New article on technologisation of literacy and citizenship

Featured in the Special Issue of the Journal of Philosophy of Education to mark the 50th anniversary conference of the PESGB, this article was co-written with Amanda Fulford (Leeds Trinity University). The abstract is shown below:

ABSTRACT The notions of literacy and citizenship have become technologised through the demands for measurable learning outcomes and the reduction of these aspects of education to sets of skills and competencies. Technologisation is understood here as the systematisation of an art, rather than as intending to understand technology itself in negative terms or to comment on the way technology is used in teaching and learning for literacy and citizenship. Technologisation is approached here in terms of the understanding of literacy and citizenship as things (qualities, sets of skills) that one has. Drawing on the phenomenology of Gabriel Marcel the understanding of literacy and citizenship in terms of having is problematised, as is the distinction between having and being. This opens the way for a richer understanding of being literate and being a citizen explored through the figures of the Hermit and the Poet in Thoreau’s Walden. Being literate and being a citizen are brought together here in order to consider the implications of their technologisation for academic writing in the university. The question of what we write in the name of in the university is considered in the light of this and of a particular notion of the public.

New article: ‘The Researcher and the Studier: On Stress, Tiredness, and Homelessness in the University’

This article was published earlier this year in the Journal of Philosophy of Education, which can be accessed here. The abstract is shown below.

ABSTRACT Recent European policy has seen a shift from a concern with lifelong learning in the Lisbon Strategy to research and innovation in the Horizon 2020 programme. Accordingly, there has been an increased policy focus on the researcher who, like the lifelong learner must be entrepreneurial, adaptable, mobile, but who must also find new ways in which to develop and deploy her skills and competences and smart solutions to current problems in order to ensure sustainability. The subject position of the researcher, therefore, is not a figure distinctive to the university today, but rather one required of us all. For the excellent researcher in the university, resources exist to enable her to identify those aspects of herself that are in need of development in order to keep all aspects of her personal and professional well-being in balance, often drawn from the field of psychology. Here, rather than analysing directly the ways in which the researcher is addressed by such devices, we focus on the common experience of being in the university today. In everyday conversation, we do not describe ourselves as entrepreneurial, innovative, leading, etc., but more often as tired, stressed and not feeling at home there. Rather than taking these as impediments to productivity and aspects of ourselves requiring psychological strategies, the educational aspects of these are explored in relation to the figure of the studier, as developed from Giorgio Agamben by Tyson Lewis. The shift of discourse from lifelong learning to innovation and research in recent policy is seen to effect a further desubjectivation, a division of ourselves from ourselves.

Published as part of a symposium on the changing discourses of education, this paper was presented to the Research Community on History and Philosophy of Educational Research, KU Leuven, in November 2014. An earlier draft can be found on academia.edu.

New text for researchers in educational philosophy: out now

Writing in the Margin

Co-authored with Dr Amanda Fulford (Leeds Trinity University), and featuring contributions from an array of international colleagues in the field, ‘Philosophy and Theory in Educational Research: Writing in the Margin’ has just been published by Routledge. To order the book and receive a 20% discount, download the flyer: Writing in the Margin – flyer

Here is the press release from Leeds Trinity University.

And about time, too.

When I said very soon at the end of the last post, I was clearly being wildly optimistic. Too much to do, no time to share news with the ether.  There seems to be plenty still on the internet, though, so I needn’t have worried.  The internet now includes the brand new Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain website. Launched in December, its shiny new look is the result of two years work by my colleagues Mary Richardson, Ruth Heilbronn, and I, and the lovely people at Wiley. The site was up and running just in time for the Society’s 50th Anniversary Conference. Explore the PESGB@50 page to find adorable pictures of eminent philosophers of education in their youth and various other celebratory initiatives.

The new site allows us (me) to publish book reviews each month, and in open access, too, instead of only in the hard copy of the Journal of Philosophy of Education. If you are interested in reviewing a recent title in philosophy of education or a related field, do get in touch and let me know your specialist area. Also, let me know if you are publishing a book relevant to the JOPE readership so that I can request a review copy. Get in touch via twitter: @DrNaomiHodgson

It’s nearly that time of year again when some very wise people and I head to the middle of Wales for the PESGB Gregynog Conference. This year, to mark the Society’s 50th anniversary and the background of the conference itself we have themed the conference ‘Orientations Towards Wittgenstein’. The programme, plus all the information you need, is here. The conference takes place from Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th July and booking is now open.

All this websiting and conferencing is very exciting, of course, but there is ‘proper’ work to be done. You know, writing books and articles and stuff. With two book manuscripts to finish by the end of the year, and an exciting jaunt to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to participate in the Educational Theory Summer Institute, I won’t say ‘more soon’ at this point. I may be using all my words elsewhere, but I will definitely report back on progress. Have a great summer.

Proof-editing

This week, I completed my first Society for Editors and Proofreaders course, Introduction to Proofreading. It doesn’t sound like much, perhaps, but having ‘proofread’ thus far by using track changes, it felt kind of proper to learn the BSI symbols and get some proper guidance. I now also realise that what I mainly do is proof-editing, a bit more hardcore than proofreading in terms of the level of correction needed. But no less enjoyable.  This week, for example, I have had the pleasure of reading a draft article by Mathias Decuypere, a doctoral student in the Laboratory for Education and Society at KU Leuven. Inspiring, it was. I now need to hurry up and finish it so I can meet some of my own writing deadlines. On which, more very soon.

‘Professor, Citizen, Parrhesiastes’…

…is the title of a chapter I have written with Professor Paul Standish, who was my PhD supervisor, that appears in the just-published Citizenship, Democracy and Higher Education in Europe, Canada and the USA, edited by Jason Laker, Concepción Naval, and Kornelija Mrnjaus. You can see the contents page and the introductory chapter free here.

The winner of the DHA 2014 Outstanding Publication Award: Best Book is…

‘The Imperfect Historian: Disability Histories in Europe’ by Sebastian Barsch, Anne Klein, and Pieter Verstraete (eds) (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013). I proofread this book, so I can testify to its quality. I am glad to have played a small part in its production. Congratulations to the editors and authors. You can see what the selection committee that conferred the prize had to say about the book here.