Educational Metamorphoses Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Culture

A preeminent philosopher of education in the United States, Jane Roland Martin challenges conventional wisdom. Using case studies of personal transformations, or metamorphoses, Martin examines Malcolm X; G. B. Shaw's Eliza Doolittle; Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron; Minik the Inuit Child; and several others to demonstrate how substantial personal change can be and how vital education is as a fundamental determinant of the human condition. Martin's study reveals that each of us undergoes personal metamorphoses as a result of education, sometimes with a radically altered identity, and that each change constitutes a culture crossing which can be accompanied by feelings of guilt, accusations of betrayal, alienation, and a sense of loss. Book jacket.

Jane Roland Martin, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy emerita at the University of Massachusetts, Boston