In this article I report on the ways that an educational philosophies course in a performance-based program enables teacher candidates to identify, reflect upon, and evaluate a wide range of educational purposes. The context for the report is an accelerated graduate program in childhood education at a small urban college where intensive fieldwork is required every semester and applied learning is the norm. Using teacher candidates' reactions to selected texts in the history of educational thought as evidence, I aim to show that an encounter with provocative foundational ideas can promote effective value-formation and reflective analysis of educational practice.