Key ideas
Core concepts
- Four competing purposes for schooling (socialisation, reasoning, natural development, and social reformation) each offer different educational goals.
- The purposes often conflict with each other, creating tensions in educational decision-making, so educators balance competing purposes rather than choosing a single approach.
The purpose of school-based education refers to the philosophical assumptions about what schools should achieve, which shape educators’ perspectives and decisions about teaching approaches.
Connected to
Education as Natural Development | Education as Social Reformation | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Non-Explicit Teaching
Four educational purposes
When educators debate teaching approaches, they reflect philosophical differences about schooling’s purpose (Labaree, 1997). Four competing visions each offer different goals for education (Goodlad, 1979).
Socialisation aims to help students acquire the beliefs, values, and norms of society to contribute to social cohesion and stability (Dewey, 1916). Schools maintain societal order by instilling shared values and norms (Spring, 2018).
Reasoning seeks to provide students with knowledge to critically appraise the world and make informed decisions (Noddings, 2007). This purpose emphasises developing critical thinking skills and the ability to challenge and understand the world through an established body of knowledge (Dewey, 1916).
Natural development supports students in discovering their strengths and interests whilst nurturing their character and values. It emphasises individual growth, allowing children to develop according to intrinsic motivations.
Social reformation seeks to instil values into children to improve society and surpass current injustices (Westheimer & Kahne, 1998). Education becomes a tool for social change, addressing and rectifying societal inequalities (Reimer & McLean, 2009).
Contradictions between purposes
The four purposes differ and sometimes contradict each other, creating tensions in decision-making (Labaree, 1997; Noddings, 2007).
Socialisation conflicts with social reformation when educators want students to conform to society whilst challenging existing norms. It conflicts with natural development when adopting society’s norms runs counter to a child’s natural development. Reasoning conflicts with natural development because reasoning requires learning an established knowledge canon, which can stifle natural development, and it conflicts with socialisation because critical thought often leads to challenging societal norms. Social reformation conflicts with reasoning because, as one perspective states, “the role of activist is to turn grey issue into black and white issue”. It conflicts with natural development when challenging society’s norms runs counter to a child’s natural development.
Implications for practice
These philosophical tensions appear in classroom practice and explain persistent educational debates: Explicit Teaching versus Non-Explicit Teaching, structured curricula versus student choice, traditional knowledge versus progressive methods, and individual development versus social goals.
The tensions create practical questions for schools: whether to transmit cultural knowledge or transform society, whether individual student interests or collective social needs take priority, and whether critical thinking can coexist with social cohesion or natural development with systematic knowledge acquisition.
Educators balance the four purposes rather than choosing a single approach. Educational debates often stem from these deeper philosophical differences about schooling’s purpose, and the choices teachers make about which purposes to emphasise in different contexts reflect these underlying commitments.
References
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. Macmillan.
Goodlad, J. I. (1979). What schools are for. Phi Delta Kappan/ERIC.
Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal, 34(1), 39-81. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312034001039
Noddings, N. (2007). Philosophy of education (2nd ed.). Westview Press.
Reimer, K., & McLean, L. R. (2009). Conceptual clarity and connections: Global citizenship education and service-learning. In J. Zajda, H. Daun, & L. J. Saha (Eds.), Nation-building, identity and citizenship education (pp. 59-76). Springer.
Spring, J. (2018). American education (18th ed.). Routledge.
Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (1998). Education for action: Preparing youth for participatory democracy. In W. Ayers, J. A. Hunt, & T. Quinn (Eds.), Teaching for social justice (pp. 1-20). Teachers College Press.