This class is intended to serve as the foundation of your graduate-level studies in agricultural and extension education. It is intended to acquaint the student with broader cultural and historical conditions based on a philosophical perspective. This course should give you the ability to formulate some of the assumptions on which you will build your particular knowledge base in agricultural education. Through this knowledge acquisition, the student should investigate their curriculum of study, reminded of this general framework within which the specialized knowledge of agricultural education is explained and formulate your philosophical beliefs. The primary purpose of this course is to provide the student with an examined grounding in the principle divisions of thought (philosophies), seminal events and people in the history of agriculture (history), and decisions made (policy), resulting in the current state of affairs in agricultural education. It has been said that policy is the expression or operationalization of philosophy and policy both creates and is influenced by history. The convergence of these factors determines the future direction of agriculture and agricultural education.