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Call for Proposals: Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education
Scholars at Risk documents nearly four hundred attacks on the global academic community, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and imprisonment to silence scholars for political dissent in teaching or research. In multiple contexts, legislation threatens faculty with dismissal for teaching specific concepts, and institutional autonomy has been undercut through government-aligned control.
One of the political strategies in defending such actions is to argue that they are necessary to enhance intellectual or viewpoint diversity. The meaning of intellectual diversity differs across contexts. From one vantage point, it is the inclusion of voices and epistemologies of historically marginalized people that respects their lived experiences. From another vantage point, it addresses a perceived ideological imbalance.
This volume seeks to provide a more objective understanding of the history and meaning of intellectual diversity and the political battles that now ensue around it. Contributors are tasked with moving beyond ideological divides to critically examine the promises and limitations of intellectual diversity, advance normative frameworks of value, conduct empirical analyses, and provide comparative sociopolitical perspectives.
The volume is organised into three sections:
Social, historical, and conceptual underpinnings of intellectual diversity
Conditioning intellectual diversity
The politics of intellectual diversity
Contributions may address questions concerning academic freedom, disciplinarity, epistemic considerations, institutional structures, and higher education’s governance practices, as well as the threats to intellectual diversity both internal and external to academia.
Submitting a Proposal
Potential contributors are asked to develop an abstract or short proposal of 500–750 words, drawing on the guiding questions as points of departure. Proposals should include a cover page with name, affiliation, email, and discipline, and clearly identify the section and question(s) addressed.
Submit proposals via email (Word document) to John Petrovic at
.
Timeline
Proposals due: May 1, 2026
Acceptance/rejection: May 15, 2026
Manuscripts due: September 15, 2026
Reviews returned: November 15, 2026
Revised manuscripts due: December 15, 2026
Publication: Summer 2027
Final manuscripts will be 6,000–7,000 words, including references and notes, following APA style.
EPAT CfP: Memory, meaning, and autoethnographic inquiry as epistemological sources: Sitting with the crisis of higher education
More info: https://lnkd.in/gG_B5w_S
Contact:
Academic work is often situated within discourses of struggle (Evans & Nixon, 2015) and crisis (Fleming, 2021; Kidd, 2021), in which academics are subjected to the strain of marketisation and increasing competitiveness in higher education (HE). In practice, this trend has resulted in increased pressure across teaching, learning, and research, negatively affecting nearly all domains of academic life, including one’s ability ‘to think critically and creatively’ (Berg & Seeber, 2016, p. 17), fundamental skills needed by academics to complete their work. Often situated as an epistemic injustice issue, whereby the dehumanisation of academics is highlighted (Dunne, 2023, p. 285), and the risk of burnout stemming ‘from the human need for meaning, the need for what we do to matter’ (Dunne & Kotsonis, 2023, p. 351) is a risk for many within the academy.
To counter the ‘culture of speed’ narrative (Kidd, 2021, p. 10) propagated by many higher education institutions (HEIs) and funding bodies, a counter-crisis movement has developed that seeks to reduce the pace of academic work and the associated ‘time-poor’ experience of many academics (Berg & Seeber, 2016; Kidd, 2021). However, this countermovement often remains shaped by crisis-oriented frameworks. This has resulted in crisis narratives commonly becoming the dominant way that academics conceptualise and understand their situatedness within HE. This conceptualisation and understanding of one’s positionality within HE has consequences for what counts as legitimate knowledge about academic life, an underexplored area of the crisis discourse.
The literature stemming from the HE crisis calls into question which kinds of knowledge about academic life are viewed as legitimate and therefore highlighted, and which are considered illegitimate and silenced. Current discourse pays less attention to positive, meaningful professional moments that can stand against or oppose the dominant crisis narratives. Approaching the crisis of HE through a reflective, affective, and humanistic lens can help shift the narrative, so that academics are no longer ‘in the crisis’ but rather exist with and alongside it. This is not to suggest that injustices within the institution should not be addressed; they must be, to ensure that the HEI and its academics flourish. Rather, by reconceptualising academics’ situatedness within HEIs, the injustices experienced can be understood differently: as something one experiences, not as something that has power over those who work within the system. It is a shift in power dynamics that offers an alternative way to understand academic situatedness and to address the epistemic injustice of knowledge about academic life, resisting the hopelessness and dehumanisation that often characterise crisis frameworks.
