Book Review: Problems in philosophy of education: a systematic approach

James Scott Johnston's book title might suggest a focus on substantive educational or conceptual problems in philosophy of education - citizenship education, environmental education, digitisation, perhaps. Instead, Johnston's focus could be more accurately expressed as problems with philosophy of education as a field. These problems are long-created and endemic. Not the gender or racial imbalance, the scarcity of jobs, its disappearance from teacher education programmes, or the fact that most of it sits behind paywalls. Rather, the very conception and practice of philosophy of education itself: the questions we pursue are largely illegitimate. Our questions, and our approaches to answering them, are too often derived from other disciplines, Johnston argues.