Dai classici all'epistemologia: si può insegnare l'educazione?

Abstract

This paper takes into account four different meanings of the word “Education”: education as ethical training; education as manner; education as a process og growth and individual improvement; education as concept. To deal with this themes the author refers to different sources: philosophy, handbooks or popular literature, educational works and finally epistemological contributions. The answer to the title is negative for the first three points: in these case, as a matter of fact, virtues and manners are generally imposed to individuals and social groups by hegemonic culture in different contexts and periods. Education may be taught only if it is defined as a specific object of a specific kind of knowledge: this happens in every science and for every scientific concept. Unfortunately, educational epistemology suffers, in Italy, from school organization, handbooks structure, a reduced initial teachers’ training and, finally and above all, school politics.