Abstract

Hardly a day goes by without some kind of ‘parenting’ issue being reported on in one of the newspapers. Whether it’s a short report on the latest findings on a particular piece of scientific research, a columnist’s take on trends in parenting, a parent’s personal testimony about certain issues arising in their relationship with his or her children, or a researcher criticizing the invasion of the parenting expert into the family, there always seems to be something up for discussion in relation to parenting. What’s the best way to raise our children? What kind of parenting style is the best? Should parents adopt such a style anyway? Do parents actually need expert advice on how to raise their children, or are they best left to their own devices? What effect does this overwhelming presence of advice have on parents? And so on. But what exactly is it that we are talking about when we talk about parenting? And, more importantly for this chapter, in what sense is it addressed in contemporary philosophy of education? In this chapter, I will give an overview of how upbringing and the parent-child relationship, c.q. the experience of raising a child, have been discussed within philosophy of education, and point to differences in the ways it has been addressed in differing traditions of educational philosophy. More specifically, I will give a critical education-philosophical reading of how upbringing has been reframed as ‘parenting’ and consider some implications of this for our understanding of being a parent.