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Gert Biesta, World-Centred Education: A View for the Present, (Routledge) 2021

This book makes an intervention in a long-standing discussion by arguing that education should be world-centred rather than child-centred or curriculum-centred. This is not just because education should provide students with the knowledge and skills to act effectively in the world, but is first and foremost because the world is the place where our existence as human beings takes place.

In the seven chapters in this book Gert Biesta explores in detail what an existential orientation to education entails and why this should be an urgent concern for education today. He highlights the importance of teaching, not understood as the transmission of knowledge and skills but as an act of (re)directing the attention of students to the world, so that they may encounter what the world is asking from them. The book thus shows why teaching matters for education. It also highlights the unique position of the school as the place where the new generation is given the time to meet the world and meet themselves in relation to the world. The extent to which society is still willing to make this time available, is an important indicator of its democratic quality.

https://www.routledge.com/World-Centred-Education-A-View-for-the-Present/Biesta/p/book/9780367565527#

Stolz, Steven, The Body, Embodiment, and Education: An Interdisciplinary Approach, (Routledge: London) 2022

Notions of the body and embodiment have become prominent across a number of established discipline areas, like philosophy, sociology, and psychology. While there has been a paradigmatic shift towards this topic, there is a notable gap in the literature as it relates to education and educational research.

The Body, Embodiment and Education addresses the gap between embodiment and education by exploring conceptualisations of the body and embodiment from interdisciplinary perspectives. With contributions from international experts in philosophy, sociology, and psychology, as well as emerging areas in related fields, such as embodied cognition, neuroscience, cognitive science, this book sets a new research agenda in education and educational research. Each chapter makes a case for expanding the field and adds to the call for further exploration.

The Body, Embodiment and Education will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students who are interested in the body and embodiment and/or its relationship with education or educational research.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Body-Embodiment-and-Education-An-Interdisciplinary-Approach/Stolz/p/book/9780367694951

Quay, J., Bleazby, J., Stolz, S., Toscano, M., & Webster, S. , Theory and Philosophy in Education Research: Methodological Dialogues, (Routledge: London) 2018

The issue of methodology is a fundamental concern for all who engage in educational research. Presenting a series of methodological dialogues between eminent education researchers including Michael Apple, Gert Biesta, Penny Enslin, John Hattie, Nel Noddings, Michael Peters, Richard Pring and Paul Smeyers, this book explores the ways in which they have chosen and developed research methods to style their investigations and frame their arguments.

These dialogues address the specialized and technical aspects of conducting educational research, conceptualize the relationship between methodology and theory, and provide in-depth discussion of concerns including falsifiability, openness, interpretation and researcher judgement. Foregrounding the researchers’ first-hand experience and knowledge, this book will provide future and current researchers with a deeper comprehension of the place of theory in education research.

An illuminating resource for undergraduate and postgraduate researchers alike, Theory and Philosophy in Education Research confronts the intricate complexities of conducting education research in a highly engaging and accessible way.

https://www.routledge.com/Theory-and-Philosophy-in-Education-Research-Methodological-Dialogues/Quay-Bleazby-Stolz-Toscano-Webster/p/book/9780815386025

Stolz, S., & Webster, S. , Measuring Up in Education, (Routledge: London) 2021

Cultures of measurement are often considered to dominate educational practices, to the degree that, as Biesta (2010) has identified in Good Education in an Age of Measurement we no longer measure what we value, but rather we have become conditioned to value what is measured. A clear example of this occurs when institutions and staff "teach to the test" by emphasising narrow conceptions of learning and of knowledge, simply because the consequences of high-stakes assessments have important implications regarding funding, resources, and even tenure.

This collection explores, via various philosophical means, how valuable educational practices can occur within and beyond cultures of measurement. What seems to be required is for practitioners in education to regain their relationship to the overall purposes of education, such as the furthering of justice and democracy for both individual students and societies as a whole. Such a reconnection has the potential to re-humanise curricular experiences for students, which may have become dehumanised through particular cultures of measurement. It is argued that certain legitimate measures can advance justice and democracy, and so careful attention must be assigned to their validity and value.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

https://www.routledge.com/Measuring-Up-in-Education-Philosophical-Explorations-for-Justice-and-Democracy/Stolz-Webster/p/book/9781032088440

Choo, Suzanne S., Teaching ethics through literature: The significance of Ethical Criticism in a global age, (Routledge) 2021