This special issue seeks to reenvision the current HE crisis, not as something that can be fought against, as is being done elsewhere, but rather as something academics can sit with, alongside, using their reflections on positive, affective experiences as an epistemological source for understanding academic life and practice. Rather than focusing on the areas of disaster and crisis within HE (Fleming, 2021; Kidd, 2021), here we wish to focus on academics being ‘together in place…[rethinking] not only where we are, but who we are with, and under what conditions we relate’ (Tesar, 2025, p. 797). The normative assumption is that memory and meaning are subjective experiences, but by employing emotional memories and meanings in the process of this rethinking, it can give ‘one an insight into the realm of existence beyond one’s lived experience’ (Guttesen, 2024, p. 923), giving philosophical weight to academics’ professional experiences.
This special issue employs the philosophical concepts of emotion, memory, and meaning as sources of epistemological importance. The role of emotions and affect in education has been recognised as philosophically important, often in discussions of teaching and learning in classrooms (Guttesen, 2024; Jackson, 2024). Here, we seek to extend this notion to academics and their work, recognising their emotions and memories as a legitimate form of educational epistemology. This philosophical inquiry will be conducted through autoethnographic narratives, joining philosophical inquiry with the lived experiences of academics. Autoethnography has proven a valid method for advancing this philosophy through lived-experience inquiry (Grant, 2024), particularly in the discipline of education (Furman & de Rezende Rocha, 2025).
Contributors to this special issue will use a memory of a meaningful professional moment as a starting point for philosophical inquiry and analysis. Each narrative should be situated within epistemological or philosophical discourse as the object being critically examined. Autoethnography, in this context, will be used as a philosophical tool in understanding academic life. For instance, a contributor may remember a lecturer-student interaction that was particularly meaningful, examine the emotions surrounding that interaction, and analyse how that moment can challenge crisis narratives by examining the relational dimension of care in academic work that is often omitted from productivity HE crisis discourse.
Thematic scope
This special issue marries philosophically grounded autoethnographic narratives and educational epistemological discourse, in which contributors recollect positive and meaningful professional moments as a legitimate source of epistemology for understanding academic life and work in HE. These narratives serve as a starting point for philosophical inquiry into the knowledge, values, and meaning in HE that go beyond current crisis discourse. Contributors are invited to submit manuscripts that question how emotion and memory can bring to light aspects of academic life that are often omitted in crisis-oriented discourse.
While individual contributions will be grounded in differing professional contexts and memories, submissions should engage with all or a selection of the following questions:
- What emotions are associated with the professional moment described, and how do they shape our understanding of academic work?
- What does the recalled moment suggest is valuable and meaningful in HE?
- How can recalling a positive or meaningful moment result in philosophical insight?
- How does remembering positive moments challenge crisis-oriented discourse?
- What forms of knowledge can be highlighted when positive academic experiences are remembered?
Together, the papers in this special issue focus on positive and meaningful memories that foreground forms of knowledge that are often underexamined and undertheorised in examinations of how academics understand and value their work.
Submission Instructions
Abstracts:
Prospective contributors are invited to submit an abstract of 500 words outlining the meaningful professional moment to be examined, the emotions associated with that experience, and the philosophical or theoretical framework through which the memory will be analysed in relation to HE crisis discourse.
Abstracts to be submitted to
Full manuscripts (by invitation only):
Manuscripts should not exceed 6,000 words (including references) and be prepared in accordance with Educational Philosophy and Theory submission guidelines, including APA referencing style.
When submitting your manuscript, you will be asked ‘Are you submitting your paper for a specific special issue or article collection?’ Check ‘Yes’ and select ‘Memory, meaning, and autoethnographic inquiry as epistemological sources’ from the list provided.
