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Social conditions of current life do not exactly constitute an ideal framework for the serene implementation of a balanced temporal perspective in the educational system. The article tries to contribute to: 1) substantiating the anthropological value of time, showing the decisive character that, in the current circumstances of accelerated change, the time domain has in the configuration of personal identity; 2) with a more applied nature and awareness of the interaction between time, power, and educational action, rethinking the meaning and scope of today's educational policy decisions. Methodologically, we adopt a hermeneutical approach in which we critically analyse the temporal perspective as a coordinate of personal and social experience, as well as the predominant patterns that explain and justify the connections between time, power, and education. We show how, within our individual possibilities, the balanced organisation of time contributes to achieving a successful personal identity, strengthening the ethical impetus of the educational task and transforming our lifestyle. However, the encounters and disagreements between time and education also depend on the horizons of meaning that we adopt at the collective level, which leads to power being seen as an explanatory variable. Rethinking time and education leads us to reconsider educational policy decisions, in which we simultaneously notice obstacles and innovative possibilities. The change in individual and collective lifestyles, linked to a balanced temporal orientation, is associated with complex interactive and not merely unidirectional socio-cultural dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One task of the philosopher, and of the philosopher of education in particular, is to examine critically the understandings embodied in the language of the social world which affect the policy and practice of education. It is within such a tradition that the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein declared: «my aim is: to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense». There is a lot of disguised nonsense in what educational policy makers say and in what educational researchers write. This I shall illustrate though the importance attached to such policies as: first, the need to produce a more skilled workforce; second, to distinguish between academic and vocational learning and courses; third, to raise standards especially in the light of the PISA international comparisons; fourth, to improve the quality of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to revisit the fundamental issue for educational philosophy and theory of how we might or should understand or define the term 'education' itself. I believe that this task needs further attention, for --although past analytical and other educational philosophers may seem to have said all there is to say on this question-- there can be no doubt that this basic conceptual question continues to be the prime source of the deepest and most persisting confusions in contemporary educational theorising and policy making. To this end, I shall in the first part of this paper identify and examine what I take to be the key analytical issues. In the second part, however, I shall say something about the nature of educational controversy and the sources of such controversy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]