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This collective paper on radicalization and violent extremism part of the 'Philosophy of education in a new key' initiative by Educational Philosophy and Theory brings together some of the leading contemporary scholars writing on the most pressing epistemological, ethical, political and educational issues facing post-9/11 scholarship on radicalization and violent extremism. Its overall aim is to move beyond the 'conventional wisdom' associated with this area of scholarly research best represented by its many slogans, metaphors and other thought-terminating cliches. By providing conceptual lenses on issues previously compartmentalized primarily [or even exclusively] in security and intelligence studies or at the fringes of scholarly interest, radicalization and violent extremism turn out to be much more complex than 'radicalization studies' has been eager to acknowledge.

Within the rough ground that is the field of education there is a complex web of ethical obligations: to prepare our students for their future work; to be ethical as educators in our conduct and teaching; to the ethical principles embedded in the contexts in which we work; and given the Southern context of this work, the ethical obligations we have to this land and its First Peoples. We put out a call to colleagues whose work has been concerned with the pedagogies of professional ethics, the ethical burdens of institutional injustice, and the application of ethical theory to education’s applied fields. In the responses we received it can be seen that ethical concerns in education are broad ranging, covering terrain varying from the preparation of preservice teachers, ethics in higher education, early childhood and care, educational leadership, relational and communicative ethics. Perhaps it could also be argued that this paper demonstrates Gibbon’s observation that ‘Assumptions about the particularity of this time as new and ripe with opportunity to make a difference through philosophy of education are not new and there’s much to learn from the persistence of wanting to imagine that they are’ (in Peters et al., 2020, p. 17). However, while the field of ethics is perennially concerned with human relations and pedagogical interventions to improve these, the responses collected here show that educational ethics is far from static. Educational ethics is a field that continues to develop in response to changing contexts.

Universities may be seen as an evolving network of ethical systems that govern teaching, research, service, and administration. The university system, however, is changing; adding new rules, new wa...

Infanticides is the third article in a collective writing project that includes ‘Infantologies’ and ‘Infantasies’. It is designed to develop a philosophy of the infant, which is not tied to either ...

We are about to publish in the Routledge Editor’s Choice series a collection called The Philosophy, Methodology and Pedagogy of Collective Writing. This collection of collections represents the dev...

Human beings as imperfect rational beings face continuous challenges, one of them has to do with the lack of recognizing and respecting our inner dignity in present times. In this collective paper, we address the overall theme—Philosophy of Education in a New Key (see Peters et al., 2020) from various perspectives related to dignity. We address in particular some of the constraints and possibilities with regard to this issue in various settings such as education and society at large. Klas Roth discusses, for example, that it is not uncommon that the value of human beings has to do with their price in, inter alia, their social, cultural, political and economic settings throughout the world. He argues that such a focus does not necessarily draw attention to the inner dignity of human beings, but that human beings ought to do so in education and society at large. Lia Mollvik discusses views of inner and outer dignity, and argues that there needs to be a balance in between them, and that the balance ought to be acknowledged in education. Rama Alshoufani discusses the classification of human beings in terms of various diagnoses related to the asserted dysfunction of the brain, and she argues that such classification does paradoxically not necessarily respect people with such diagnoses as ends in themselves. On the contrary, she argues that their inner dignity is not respected, but that it should be. Other such failures are due to the lack of inner dignity when it comes to Children’s rights as discussed by Rebecca Adami, and to the lack of recognition of human beings’ vulnerability as discussed by Katy Dineen. Fariba Majlesi criticizes a too strong emphasis on substantive notions of humanist education, which seem to hinder new ways of thinking; she argues that it is necessary to acknowledge the latter in and through education in order to preserve the dignity of human beings. Dignity, it is argued throughout the paper, has an inner moral worth, and is beyond price.

This article is a collective writing experiment undertaken by philosophers of education affiliated with the PESGB (Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain). When asked to reflect on questi...

Infantologies is a collective writing project designed to express and summarise important ideas, approaches and forms of advocacy in a short and condensed method, in order to present a network of d...

This article shares reflections from members of the community of philosophers of education in the United States and Canada who were invited to express their insights in response to the theme ‘Snaps...

This paper explores relationships between environment and education after the Covid-19 pandemic through the lens of philosophy of education in a new key developed by Michael Peters and the Philosop...

Morimichi Kato Tohoku University, Japan COVID-19 is a strange disease, which 500 years ago, amid more violent diseases, wars and famine, might not have been seen to be major threat. However, today,...