The editors welcome philosophically grounded autoethnographic reflections in which a recollected professional moment is situated within relevant epistemological or theoretical discourse and analysed in relation to dominant HE crisis discourse.
 Conference 2026 invites researchers and scholars to submit abstracts for consideration. This is a unique opportunity to share your insight (1)1.png)
Call for Abstracts - PESA Conference 2026
We're excited to share that the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) Conference 2026 is now open for abstract submissions.
Naarm / Melbourne — University of Melbourne @ Faculty of Education
6–10 December 2026
This year’s theme:
Ethical thought-work and parrhesia in educational ideologies
The conference invites us to think seriously about what it means to engage in ethical thought-work, to confront how ideologies shape educational practices, and to consider the risks and responsibilities of truth-telling in our work.
We’re particularly interested in contributions that explore:
- How creativity and aesthetics of existence illuminate what is at stake in thoughtlessness, complacency, or heedlessness
- Ways to resist the institutional capture of “critical thinking” as a neutralised technique
- Practices of ethical thought attentive to power and its methods of inducing consent
- The conditions under which education produces, rewards, or forecloses particular forms of speech and silence
Submissions are welcome across formats, including papers, symposia, and roundtables.
More info: www.pesaconference.org
Looking forward to seeing the conversations this generates, feel free to share or reach out if you’re thinking of submitting.
EPAT CfA: African philosophy of education: Thinking from the South
When: March 31, 2026
Contact:
Across the African continent and its diasporas, philosophies of education continue to be (re)imagined through creative engagements with local epistemologies, languages, and ethical traditions. This special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory (EPAT), African Philosophy of Education: Thinking from the South, invites contributions that explore how African philosophical thought, opens pathways (both classical and emergent) for understanding education, subjectivity, and social transformation in Africa and beyond.
For decades, African philosophy of education has drawn on frameworks such as ubuntu - humanness and relationality (see Waghid, 2014, 2017; 2018, 2023; Simba, 2024, Ngubane and Makua, 2021), ujamaa - African notion of cooperation (see Mukhungulu, Kimathi and K’Odhiambo, 2017), harambee - collective striving (see Musau, 2014), teranga (hospitality), tiwizi (mutual assistance), and defaya (cooperative labour). These philosophical notions have helped to (re)orient education towards community, relational accountability, and shared flourishing. The work of Ramose (2002) is essential in setting the tone for this investigation; Oruka’s (1990) contributions are seminal to African philosophical thought, as is Mbembe’s work (2015; 2021) on decolonisation and the question of the archive. This body of scholarship also includes Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s meditations on decolonisation (2019; 2022; 2025), Ngubane and Makua’s (2021) explorations of ubuntu pedagogies, and Waghid’s (2014; 2019; 2023) cultivation of ubuntu thinking across various levels of education in and for Africa, among others. Yet, contemporary African (Kumalo, 2020; Davids, 2025) and African diasporic scholars (Da Silva, 2016) are also extending this inheritance by engaging with decolonial thought, feminist interventions, and critical epistemologies that unsettle the limits of postcolonial and other generalised paradigms.
This special issue seeks to gather such diverse voices to ask: How does African philosophical thought, past and present, help us to think otherwise about education? How might it reframe the purposes, ethics, and possibilities of education in contexts marked by inequality, migration, and the enduring coloniality of power?
We welcome philosophical papers - including innovative formats that merge scholarship, narrative, or artistic method - that engage with African philosophies of education as living and contested traditions. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following emerging and interwoven themes:
Ubuntu and the ethics of relationality
- How can ubuntu as a framework of encounter and dignity reshape pedagogical relations, curriculum design, and educational leadership? What tensions arise when ubuntu meets globalising, neoliberal educational agendas?
Ujamaa, Harambee, Teranga, Igwebuike, Tiwizi and Defaya and other indigenous pedagogies
- What can philosophies of cooperation, generosity, and hospitality teach us about inclusive education and participatory knowledge-making? How might these principles of mutual work reframe the purposes of schooling and knowledge production in contexts of scarcity or inequality?
