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.
