Special Interest Group
The Philosophy of Education SIG supports the development and dissemination of philosophical research in education and its interdisciplinary links.
Educational research is an inherently interdisciplinary field. Philosophical perspectives, or engagement with the philosophy that underpins different disciplines and methods, remains a vital part of the field’s ability to advance original educational thinking and respond to both enduring and emerging questions that face education and wider society.
The SIG welcomes those engaged in both theoretical and empirical philosophy, and understands education in its broadest sense, from upbringing and family life, through formal education, to the ‘education of grown-ups’, to use Stanley Cavell’s term.
Reader in Educational Philosophy and Theory at Edge Hill University
Dr Naomi Hodgson is a Reader in Education at Edge Hill University, UK, and a Visiting Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research focuses on the relationship between education, governance, and subjectivity, and she is currently leading research...
Senior University Lecturer in English Language Education at Leeds Trinity University
Dr Victoria I. Ekpo is an educator specialising in English Language, Linguistics and Literature Education, as well as Philosophy of Education and currently works as a college liaison for Leeds Trinity University in the Academic Partnerships Unit....
The first Philosophy of Education SIG Meet and Discuss of 2026/27 provides an opportunity to meet others in the field, hear updates on SIG collaborations, and help to plan future events. We will...
On 13 June 2025, the High Court dismissed a legal challenge to the UK government’s decision to apply Value Added Tax (VAT) to private school fees. On 27 February 2026, the Court of Appeal upheld...
Continue reading blog postHow do researchers make ethical decisions about sharing their work, and who gets to access the knowledge they produce? In this episode, we explore alternative approaches to publication and...
This award celebrates the publication of educational research and is awarded to a scholarly book on education deemed to be high quality, engaging and innovative.
Decolonial work is often discussed as if it were principally about knowledge: whose histories appear, whose concepts travel, whose methods count. Yet the deeper claim is ethical. It is about how...
Continue reading blog postA stalemate is how we understand knowledge Education faces a philosophical stalemate. On one side is an ‘objective obsession’ with standardised metrics. For example, English education polices...
Continue reading blog postIn recent years, educational initiatives promoting empathy as a pathway to understanding and global citizenship have surged (see for example The British Academy; Cumbria Community Foundation;...
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