Decolonisation and the question of knowledge(s)
- How are African scholars (re)defining the project of decolonising education, beyond critique, toward epistemic reconstruction and pedagogical invention?
The African archive and memory work
- What roles do African archives, oral histories, aesthetic practices and ancestral knowledges play in reconstituting educational philosophy as an act of remembrance and resistance?
African Feminisms and the ethics of care, body, and power
- How do African feminist traditions unsettle patriarchal, colonial, and Eurocentric assumptions about reason, autonomy, and pedagogy?
Afropolitanism and global African thought
- How are contemporary African intellectuals negotiating the global circulation of ideas while maintaining epistemic sovereignty?
Language, orality, and indigenous literacies
- How do African languages and oral traditions function not merely as media of instruction, but as epistemological frameworks that reconfigure learning itself?
Planetary issues and the ecology of education
- What insights might African philosophies offer for ecological ethics, interspecies education, and reimagining the human-nature relationship in a time of planetary crisis?
Together, these themes invite contributors to rethink what it means to philosophise education from African locations, through African epistemes, and in dialogue with global thought. The issue welcomes both emerging and established scholars whose work speaks to Africa’s intellectual, ethical, and political contributions to the philosophy of education.
Submission Instructions
Abstracts:
An abstract of 500 words
Abstracts to be submitted to
PESA Conference Panel Featured on ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone/what-s-the-point-of-education-/106220332
A panel discussion recorded at the 2025 PESA Conference in Perth will feature as the opening episode of The Philosopher’s Zone for the new year on ABC Radio National.
The panel, convened and recorded by Laura D'Olimpio, was held in conversation with David Rutledge, host of The Philosopher’s Zone, and focused on the theme of educational aims. The discussion explored enduring philosophical questions about the purpose of education and the values that shape educational practice and policy.
The episode is now available to listen online and will be broadcast on ABC Radio National at the following times:
Sunday 25 January, 5:30 am
Sunday 25 January, 3:00 pm
Thursday 29 January, 12:05 am
Friday 30 January, 8:30 pm
Listen online:
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone/what-s-the-point-of-education-/106220332
PESA is pleased to see conference conversations continuing beyond the event itself and contributing to broader public engagement with philosophy of education.
Call for Chapter Proposals: Edited Collection, Iris Murdoch and Education
When: Deadline for Submission: 1st October 2025
Contact: Lesley Jamieson (
Word Limit: 400-word chapter proposals (not including title, authors, affiliations, and references)
Please submit your proposal to: Lesley Jamieson (
About the edited collection: There has in the last 3 decades been a vibrant and rapidly growing scholarship focused on Iris Murdoch’s fiction and philosophy. Moreover, her life has been the subject of a number of biographical treatments—most recently, she’s figured in retellings of the history of analytic philosophy centering on the “Wartime Quartet” (Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Mary Midgley—four women who studied at Oxford during the Second World War and each in their way made highly original contributions to philosophy): The Women are up to Something (2021); and Metaphysical Animals (2022). In the midst of this, themes of education, moral development, and Murdoch’s relevance to educational theory and practice have become increasingly pronounced. In 2022 alone, the Wartime Quartet was the theme of a suite of papers published by The Journal of Philosophy of Education; a chapter on Murdoch and education was included in the Routledge collection The Murdochian Mind; and individual articles appeared in The Journal of Moral Education, Changing English, and The Journal of Philosophy of Education.
This collection will bring these conversations together and give scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds the opportunity to carry them forward. It will provide new perspectives on what Iris Murdoch’s philosophy and fiction can offer to education and educational theory; what her views and experiences of education were; and what the educative potential of her literature and philosophy is for everyday life.
We invite philosophers, education studies scholars, literary scholars, and intellectual historians to contribute abstracts for chapters on:
- The significance of Iris Murdoch’s philosophical writings for teaching and learning across all sectors of education (including early, primary, secondary, and adult education).
