Education Reconfigured: Culture, Encounter, and Change

As philosophers throughout the ages have asked: What is justice? What is truth? What is art? What is law? In Education Reconfigured, the internationally acclaimed philosopher of education, Jane Roland Martin, now asks: What is education? In answer, she puts forward a unified theory that casts education in a brand new light. Martin#xE2;#xAC;"s "theory of education as encounter" places culture alongside the individual at the heart of the educational process, thus responding to the call John Dewey made over a century ago for an enlarged outlook on education. Look through her theory#xE2;#xAC;"s lens and you can see that education takes place not only in school but at home, on the street, in the mall#xE2;#xAC;#x1D;everywhere and all the time. Look through that lens and you can see that education does not always spell improvement; rather, it can be for the better or the worse. Indeed, you can see that education is inevitably a maker and shaper of both individuals and cultures. Above all, Martin#xE2;#xAC;"s new educational paradigm reveals that education is too important to be left solely to the professionals; that it is one of the great forces in human society and, as such, deserves the attention and demands the vigilance of every thoughtful person.