What is the nature of reality? What is the nature of knowledge?
and What is of value? (metaphysics, epistemology, and
axiology, respectively). These questions provide a conceptual
framework that gives coherence to the study of philosophy.
These questions also identify the major concerns of education
and provide the possibility for coherence in educational practice.
By coherence we mean that they provide educators with
a possible framework for posing questions from multiple perspectives
that allow us to reflect on our work. For example,
they allow us to pose multiple questions regarding the nature
of curricula. They allowus to examine whose knowledgewe are
promoting and, even prior to that, what knowledge is of most
worth. Questions of value ask us why we choose this particular
knowledge and leave all of the rest out, etc. (see Apple, 1979,
1996). Engaging in this questioning is philosophical inquiry, is
doing philosophy.
Another framework