The course intends to enable students to develop broad knowledge of the history of ideas and theoretical foundations of various educational aims and teaching forms. Furthermore, students will develop an understanding of recurrent debates and controversies within educational theory and engage with them.

The course applies the perspective of the history of ideas to address practices in education. A central component of the course content focuses on how educational theories have developed in various cultural contexts, and how related controversies have arisen. In addition, the course critically assesses educational practices and phenomena such as the lecture, the seminar, the textbook, assessments and curricula, from the perspective of the history and theories of education.

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to

The course is based on regular lectures, seminars and joint study of literature. There will be opportunities for feedback between the students throughout the course.

Test 1 (2001): Written exam (Skriftlig examination), 10 credits. This test will examine the intended learning outcomes 1 and 2.

Test 2 (2002): Oral exam (Muntlig examination), 5 credits. This test will examine the intended learning outcome 3.

The course coordinator will provide information about grading criteria at the start of the course.

It must be possible to distinguish between individual performances for all assessments

Aristotle (2004). The Nichomachean Ethics. London: Penguin Classics (336 p.)

Dewey, John (1916/1997). Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: The Free Press (360 p.)

Illich, Ivan (1971/1996). Deschooling Society. London: Marion Boyars (116 p.)

Kant, Immanuel (1784/2009). An Answer to the Question: ‘What is Enlightenment?’ London: Penguin Books (121 p.)

Masschelein, Jan (2018). An Educational Cave Story (on animals that go to 'school'). In P. Smeyers (ed.) International Handbook of Philosophy of Education. Dordrecht: Springer (pp. 1185-1200) (15 p.)

Mollenhauer, Klaus (1983/2014). Forgotten Connections: On Culture and Upbringing (trans. and ed. N. Friesen). Abingdon: Routledge (135 p.)

Muir, James R. (2005). Is Our history of educational philosophy mostly wrong? The case of Isocrates, Theory and Research in Education, 3(2), 165-195 (30 p.)

Nietzsche, Friedrich (1874/1997). Schopenhauer as educator. In D. Breazeale (ed.) Untimely Meditation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pp. 125-194) (70 p.)

Peters, Richard S. (1963). Education as Initiation. London: The University of London Institute of Education (pp. 7-48) (41 p.)

Plato (1963). The allegory of the cave. In Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton: University Press (pp. 747-752) (6 p.)

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1762/1979). Emile or On Education. New York: Basic Books (501 p.)

Suissa, Judith (2019). Anarchist education. In C. Levy, M. Adams (Eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan (pp. 511-529) (19 p.)

Students who participate in or complete a course must be given the opportunity to share their experiences and provide feedback on the course via a course evaluation issued by the University. The University will compile the course evaluations and provide information regarding the results and any measures taken as a result of the course evaluation. Results will be made available to the students. (Higher Education Ordinance 1:14).