Understanding and using challenging educational theories

This book, which is in its second edition, provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary educational thinkers and their thought-provoking works. It encompasses seven themes bringing together the thoughts of 18 well-known education theorists and philosophers who have challenged conventional and orthodox views of education and its role in society. These theorists have contributed to much of education research over 6 decades. Their theories have shaped approaches to teaching and learning to some extent.

The first four chapters are devoted to the works of humanistic educationalists, who believe in the inherent goodness of children. Chapter 1 introduces the work of Abraham Maslow, famous for his hierarchy of needs theory. The central tenet of his theory is that human behaviour or motivation is guided by the desire to fulfil certain needs in a hierarchical order. In Chapter 2, the authors discuss Carl Rogers’ theory that the basic motivation of humans is to realise one’s potential. He believed that people’s behaviour is shaped by their perception of themselves and their situation, which, in turn, is determined by their childhood experience. He was critical of rote learning and saw teachers more as facilitators than instructors, and he questioned the relevance of teachers.

Another influential educator whose radical view of schools defies the conventional concept of schooling was A. S. Neill, the founder of the Summerhill school, discussed in Chapter 3. Neill’s philosophy is that children should be given complete autonomy regarding when and what they want to learn. In Chapter 4, the authors discuss the ideas of John Goodlad, another advocate of progressive education who was particularly against outcome-based education, which he saw as ethically and academically harmful. Goodlad stressed the importance of teacher education, not only in teaching skills and professionalism but in morality and ethics.

All the educators in the first four chapters were born and educated during the Victorian era, and were perhaps reacting to the controlled and rule-based Victorian education system. Nevertheless, their philosophy of liberal education still holds sway in modern thinking.

Chapters 5, 7, and 8 introduce the works of sociological thinkers such as Basil Bernstein, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel Foucault, who were concerned with the influence of social class on educational outcomes. Bernstein (Chapter 5) postulated that the “restricted code” of working-class children may hinder their understanding of “abstract” concepts and, thus, their inability to benefit from school. Foucault addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through social institutions. Foucault saw power as ubiquitous, and Bourdieu regards power as culturally and socially constructed. His theories of “habitus” and “cultural capital” have been widely used in education to explain the influence of a child’s “cultural capital” on education outcomes.

Chapter 6 turns to the ideas of Ivan Illich, whose philosophy of education is critical of the institutional approach to education. Like Carl Rogers earlier, he argued that learning is not simply the result of teaching, and he questioned the fundamental need for schools. In Chapters 9 and 10, the authors turn to the works of Loris Malaguzzi and Nel Noddings. Like the educators in Chapter 1 to 4, Malaguzzi was a proponent of the child-centred approach to education, whose philosophy is that children have the ability and desire to construct their own knowledge. Likewise, Noddings’s philosophy of the ethics of care is similar to that of Goodlad, whose concerns are with the morality and ethics of education.

The authors then examine the development of the curriculum and teacher professionalism in teaching and research, focusing on the work of Stenhouse (Chapter 11). Stenhouse believed that teachers, as a key to curriculum development, should be actively involved in research (the teacher-as-researcher movement), and that this was the basis of teacher professionalism, whether or not their research was published.

Chapters 12 and 13 examine Michael Apple’s and Henry Giroux’s anti-neo-liberalism ideas about education. They are advocates of critical pedagogy, arguing that schools have already become tools of the dominant ideology and dominant class. Chapter 14 introduces Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences.

Chapters 15, 16, and 17 cover the works of John Holt, bell hooks, and Jack Mezirow. The thinking of these authors echo, in part, those of Neill, Rogers, Illich, and Goodlad. John Holt, for instance, like Illich, believed in the non-necessity of schools or formal education. bell hooks argues for “education as the practice of freedom”, proposing a democratic environment for teachers and learners, working as partners, to think and act critically. Chapter 17 introduces Jack Mezirow and his ideas of transformative learning, critical reflection, and communicative learning. The last chapter introduces Linda Darling-Hammond and her concern for the development of high-quality teacher education, calling for new curricula, policies, and systems in order to improve teacher professionalism.

The chapters are divided helpfully into 12 sections, starting with Learning Outcomes, which reminds readers what they are supposed to know after reading. It is followed by the Key Words and Introduction, which enable readers to capture the essence of the educational thinkers’ work, followed by the Biography section. Particularly useful are the sections on Theory, Links with other Theorists, and Critiquing the Theory. The sections on Applying the Theory and the Reflective Task box navigate readers from “understanding” theories to “using” theories, as the title of the book indicates. The end of each chapter has a Summary and a Glossary of Terms. There is a section on Further Reading, which indicates useful resources for interested readers.

Overall, this is a comprehensive beginners’ guide to great education thinkers of the 20th and 21st century. However, as an introductory book on “understanding” and “using” educational theories, this volume could do better. Some of the critical evaluations of the theories are limited. Take, for instance, the criticisms of Bourdieu’s theory in Chapter 7, which focus on his own experiences as an exception to his cultural capital theory, and the issue of application of his works in the UK context. These are somewhat superficial. Since non-economic forms of capital, such as cultural capital, are problematic to define and operationalise, a clear definition would be useful, otherwise what counts as capital is debatable. It is this ambiguity that exacerbates different measurements of capitals in the studies (Sullivan, 2001; White, 2017). Huang (2019) viewed one’s qualifications, knowledge, and family as cultural capital, while Jonsson (1987) measured it by parents’ level of education. Sullivan (2001), on the other hand, preferred a wider operationalisation involving social class, parental education credentials, cultural activities, cultural knowledge, and language. This range of conceptualisations of “cultural capital” makes it difficult to compare the findings across studies.

Another limitation is the absence of discussion of the methodology or the basis behind many of the works of these thinkers. While the book is not specifically focused on educational research methodology, it would be useful to understand how these theories were developed.

The book is also unclear about whether it is about how these theories have been, or should be practised in reality. Although, at the beginning of this volume, the authors claim to provide some suggestions for application, there is a lack of evidence on where these theories could be applied. For instance, in the section Applying the Theory, the authors mention several times that “this theory has been practised by many countries/schools/teachers” (e.g., Chapters 3 and 17), but provide no evidence, references, or the context within which they were used. The suggestions offered in many chapters were unclear about whether they are evidence-based or simply hypothetical. For example, they argue that multiple intelligences can improve children’s self-esteem and confidence to support the application of this theory, but they present no robust empirical evidence to support this.

In summary, this book provides a useful introduction to the thinking of contemporary educational theorists. It is beneficial to novices in education or anyone who is looking for a whistle-stop tour of contemporary educational theories, though their origins in research and evidence are unclear.