This short book provides an introduction to the study of education,
outlining the dual purpose of education - to help people live well and
to help develop a world worth living in. It argues that education
initiates people into forms of understanding, modes of activity, and
ways of relating to each other and the world that not only help
individuals to live good lives, but also help secure a culture based on
reason, productive and sustainable economies and environments, and just
and democratic societies. Subsequent chapters address the history of
education in the West; explore how education reproduces the practices
and forms of life in societies and groups, and also how it transforms
them; and introduce the theory of practice architectures to explain what
practices are composed of, and how they are enabled and constrained by
local and more general conditions and circumstances. The book closes by
showing how the theory of practice architectures unfolds to offer a
theory of education - a theory that underpins the definition of
education offered at the start of the book. Understanding Education is
essential reading for anyone interested in the theory and practice of
education.