- Suggested topics: love (of one’s students, of one’s subject matter) as virtues in teachers • connections between feminist theories of care-based education and attention • teacher education and the teachability of “attention” • universality and particularity in the teaching of applied ethics • the role of the moral imagination in attending to children, students, and learners • idiosyncrasy and interiority as relevant to teaching and learning • liberal theories of education and Murdoch’s critique of liberalism • Murdochian reflections on humanities education • and philosophy for children.
- The representation of education, teachers, and students in Murdoch’s fiction, personal writings (e.g., journals and letters) and biographical works.
- Suggested topics: Murdoch’s wartime experiences as a student at Somerville College (Oxford) • formative teachers in Murdoch’s life • remembrances of Murdoch as an educator • the representation of teacher-student relationships in Murdoch’s novels • school-friends in Murdoch’s life or fiction.
- The relevance of Murdoch’s philosophy and fiction to teaching, learning, and education beyond the classroom.
- Suggested topics: Nature and unselfing • motherhood and family life as sites of moral attention • void, suffering, and the fragility of goodness • connections between Murdochian perfectionism and Emersonian perfectionism • environmental, social, and psychological impediments to attention • political education and the need for “theory” • public philosophy • the role of art and literature in moral education • activity and passivity in love and learning • epiphanies.
We welcome submissions on topics other than those listed so long as they fit the broad themes of this collection.
Authors will be notified about the status of their submission by: December 1st, 2025.
Full chapter drafts will not be due until December 2026.
Publication Timeline: Securing a publishing contract for an edited collection requires presenting a list of contributors and chapter abstracts. Accepted submissions will be used to further this process with Palgrave MacMillan. Their ongoing Iris Murdoch Today series, edited by Miles Leeson and Frances White, has a track record of publishing similar thematic collections on Iris Murdoch’s philosophy and fiction; moreover, two of our editors have previously secured contracts with this publisher (Rebecca Moden’s Iris Murdoch and Harry Weinberger and Lesley Jamieson’s Iris Murdoch’s Practical Metaphysics), and with other publishers (Andrea Delaune’s Iris Murdoch and Early Childhood Education: Enhancing Attention and Moral Vision in Pedagogy)
Global Philosophy of Education
When: (Abstracts) 15 of November 2025 (Conference) 19-20 of March 2026
Where: VU Amsterdam
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bZI-lc45LNQ6SXLm-Ty0srfZ66lixWgh/view?usp=sharing
Contact:
This conference aims to establish the field of Global Philosophy of Education, understood as a research space and practice where central issues in philosophy of education are defined, discussed and researched jointly by philosophers working from different cultural and philosophical traditions and perspectives. This entails not the establishment of a global philosophy in the sense of a universal or hegemonic philosophical theory, but the development of a global practice of philosophy of education. The purpose of doing so (viewed from the perspective of anglophone philosophy of education) is, firstly, to diminish anglocentrism, eurocentrism, or any form of parochialism in the discipline, and, secondly, to make progress on substantial issues (prevented by such parochialism). What we are proposing is the development of a genuine global practice of philosophy of education aiming at an actual collaborative engagement between the substantive positions developed in different traditions focusing on concrete philosophical problems. Instead of just comparing different traditions, we need to actually use their theoretical resources in the social practice of doing global philosophy. The conference is part of the project ‘Expanding Consciousness in Education – East, West, North and South. Towards a Global Philosophy of Education’ (GlobalPhilEd) funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
We invite submissions of abstracts (400-600 words, plus a short bio) for individual paper presentations on themes related to Global Philosophy of Education. Each presenter will have 45 minutes in total for the presentation, including the discussion. The presentation should be between 15-25 minutes long in order to leave enough room for the
discussion. Papers presented must not have been published prior to the conference. All papers are considered for publication within the first volume of the Yearbook of Global Philosophy of Education, which will be launched in 2026 and published open access on our project website.
LOSING OUR SELVES? Education and the Self in Global Perspective
When: 8 of October 2025 15:30-18:00 (CET)
Where: Online
https://drive.google.com/file/d/165qnp-mw1bhaJUOisA691Y8HBnguzeRH/view?usp=sharing
Contact:
What is the self, and how should education engage with it?