Teaching Ethics through Literature provides in-depth understanding of a new and exciting shift in the fields of English education, Literature, Language Arts, and Literacy through exploring their connections with ethics. The book pioneers an approach to integrating ethics in the teaching of literature. This has become increasingly relevant and necessary in our globally connected age. A key feature of the book is its integration of theory and practice. It begins with a historical survey of the emergence of the ethical turn in Literature education and grounds this on the ideas of influential Ethical Philosophers and Literature scholars. Most importantly, it provides insights into how teachers can engage students in ethical concerns and apply practices of Ethical Criticism using rich on-the-ground case studies of high school Literature teachers in Australia, Singapore and the United States.

https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-Ethics-through-Literature-The-Significance-of-Ethical-Criticism/Choo/p/book/9780367262266

Haynes, Bruce, Trust and Schooling, (Routledge) 2020

Unlike many current approaches, this book looks at trust relations in order to understand schooling and other social practices. Trust relations include both what an individual is prepared to trust in the circumstances, and what a competent practitioner in an evolving tradition should trust. It is therefore considered whether trust relations are more fundamental in society than those of truth or power.

Schooling has a social, as well as an education, role. As a result, the scope of the trust relations under investigation must range beyond the pedagogical. By expanding our understanding of the trust relations required to create and maintain effective schooling in particular circumstances, it may be possible for a greater section of society to receive a good education. Issues including curriculum, classroom management, and community relations may be understood in a different way and help enable currently intractable problems to be tackled more effectively.

This book presents the initial investigations of a number of authors who collaborated on this project and was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Educational Philosophy and Theory.

https://www.routledge.com/Trust-and-Schooling/Haynes/p/book/9780367895037

Freakley, Mark & Burgh, Gilbert, Engaging with ethics: Ethical inquiry for teachers, (Social Science Press: Katoomba) 2000

This book adopts a unique approach to the teaching of professional ethics in general and to ethics for schoolteachers in particular. It addresses ethics by inviting the reader to engage with the ethical dimensions of practices pertaining to their profession through the method of the community of philosophical inquiry. This approach to ethics education is designed to help students bridge the gap between theories about ethics and their practical experiences as beginning professionals. The text does not assume that students, or instructors who use it with students, have any formal background in philosophy. Instead, it can be used successfully by anyone prepared to follow the suggestions about how to guide a philosophical discussion. The first part of the book articulates the framework for the approach taken while the second part provides a series of fictional ethical vignettes the main characters of which are schoolteachers and their students. This book should make a valuable resource for teaching about professional ethics at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as for use in seminars, workshops, and professional development programs for teachers in ethics and philosophy in the classroom. It may also be a source of ideas and teaching material for use with high school students studying ethics.

https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.058451038050139

Burgh, Gilbert; Thornton, Simone, Teaching democracy in an age of uncertainty: Place-responsive learning, (Routledge: Abingdon; New York) 2021

The strength of democracy lies in its ability to self-correct, to solve problems and adapt to new challenges. However, increased volatility, resulting from multiple crises on multiple fronts – humanitarian, financial, and environmental – is testing this ability. By offering a new framework for democratic education, Teaching Democracy in an Age of Uncertainty begins a dialogue with education professionals towards the reconstruction of education and by extension our social, cultural and political institutions.

This book is the first monograph on philosophy with children to focus on democratic education. The book examines the ways in which education can either perpetuate or disrupt harmful social and political practices and narratives at the classroom level. It is a rethinking of civics and citizenship education as place-responsive learning aimed at understanding and improving human-environment relations to not only face an uncertain world, but also to face the inevitable challenges of democratic disagreement beyond merely promoting pluralism, tolerance and agreement.

When viewed as a way of life democracy becomes both a goal and a teaching method for developing civic literacy to enable students to articulate and apprehend more than just the predominant political narrative, but to reshape it. This book will be of interest to scholars of philosophy, political science, education, democratic theory, civics and citizenship studies, and peace education research.

https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-Democracy-in-an-Age-of-Uncertainty-Place-responsive-learning/Burgh-Thornton/p/book/9780367565091

Laverty, Megan J. and Hansen, David T., A History of Western Philosophy of Education, (Bloomsbury: London) 2021

"A History of Western Philosophy of Education" is the first comprehensive overview of philosophy of education from ancient times to the present day. With five volumes covering 2500 years of history, this is the definitive reference work on the subject, comprising:

