Acknowledgements -- Editor’s Introduction -- Part One: The General, Theoretical Challenges -- Chapter One: Volker Kraft, ‘Constants of Education’ -- Chapter Two: Robin Barrow, ‘Compulsory Common Schooling and Individual Difference’ -- Chapter Three: Geoffrey Hinchliffe, ‘Education, Liberty and Authority: justifying compulsory education’ -- Chapter Four: Kevin Williams, ‘Compulsion and Education as a Conversation: Are they compatible?’ -- Chapter Five: Naoko Saito, ‘Compulsion without Coercion: liberal education through uncommon schooling’ -- Chapter Six: Anders Schinkel, ‘On the justification of compulsory schooling’ -- Part Two: The Many Faces of Challenges Confronting the Compulsory -- Chapter Seven: David Blacker, ‘Compulsory Education Cycles Down’ -- Chapter Eight: Roni Aviram, ‘Is there hope for modern education systems in postmodern democracies?’ -- Chapter Nine: Kevin Williams, ‘Conscripts or volunteers?  The status of learners in faith schools’ -- Chapter Ten: Helen Lees, ‘Is the idea of compulsory schooling ridiculous?’ -- Chapter Eleven: Andrew Davis, ‘Homework: chronicles of wasted time?’ -- Chapter Twelve: Amrita Zahir, ‘Understanding Transformation’ -- Coda: Paul Gibbs, ‘Happiness and Education: Recognizing a fundamental attunement’.

Contributions to this volume from diverse perspectives explore pedagogical practices of the contemporary world, namely the school. Themes of autonomy, authority and liberalism are surfaced in the debates and highly innovative insights presented in this book where philosophical perspectives shed light on the theoretical underpinnings of formal education and schooling. How we interpret the self, humanity and the world connects to perspectives on compulsory education.  General theoretical issues surrounding compulsory education are often tested through more concrete aspects of schooling, some of which have a specific origin in, or particular bearing on, the current socio-political conditions of schooling. For this reason, this book is sensitive to context and to empirical and concrete dimensions of the educational venture, and takes into account current concerns about neo-liberal policies and their effects on schooling. As a philosophical-educational intervention in the topic of compulsory education, these chapters draw connections between older philosophical debates on compulsoriness and new developments and emphases in schooling.