Join us for Losing Our Selves?, the first in a new series of online research labs from the Global Philosophy of Education (GlobalPhilEd) project. This international collaboration brings together scholars from diverse philosophical traditions to grapple with one of education’s most persistent and elusive questions: the nature and role of the self.
From autonomous rational control to social construction, from authentic identity to the rejection of the self altogether. This lab explores how varying global perspectives understand, shape, and challenge the self within educational thought and practice.
- Expect deep engagement across African, Eastern, Western, and Indigenous philosophies of education.
- Contribute to open, collaborative dialogues on selfhood, identity, and the educational implications of living with or without a self.
Participants are expected to attend all three sessions and contribute actively between meetings. Outcomes may include joint publications or creative collaborative outputs.
CFP: Misinformation and Missing Information as a Global Challenge (edited collection)
When: September 30, 2025 (Abstracts)
Contact:
Misinformation and Missing Information as a Global Challenge
Explorations, Definitions, and Theoretical Perspectives Across Disciplines
Editors:
Michaela Vogt (Bielefeld University, Germany)
Amelie Labusch (Bielefeld University, Germany)
Eleonor Kristoffersson (Örebro University, Sweden)
Magnus Kristoffersson (Örebro University, Sweden)
Christoph Teschers (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
Background and Rationale
The spread of misinformation — including misleading, false, or incomplete information — and the existence of systematic information gaps (missing information) pose major challenges for societies worldwide. Both phenomena may influence how individuals and societies perceive reality, form opinions, and participate in public discourse.
While misinformation, such as fake news or disinformation, has gained increasing attention in public and academic debates, missing information remains less explored. Yet, the absence, invisibility, or deliberate omission of information can significantly shape public perception and societal developments — sometimes more subtly, but no less effectively than misinformation.
A systematic academic examination of these phenomena is still at an early stage. To advance this field, diverse disciplinary perspectives are needed to sharpen concepts, explore theoretical foundations, and identify methodological approaches. The editors' collection is closely related to other research initiatives that emerge within the European University Alliance NEOLAiA. The editors’ collection will be published with BieUP as open access and additionally as a printed book.
Goal of the Editors' Collection
This Editors' Collection invites scholars from all academic fields to contribute conceptual articles that engage with the ideas of misinformation and/or missing information from their respective disciplinary perspectives. Contributions may adopt an interdisciplinary lens. Likewise, resilience can be one possible point of reference but it is not a required framing for contributions.
Suggested Structure for Contributions
• State of Research / Current Debates (approx. 2 pages)
• Own Working Definition of Misinformation and/or Missing Information (approx. 1 page)
• Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations (approx. 2 pages)
• Methodological Approaches and Challenges (approx. 2 pages)
• Research Gaps and Future Research Questions in the Author's Field (approx. 1 page)
• Bibliography (1-2 pages)
Timeline and Formalities
September 30, 2025: Deadline for abstracts (max. 300 words), please send them to:
October 2025: Editorial feedback
January 15, 2026: Full paper submission, 15,000–20,000 characters (including spaces and bibliography)
February 2026: Review and editorial process
July/August 2026: Planned publication
Conference on Mis(sing) Information
This Editors’ Collection forms part of the broader Mis(sing) Information initiative, supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, which investigates how selective information, through omission or emphasis, shapes public understanding and challenges trust. With digital technologies accelerating the spread of information, the initiative focuses in particular on the educational sphere, exploring how skewed narratives influence critical thinking and democratic values. Drawing on multiple disciplinary perspectives, it seeks to address the educational and legal challenges posed by Mis(sing) Information, promoting accurate knowledge dissemination and democratic engagement.
The initiative will culminate in an interdisciplinary conference hosted by Örebro University on 9-10 December 2025. Researchers whose contributions to the Editors’ Collection, Misinformation and Missing Information as a Global Challenge are accepted may be invited to present their work at the conference. For invited speakers, the Mis(sing) Information consortium will cover travel and accommodation expenses.