Marianna Papastephanou University of Cyprus Since Plato’s allegory of the cave two educational-philosophical critical modes have stood out: the descriptive (reality as it is) and the normative (rea...

In this conversational article, we consider cultivating decoloniality in university education by drawing upon Jacques Ranciere’s (2010) notion of a living philosophy. Ranciere’s (2010) living philo...

This article asks the questions, what is “philosophy as a method?” how can it be conceptualized and what are its genealogies? and what role might it play in the liminal spaces of the intersections of philosophy, methodology, and education? It further aims to perform philosophy as a method through a rereading of the histories of the intersections of philosophy, education, and methodology. In doing so, it also utilizes philosophy as method as a means for undertaking a much-needed critique of the current turns to new ontologies, posthumanism, and new empiricism.

Perhaps it is our responsibility to protect the post-qualitative methodologies rather than trying to rush them or use them without any substantial reading or thinking; and as such exposing them and categorizing, and analyzing them. Perhaps there is a need for a radical renewal of methodological responsibility, of not wanting to discover and turn every stone, whether for curiosity or for academic credit. To do so, it is our responsibility to divest ourselves of our egotistical anthropocentrism, of our deep methodological habits of seeing ourselves as those who rule the paradigms and methodologies, and focus on openness and responsibility as we chart our methodological futures.

Ruyu HungNational Chiayi University, TaiwanThis is a collective writing experiment of PESA members, orchestrating the Philosophy of Education in a New Key regarding East Asia. In 2016 the pioneerin...

Michael Peters, Sonja Arndt & Marek TesarThis is a collective writing experiment of PESA members, including its Executive Committee, asking questions of the Philosophy of Education in a New Key. Co...

In this article we explore the ways in which ‘the story must change’, according to Donna Haraway (2016) . We utilize the in-between space between Haraway's suggestion that we are in a time of Great Dithering, of ‘ineffective and widespread anxiety’, and Julia Kristeva's (2014) notion of revolt, to argue for a shift in orientations towards cultural otherness in higher education. Using a philosophical method of inquiry, we examine our somatechnical experiences and revelations in higher education settings, in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque massacres of 15 March 2019. We address Haraway's warning and Kristeva's lament of a lack of revolt in contemporary society, through an argument for an onto-epistemological shift and increasing sense of comfort with the discomfort of the awkwardness of cultural otherness. The article presents an active framework for revolt, for questioning and re-questioning dominant educational concerns with cultural otherness, where dithering becomes a technique of revolt, for thinking and rethinking the somatechnical complexities of this day and those that followed.

This paper is an experiment in collective writing conducted in Autumn 2019 at the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University. The experiment involves 12 international masters' students readi...

Video ethics in educational research involving children is a recent topic that has arisen since the increase in the use of visual mediums in research (such as photovoice and video) especially with ...

The idea of well-being seems to be part of the zeitgeist. From multiple research projects to organisations and individuals offering the promise of a good life and fulfilling life and positive outco...

Chinese labourers who worked in 1880 s on the US railroads were extracting oil from water snakes and rattlesnakes to use on their bodies in order to provide relief for their tired muscles. They als...

This article suggests a theoretical lens of “mundane abjection” as a new conceptualization of liminality as a methodologically and humanistically transformative concept. Thinking with Julia Kristeva’s post-structural conception of the subject as “always in-process,” this article traverses the inherent and transformative element of abjection in relation to the perceived ontological challenges of methodological liminalities. It posits liminality as a potentiating conceptual space for new ontologies in relation to the human “I.” Throughout, the performance, that is the occurrence, of mundane abjection is illustrated as a critical, revelatory and necessary process within this ontological transformation of methodology and the human “I.”

Archival research can be described as preoccupied with the ontology of data formation and collection in relation to the speaking and writing subject. From its outset, it can be located in the human...

[This editorial is part of the 50th celebration issue that explored ‘what comes after postmodernism in educational theory. The special issue is being published as a monograph and this is our group ...

Despite the ubiquity of reflective practice in education, mandating reflective processes within sanctioned frameworks is inherently problematic, as it may lead to reproduction, standardization, and forced universalities, rather than the critical and innovative pedagogy they intend. This article engages with reflection through both the metaphor and method of diffraction, applying a diffractive analytical mode across three international contexts. By examining onto-epistemological openings afforded by a diffractive approach, we attend to what is being (re)produced through various mandates for preservice and in-service teacher practices of reflection and the various effects of those (re)productions, as well as posit different ways of approaching mandated reflection as a practice for educating and assessing teachers.

