Introduction

The entire discipline of education as a legitimate field of academic study is at a virtual crossroads. One path leads to the same unfortunate errors that have sullied education and educational research for more than 150 years. This well-trodden path, laden with a range of ideological assumptions and epistemological mistakes, generates instrumental forms of thinking and learning that operate to undermine the critical dispositions required for meaningful education within democratic societies. The other path, which we believe to be the far more enlightened choice, understands the limits of empirical research and emphasizes instead the purposes, goals, and strategies of education within democratic societies.

This second and far more progressive path seeks to develop innovative pedagogical ideas and theories that understand learning strategies as following logically from educational objectives. As Dewey (1916) so accurately pointed out, the means and ends of education are intrinsically connected. In other words, our approach to instruction is embodied in the type of education we seek to achieve. Empirical research, therefore, becomes virtually superfluous and an unnecessary drain on the severely limited resources available to schools, teachers, and administrators. Our more favoured path creates students who are politically informed and active participants in shaping their social, economic, occupational, and political experiences. Hence, the stakes that have compelled us to write this book are enormously high for both the future of teacher education and for education as an academic discipline, as well as for democratic societies more generally.