The Public Vocation of Philosophy of Education in Conditions of Global Transformations

Abstract

The article actualizes the problem of compliance of philosophical and theoretical-methodological foundations of national educational system to sociocultural challenges, which, in fact, led to the segregation of philosophy of education in a special sphere of knowledge in Ukraine. The author refers to the analysis of the formation of the philosophy of education in the post-Soviet space. Different definitions and approaches to its understanding are considered. The article highlights a number of approaches to the determination of the status of philosophy of education. The first approach is based on the assumption that the philosophy of education is a specific applied philosophy. The second approach equates
philosophy of education with general pedagogy. The third approach represents a philosophy of education as an independent sphere of scientific knowledge. The fourth approach determines the philosophy of education as general theory of the world and human. The author supports the third approach, basing, on the one hand, on actualization of educational problems in the era of information civilization that requires the development of methods of extrapolation of philosophical principles into the educational process. The author highlights the problems of education, such as: a) its transformation into complex specialized system which has its own laws of functioning and development; b) universalization of education, caused by the need of the individual in constant updating of knowledge; c) the intensification of the crisis of education, expressed in the unacceptability of its results, and above all in the gap between the level of training and the needs of contemporary society. On the other hand, the need for the formation of the philosophy of education as
a special research field of philosophy (given the ever-changing world and human in it) is due to the fact that, firstly, the education is an autonomous sphere of social life; secondly, education institutions are diversified, they are ever-changing, diverse and united into one at the same time; thirdly, among the other humanities education is poliparadigmal, it represents different pedagogical views, different interpretation of the goals and ideals of education. The main research priorities of the philosophy of education as a branch of philosophical knowledge in the conditions of global transformations are analyzed.