Although talk about dialogue is common, nothing clear, significant, and educationally useful has been written about the nature of dialogue and the principles and conditions that support or undermine it. Education as Dialogue argues that true dialogue and education require beliefs, rules, virtues, and habits that facilitate learning while preventing the acquisition of doctrines.

Tasos Kazepides shows that the prerequisites for dialogue and education are similar to Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of "river-bed propositions" - propositions that are the foundation of our ability to think and to reason. He argues that understanding education as genuine dialogue ought to become central to educational theory and practice because it is the most appropriate and effective way to motivate and engage students and the best way to guard against indoctrination. The pivotal importance of education as dialogue is emphasized for its capacity to encourage critical thought, in contrast to indoctrination, which arrests, limits, or frustrates thought.

Taking a unique approach to thinking about education, Kazepides provides a welcome and instructive work that stresses the importance of seeing education as dialogue.

Tasos Kazepides is a professor emeritus of philosophy of education at Simon Fraser University.

Tasos Kazepides' profile page

"[Education as Dialogue] provides a cautionary counterpoint to the instrumentalist drumbeat, a reminder of the best that we can be, and a clearly stated explanation of the challenges that entails. Illuminating and generative." Education Canada