Volume 1. A History of Western Philosophy of Education in Antiquity (500BCE-500CE)
Edited by Avi. I. Mintz

Volume 2. A History of Western Philosophy of Education in The Middle Ages and Renaissance (500-1550)
Edited by Kevin H. Gary

Volume 3. A History of Western Philosophy of Education in The Age of Enlightenment (1550-1850)
Edited by Tal Gilead

Volume 4. A History of Western Philosophy of Education in The Modern Era (1850-1914)
Edited by Andrea R. English

Volume 5. A History of Western Philosophy of Education in The Contemporary Landscape (1914-present)
Edited by Anna Pages

Each volume covers the major thinkers and schools of thought for each historical period and pays particular attention to the following themes: philosophical anthropology; ethics; social and political philosophy; epistemology; aesthetics; pedagogy, schooling and education; philosophy of psychology and the social sciences. The volumes also include timelines showing the major historical events of the period including educational initiatives and the publication of noteworthy philosophical works.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-history-of-western-philosophy-of-education-9781350074668/

Gregory, Maughn Rollins and Laverty, Megan Jane, Gareth B. Matthews, The Child's Philosopher, (Routledge: London) 2021

"Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher" brings together groundbreaking essays by renowned American philosopher Gareth B. Matthews in three fields he helped to initiate: philosophy in children’s literature, philosophy for children, and philosophy of childhood. In addition, contemporary scholars critically assess Matthews’ pioneering efforts and his legacy.

Gareth B. Matthews (1929-2011) was a specialist in ancient and medieval philosophy who had conversations with young children, discovering that they delight in philosophical puzzlement and that their philosophical thinking often enriched his own understanding. Those conversations became the impetus for a substantial component of Matthews’ scholarship, from which this book features essays spanning the length of his career. Contemporary contributors to the book critically evaluate Matthews’ scholarship, showing where he broke new ground and identifying developments and debates in the fields he helped to initiate. They take up pressing challenges, including biased idealizations of childhood in children’s literature, the tensions between teaching philosophy to, and doing philosophy with young people, the merits of theorizing childhood without theorizing children, and how professional philosophy at once desires and resists a return to childhood.

This book is an important resource for philosophers, educators, and anyone interested in children’s philosophical thinking, developmental psychology, what it means to philosophize with children, the nature of childhood, and how children’s literature goes philosophical. It will guide and inspire those who share Matthews’ conviction that the impulse to philosophize begins in early childhood.

Contributors (in addition to Gareth B. Matthews): Stephanie Burdick-Shepherd, Cristina Cammarano, Claire Cassidy, Stanley Cavell, Jennifer Glaser, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Walter Omar Kohan, Megan Jane Laverty, Jana Mohr Lone, Karin Murris, and Peter Shea.

https://www.routledge.com/Gareth-B-Matthews-The-Childs-Philosopher/Gregory-Laverty/p/book/9781138342736

Barnett, R., & Bengtsen, S. S. E., Knowledge and the University: Re-claiming Life, (Routledge) 2020

For hundreds of years, knowledge has been central in understanding the university. Over recent decades, however, it is the economic value of knowledge that has come to the fore. Now, in a post-truth world, knowledge is also treated with suspicion and has become a vehicle for ideologies. Knowledge and the University combats all these ways of thinking. Its central claim is that knowledge is of value because of its connection with life. Knowledge is of life, from life, in life and for life.

With an engaging philosophical discussion, and with a consideration of the evolution of higher education institutions, this book:

- Examines ways in which research, teaching and learning are bound up with life;
- Looks to breathe new life into the university itself;
- Widens the idea of the knowledge ecology to embrace the whole world;
- Suggests new roles for the university towards culture and the public sphere.

Knowledge and the University is a radical text that looks to engender nothing less than a new spirit of the university. It offers a fascinating read for policy makers, institutional leaders, academics and all interested in the future of universities.

https://www.routledge.com/Knowledge-and-the-University-Re-claiming-Life/Barnett-Bengtsen/p/book/9781138330993

Masamichi Ueno, Yasunori Kashiwagi, Kayo Fujii, Tomoya Saito, Taku Murayama, Manabi and Japanese Schooling: Beyond Learning in the Era of Globalisation, (Routledge) 2020

https://www.routledge.com/Manabi-and-Japanese-Schooling-Beyond-Learning-in-the-Era-of-Globalisation/Ueno-Kashiwagi-Fujii-Saito-Murayama/p/book/9780815354673