Paideia

The origin of the term pedagogy is the ancient Greek word paideia. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word as meaning “the sum of physical and intellectual achievement to which an individual or (collectively) a society can aspire; a society's culture.” Paideia in the fifth century BCE was synonymous with the term childrearing. In the fourth century BCE, it came to mean education as reflecting the ways of a culture.

The idea that education reflects the ways of a culture—in other words, its values and beliefs—is a concept that is fundamental to the study of the social foundations of education. Essentially, the field is concerned with how schools are connected to and part of the larger culture. In doing so, it assumes a deeply ecological argument, ...