This article argues that the denial of development can be a productive space and a liberating time for children in the current outcomes-driven times. The author offers an alternative reading of childhood, considering children’s development differently through various philosophical theorizations of events, which emerge through utilizing philosophy and theory as a method. This approach allows a merging of analyses of childhood, philosophical concepts of time and temporality, place, space and popular culture, in order to outline how the development of a child may be resisted through the notion of ‘time and temporality’. The idea of working with the temporality of ‘timing childhoods’ can mimic the notion of a ticking clock. Positioned against the background of the story of Peter Pan, this article challenges established ways of thinking of/about childhood and development, arguing that they perpetuate inequalities, homogenize children and essentialize childhoods. It thinks divergently with theories and philosophies about how childhoods are conceptualized and dissected, distinguished and ‘timed’. The denial of development could be a very power-disrupting, and therefore liberating and exhilarating, experience for children and their childhoods, as the different theoretical and philosophical frameworks analysed in this article point out, through time, temporality and space.

This article reports on a focus group study of newly qualified early childhood teachers’ experiences during their first year of teaching. It argues that focus groups have the potential to invite dialogical engagement in ways that support teachers’ exploration of their own identities, and it emphasises the significant role group context plays in their professional support and development. A feature of the study was the way in which participants interacted with one another, with the researchers and with imagined others, resulting in a production of unique narratives that revealed both affiliation and difference. With a focus on the associational and interactional elements of the teachers’ responses, rather than the content of their responses, this article examines the use of focus groups as a method for exploring social interactions and group processes. In this study, focus groups are seen as temporal ecosystems, engendering new understandings from existing and ongoing encounters within the group. The authors argue that the resonance and cohesion of the interactions within the group are productive in responding to new teachers’ feelings of isolation, and that there is a need for more attention to the vitality of group processes in the lives of early childhood teachers.

Childhood, youth and adolescence are contested notions and constructs. These constructs are tainted with ontological and epistemological histories and ideas about ‘real children’ and childhoods. In this Special Issue, we argue that the categories of childhood, youth and adolescence need to be rethought as concepts, and that philosophy, sociology and anthropology are some of the disciplines that can allow us to do so. There are a number of concerns that need to be considered: what these constructs do and how they perform, what they represent and how these categories and brackets are perceived by all actors, both those that are inside and those who are outside of them. These disciplines allow scholars and thinkers to theorize these troubled categories in unexpected, innovative and cutting edge ways, in relation to the complicated globalized contexts of local experiences and lives. We cannot really consider these terms outside of the realm of the current world of politics and policy. The questions of ‘what do we mean by these terms and how do we employ them’ and ‘how do/did we come to know these categories’ are pertinent in the contemporary conditions where there is a growing pressure to both managerialize and marginalize childhood, youth and adolescence in order to demarcate, govern and police these categories. What we argue is that perhaps philosophy as a discipline can rupture established settings, binaries, categories, terms and brackets, by challenging the boundaries of these established constructs. Philosophy presents a disciplinary possibility for theorizing and disrupting categories of the child/childhood, youth and adolescence at ontological, epistemological and ethical levels. The terms child, childhood, youth and adolescence are not only contested and challenged through philosophy but also undone and unworked, undeveloped and de-demarcated and importantly reified through a philosophical lens. As Matthews (1994) argues, to understand philosophy of childhood is perhaps to understand philosophy itself.

In this article, we explore the “vibrancy of matter” and “things” in early childhood education. We use Bennett’s and others’ ideas on the political ecology of place in a philosophical examination of vibrant entanglements of “things,” “thing-hoods,” and childhoods. We work with Bennett’s challenge to shift from thinking solely about “think-power” to also consider “thing-power” and “thing-hood” to take the call for-of things seriously within young children’s place. Matter has agency that behaves in non-predictable ways, in assemblages, aggregates of powers, and forces and things impacting, shaping, and molding other matter and things. Children’s daily connectedness with this vibrancy of matter plays out in the territory of their early years settings as we illustrate through the well-loved stories of Pinocchio and Little Otik. We examine these dead-alive, wooden-thing-materialities as vibrant thing-hoods with agency and power in a theoretical re-reading of Foucauldian thought through new materialist philosophies. This article offers an alternative reading of conceptions of power, discourse, and matter. It provokes further openings and becomings in fresh entanglements, relationships, and responses by conceptualizing them through particular materialities of childhood stories.