Philosophy of education can refer to either the academic field of
applied philosophy or to one of any educational philosophies that promote a specific type or vision of
education, and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education. As an academic field, philosophy of education is "the philosophical study of
education and its problems...its central subject matter is education, and its methods are those of
philosophy". "The philosophy of education may be either the philosophy of the process of education or the philosophy of the discipline of education. That is, it may be part of the discipline in the sense of being concerned with the aims, forms, methods, or results of the process of educating or being educated; or it may be metadisciplinary in the sense of being concerned with the concepts, aims, and methods of the discipline." As such, it is both part of the field of education and a field of applied philosophy, drawing from fields of
metaphysics,
epistemology,
axiology and the philosophical approaches (
speculative, prescriptive, and/or
analytic) to address questions in and about
pedagogy,
education policy, and
curriculum, as well as the process of
learning, to name a few. For example, it might study what constitutes upbringing and education, the values and norms revealed through upbringing and educational practices, the limits and legitimization of education as an academic discipline, and the relation between
educational theory and practice.