John Baldacchino's discussion of the concept of autonomy in this article runs on the dual track of the arts and education. His aim is to engage with the notion of autonomy in terms of what human beings invent (through art) and know (through education) by what they share as free and intelligent beings who live convivially. Following Luigi…

This article is about evil and its function in educational discourse. The research posits, using work in postsecularism and particularly through an historical, legal, and theological read of prophetic indictment and the function of the jeremiad in educational policy, that the terms of educational debate are rendered in a legal rather than a…

This second chapter of "Interpreting Kant in Education" begins to contrast different interpretations of some of Kant's key terms. Kant makes many distinctions in formulating his view, most notably between spontaneity and intuition, sensibility and the understanding, things in themselves and appearances, and receptive and spontaneous…

Contemporary society is experiencing an epistemic crisis, evidenced by such "post-truth" phenomena as "alternative facts." Traditional notions related to knowledge and Truth have been under continual, partly justifiable, attack under the eclectic banner of postmodernism, and alternative epistemic foundations (essential for…

The concept of 'knowledge' is central to education, particularly when it comes to the school curriculum. This paper makes the case for engaging in conceptual analysis, and in particularly conceptual engineering, in educational studies. Conceptual engineering emphasises analysing concepts with their purposes in mind. To illustrate the importance of…

This paper argues that public accountability discourse and research quality processes designed to support it are associated with the validation of methodological approaches in social research which claim to capture the real condition of the social world and to remedy its ailments, supporting an expansion of representative modes of scholarship, and…

Chapter Eight of "Interpreting Kant in Education" again illustrates the tendency in education theory to attribute to Kant a radical subjectivism, an all-powerful mind, that leads to accusations of intellectualism and a disembedded conception of mind, detached from real life. Interpretations of Kant's terms, previously introduced from…

In Part One of "Interpreting Kant in Education," a reading of Kant was gradually developed by drawing on interpretations of his key terms and insights from contemporary exegesis and work in the philosophy of mind. This reading is used in Part Two to challenge the widespread 'Kantian' picture in education and address familiar criticisms…

In this, the first chapter of "Interpreting Kant in Education," contrasting interpretations of some of Kant's central terms and insights are introduced. It is argued that some central assumptions about mind and world, rooted in traditional empiricist epistemology, have acted as obstacles in interpreting Kant. Discussion of John…

In previous chapters of "Interpreting Kant in Education," a particular set of assumptions about mind and world has been identified for their influence on the familiar 'Kantian' picture in education, a picture that receives widespread criticism. In this fourth chapter, various understandings of familiar concepts are again discussed for…

In the earlier chapters of "Interpreting Kant in Education," a reading of Kant was developed that contrasts sharply with the widespread 'Kantian' picture in education theory. Having discussed aspects of Kant's view in relation to empiricist and naturalist (mind-independent) epistemologies, I turn in this sixth chapter to contrast them…

In this final chapter of "Interpreting Kant in Education," I revisit and expand on some of the main differences in interpretation between the reading of Kant being presented and the familiar Kant found in education theory. It has been maintained that some deep-seated presuppositions from empiricist epistemology have influenced…

As critical posthumanist and (new) materialist scholarship become more established in educational research, a reconsideration of methodological approaches suited to a radical relational onto-epistemology is required. A popular figuration adopted by researchers to help think and do such research is the Deleuze-Guattarian "rhizome." Coming…

This article seeks to contribute to recent theorizing around the concept of powerful knowledge. I begin with a discussion of the current use of the term in both academia and the wider institutional environment of schools. I then give a detailed account of its origins in social realism before exploring different iterations of the concept in recent…

In this article I explore a disposition towards a critique of 'reductionism' and 'determinism' that seems to me to be very much prevalent within British sociology. I take a qualitative educational sociology that uses Bourdieusian concepts as one body of research where this disposition is expressed with particular fervour. A close examination of…