Preface -- A Modern Idea of the School -- Section I: Functions of the School: Theoretical Issues -- A Philosophical School for Our Time: Thinking with Plato after Dewey -- Axel Honneth on Role, Form and Results of Public Education Revisited -- What are Universities for? From the Community of the Selves to the Transformative Potential of Higher Education -- Section II: School, Learning and Teaching -- Schools and the New Language of Learning: A Critical Perspective -- The Paradox of Being a Teacher: Institutionalized Relevance and Organized Mistrust -- School Learning as Human Growth: Modal Dynamics of Learning; Section III: School, Economics and Labor Markets -- The State, Market and Education.-Productivity, Effectiveness, Efficiency Basic Concepts of the Economics of Education -- The Economic Payoff to Investing in Educational Justice.-Section IV: School and School Reform -- National Perspectives -- School in Transition: The Case of Finland -- The Transformation of School in a Changing Society -- A German Example -- "It Takes a Village" -- (Catholic) Education in the 21st Century -- Schooling vis-Γ -vis Learning: The Case for Reducing Compulsion -- School Representation in Curriculum Policies.-Section V: School, Utopias and Future -- The History of Education as the History of Writing: A Look from the Past to the Future -- The Emancipation of Children -- Tensions and Controversies of School Development -- Some Remarks -- Notes on Contributors.;School is one of the most focal institutions in modern society. It is largely through the institutionalized forms of education that modern society attempts to secure and maintain its social and economic well-being and its valuable cultural life forms. In addition to this, school is the essential institution through which the future of a society is defined. Thus, at least when understood traditionally as a pedagogical institution, the school stands at the center of historically and socially constructed cultural life forms and at the brink of an unknown future: the determination of that future characterizes the pedagogical task of the school. It naturally ensues then, that modern discourses of the school have always been intertwined with the critical question of how past, present and future can be linked in educational practices so that schools can foster (in ever better ways) the well-being of individuals, societies and humanity. The chapters in this volume, despite the variety of viewpoints, share this critical view. The purpose of the volume is not to offer definite answers; rather it is to stress that to understand the role and functions of school in contemporary society and to orientate its transition, a well-founded critical evaluation of prevailing pedagogical practices and policy trends is required. This evaluation is vital for the future of school and society.