EPAT: Asian perspectives on democratic values: Philosophical reflections and educational implications
When: 30 August 2025
Contact: Jason Cong Lin (
Democratic values such as respect, humility, equality, and responsibility are pivotal in shaping civic life and fostering social cohesion. While these values are often discussed in a Western context, their interpretation and application within Asian philosophical traditions present a rich and nuanced landscape worthy of exploration. This special issue seeks to delve into how concepts rooted in philosophies such as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism inform the understanding and cultivation of democratic values in educational settings across Asia.
Asian philosophical traditions offer unique perspectives that can both complement and challenge conventional Western notions of democracy. For instance, Confucianism emphasizes relational ethics, collective harmony, and the importance of moral education in developing virtuous citizens. In this framework, democratic values are not merely individualistic ideals but are interwoven with social responsibilities and communal well-being. Similarly, Buddhist teachings on compassion and mindfulness encourage a deeper understanding of equality and the common good, fostering a sense of interconnectedness among individuals in society. These philosophical underpinnings provide a rich foundation for rethinking how democratic values are conceptualized and implemented in educational practices.
Despite the significance of these traditions, scholarly discourse on the intersection of Asian philosophies and democratic education remains limited. This special issue aims to fill this gap by inviting contributions that explore the ways in which Asian philosophical frameworks can inform the cultivation of democratic values in education. We seek to examine how educators can draw upon these rich traditions to create pedagogical practices that resonate with students and communities, fostering a deeper commitment to democratic ideals.
Potential contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:
Asian Philosophical Foundations of Democratic Values: Exploring how Confucian, Buddhist, Taoist, and other Asian philosophies conceptualize democratic values and their relevance in contemporary educational contexts. How can these philosophical traditions provide alternative frameworks for understanding democracy that are rooted in Asian cultural contexts?
Educational Implications of Asian Philosophies on Democratic Values: Exploring how Asian philosophical traditions can be critically (re)interpreted and applied to promote civic engagement and critical thinking in both formal and informal educational contexts. How might educators utilize the rich insights of Asian philosophies—such as Confucian moral cultivation, Buddhist mindfulness and compassion, or Daoist harmony and balance—to encourage students to thoughtfully and critically engage with democratic values?
Critical reflection on Asian Perspectives on Democratic Values: Critical reflecting on Asian perspectives on democratic values, questioning how these traditions (re)interpret, contest, or complicate democratic ideas, and thus providing a nuance picture about which components of which traditions have potential to advance or risk impede democratic values. What philosophical reflections are needed to critically analyze tensions or limitations within Asian philosophies regarding democracy, so that their implications for educational theory and practice can be reconsidered.
By focusing on these themes, this special issue aims to illuminate the complex interplay between Asian philosophical traditions and democratic education. We hope to inspire educators and scholars to engage critically with the ways in which these philosophies can enrich our understanding of democracy and contribute to the development of a more inclusive and culturally relevant approach to democratic values in education. Ultimately, this exploration emphasizes that cultivating democratic values is not just an educational imperative but a philosophical endeavor that requires a deep engagement with the rich intellectual traditions of Asia.
Submission Instructions
Abstracts (800-1000 words) should be prepared for blind review and sent to Jason Cong Lin (
Invited authors will subsequently be invited to submit a full paper (6000 words). Submissions will be subject to the normal Educational Philosophy and Theory review process. Please ensure that your paper follows the APA referencing style for all references and citations.
EPAT Call for Abstracts - Tenuous or Creative Scholarship?: A Manifesto for Philosophers of Education Living Between Western and Non-Western Cultures in Postcolonial Asia and Beyond
When: 15 September 2025
https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/tenuous-or-creative-scholarship/
Contact: Duck-Joo Kwak (
In a recent EPAT editorial titled “Is Philosophy of Education Western?”, Jackson and Kwak (2025) advocate for the initiative Philosophies of Education in Asia and Beyond, which emphasizes non-Western educational traditions such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Indian philosophies, and Indigenous epistemologies. They argue that a persistent form of academic colonialism continues to shape the field of philosophy of education in postcolonial, non-Western societies.
