and education as an ongoing conversation at the intersection of three interrelated, humanistic questions (what is the human condition? what constitutes human flourishing? and, what facilitates human development?), I argue that educational philosophy constitutes a devotion to recovering these basic educational questions, which become foreclosed by historical horizons, institutional imperatives, and educational cant. Educational philosophers express this love in a pedagogy of liberal learning, inviting others to learn to love the educational questions themselves.;Why extend this invitation to teachers? Against the objection that liberal learning is inherently impractical, and thereby antithetical to preparation for a practice, I argue that liberal teacher education proves useful precisely by refusing to let the voice of practicality dominate the educational conversation. To the charge that liberal self-cultivation is inimical to the spirit of a service profession, I respond that good teaching requires an evolving self and is sabotaged by the ascetic ideal.;Furthermore, liberal teacher education promotes critical reflection. Educational philosophy--guiding educators through hermeneutic encounters with historically-recessed, humanistic texts that illuminate educational questions we have forgotten how to ask--goes beyond the "reflective practitioner" model to foster practical wisdom, which requires self-knowledge, ethical reflection, and untimeliness. In urging educators to transform themselves from appliers of an unexamined vision of human flourishing to engaged inquirers into the Good, educational philosophy cultivates not only criticality but natality, helping teachers reconceive of their practice as a personal quest.;Contrary to "superstition," education, that most practical of arts, is central to liberal-humanistic inquiry, and by inviting teachers to join this ongoing conversation over the ends and means of human development, liberal teacher education testifies to the utility of culture.