Jackson and Kwak identify three distinct groups of scholars, categorized by their academic training and cultural orientation:
Group One: Non-Western scholars educated in the West but based in Asia. Often motivated by either a belief in the intellectual superiority of Western traditions or a desire for global engagement, they tend to neglect deep, locally grounded explorations. Their work becomes compartmentalized—split between engaging in Western philosophical discourse and conducting research on local topics.
Group Two: Western-educated, Western-born scholars residing in Asia. These expatriate or immigrant academics often attempt to engage with non-Western traditions but do so tentatively. Their scholarship tends to reflect a persistent desire for deeper cultural understanding, yet they frequently struggle to fully grasp the traditions they study.
Group Three: Locally educated scholars who engage with both Western and indigenous philosophies. However, their work is often marginalized for being perceived as lacking modernity. Despite this, they remain committed to preserving and advancing their native intellectual and cultural heritages outside of dominant Western frameworks.
Although these groups live and work in close proximity, meaningful scholarly dialogue among them is rare. All three groups experience a kind of epistemological unease—a sense of dislocation and internal conflict arising from their respective academic and cultural positions. Jackson and Kwak suggest that this fragmentation is rooted in colonial-era legacies that introduced Western knowledge systems into the region in the late 19th century. These systems created enduring psychological, political, and academic barriers among scholars.
The authors argue that this lack of engagement has left all groups intellectually disadvantaged in addressing the educational challenges specific to their contexts. They particularly stress the urgent need for sustained dialogue between Groups Two and Three, whose contrasting philosophical backgrounds could yield richer insights. Group One scholars, with their hybrid training, are seen as potential mediators who might bridge these epistemic divides.
But what exactly are the intellectual disadvantages caused by this divide? First, the differing philosophical foundations among the groups lead to the use of incompatible conceptual vocabularies, which hinder genuine dialogue. Scholars often reference each other's work superficially, sounding more like strangers than colleagues. As a result, non-Western scholars lack adequate conceptual and cultural tools to interpret educational experiences that differ fundamentally from Western models due to divergent modernization paths.
Second, the scholarship itself becomes tenuous. For Group One, the theoretical language borrowed from Western traditions may feel disconnected from local realities. For Group Three, their indigenous conceptual frameworks are often dismissed as outdated or irrelevant, despite their depth and relevance.
For more information, see the call: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/tenuous-or-creative-scholarship/
Abstracts (800-1000 words) should be prepared for blind review and sent to Duck-Joo Kwak (
Invited authors will subsequently be invited to submit a full paper (6000 words). Submissions will be subject to the normal Educational Philosophy and Theory review process. Please ensure that your paper follows the APA referencing style for all references and citations.
Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy SIG 2026 Symposium Philosophy of Education Society annual meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, March 5-9
When: Submission Deadline: August 4, 2025
Contact: Eduardo Duarte |
The Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy SIG of Philosophy of Education Society (PES) invites submissions for its 2026 symposium on the theme “Being Included.” This call speaks directly to scholars concerned with how exclusion, belonging, and resistance are lived and felt in educational settings amid rising authoritarian and anti-democratic currents globally.
This symposium seeks contributions that use phenomenology and existential philosophy to explore:
▪️ How do individuals experience belonging, alienation, or disorientation in education?
▪️ What does it mean to make place—or be denied it—in institutional life?
▪️ How can lived experience offer insights into the workings of power and resistance?
Submissions might engage with thinkers such as Iris Marion Young, Frantz Fanon, Sara Ahmed, or Lisa Guenther, using their work to illuminate how structural oppression becomes embodied and how education might open space for alternative ways of being.
???? Submit abstracts (250–500 words) by August 4, 2025
Email:
Inquiries: Eduardo Duarte |
Notification of acceptance: by September 7, 2025
PESA members may find this CFP of interest, especially those exploring intersections of critical phenomenology, lived experience, and educational justice.