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 questions concerning the Philosophy of Education in a New Key in May 2020, it was unsurprising that the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on society and on education were foremost in our minds. We wanted to consider important philosophical and educational questions raised by the pandemic, while acknowledging that, first and foremost, it (...) is a human tragedy. With nearly a million deaths reported worldwide to date, and with everyone effected in one way or another by Covid-19, there is a degree of discomfort, and a responsibility to be sensitive, in reflecting and writing about it academically. Members of this ‘Covid Collective’ come from various countries, with perspectives from Great Britain and Ireland well represented, and we see academic practice as a globally connected enterprise, especially since the digital revolution in academic publishing. The concerns raised in this article relate to but move beyond Covid-19, reflecting the impact of neoliberalism [and other political developments] on geopolitics with educational concerns as central to our focus. (shrink)

Teaching, irrespective of its geographical location, is fundamentally a relational practice in which unique ethically complex situations arise to which teachers need to respond at different levels of ethical decision-making. These range from ‘big’ abstract questions about whether or not what they teach is inherently good, through to seemingly trivial questions about everyday issues, for example whether or not it is right to silence children in classrooms. Hence, alongside a wide range of pedagogical skills, new teachers also need to develop (...) personal qualities, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to navigate successfully these professional ethical demands. ‘Philosophy for Teachers’, or ‘P4T’, is one promising approach to teachers’ pre-service professional preparation which has been piloted in England, adapted from the more familiar idea of ‘P4C’. Drawing on the model of learning through dialogue within a community of fellow enquirers, an ethical retreat was s... (shrink)

Recent years have seen a concerted and systematic move towards a school-led system of initial teacher training in England. The role of universities, and particularly their part in engaging new teachers with educational theory, has been radically challenged. Only around half of new entrants to the profession now follow university-based training routes. These seismic changes to teacher education have been driven through with a minimum of formal consultation or public debate. In this urgent and compelling pamphlet, Janet Orchard and (...) Christopher Winch argue for a conception of teachers as professionals who require a deep understanding of the conceptual, empirical and normative dimensions of educational practice. They explain why university education departments are better placed than schools to help beginning teachers acquire that understanding. And they propose a significant expansion of initial teacher education, with full licensure contingent on completion of both a preliminary teaching qualification and a higher grade apprenticeship in the first two years of employment. Teachers need educational theory because they must understand what they are doing and why they are doing it, and must be able to think intelligently about how to do it better. At present, universities have the capacity and the expertise to meet this need. But they may not have it for much longer if the shift to school-based teacher education continues unabated. (shrink)

The past twenty-five years have seen an explosion of interest in nationalism and nationality in the social sciences - the past ten also in cultural studies. These two disciplinary areas define their objects of study differently, but both have recently started to converge in the pervasive use of the term `national identity', which in turn relies on the term `cultural identity'. Although theoretical complications entailed by the use of `identity' as a concept have been noted, the theorization of identity as (...) culture has occurred almost by default, with the term `culture' merely designating what needs to be explained, and the inherent circularity of `cultural identity' as a category remaining unaddressed. The two approaches differ in their understanding of the crucial categories of `culture' and `politics' in their accounts of nation and national identity. Cultural studies accounts focus on politics in terms of cultural politics, and thus fail to take on board important aspects of the social science accounts which they take as standard reference points. Both approaches ultimately rely upon `culture' as an all-inclusive category of social subjectivity, which remains undertheorized in both approaches, albeit in significantly contrasting ways. The place of culture in recent work on European identity functions differently, and provides a useful counterpoint to these difficulties. (shrink)

Muitas expectativas povoam nosso coração de discípulos e missionários, às vésperas da Conferência de Aparecida. Uma delas diz respeito ao diálogo inter-confessional nas suas duas vertentes: ecumênica (com as Con) ssões cristãs) e inter-religiosa (com as demais religiões). Alguns, convictos do valor desta importante diretriz do Concílio Vaticano II, indagam se o diálogo estará devidamente presente nos debates da V Conferência.

The theme of the third annual Spring workshop of the HUPO-PSI was proteomics and beyond and its underlying goal was to reach beyond the boundaries of the proteomics community to interact with groups working on the similar issues of developing interchange standards and minimal reporting requirements. Significant developments in many of the HUPO-PSI XML interchange formats, minimal reporting requirements and accompanying controlled vocabularies were reported, with many of these now feeding into the broader efforts of the Functional Genomics Experiment data (...) model and Functional Genomics Ontology ontologies. (shrink)

Conventional teacher education programmes do not equip practitioners adequately to navigate ethically complex situations that arise in teaching. One initiative responding to this deficit is ‘Philosophy for Teachers’ (‘P4T’), a 24-hour residential approach to community philosophy. Piloted originally in England, a further workshop took place in South Africa in October 2017, comprising student teachers, teacher educators and philosophers from three historically different universities in the Western Cape. Significant new insights to emerge included greater clarity on the respective contributions of P4T (...) and other initiatives already applying ‘P4C’ to address professional ethics within teacher education. In particular, P4T re-framed within this new context can be seen to create shared space for reflection on teacher identity and the complexity of difference and ‘otherness’ in classroom practice. (shrink)

Three years before René Girard published La violence et le sacré, a Jesuit doctoral candidate at the University of Fribourg began a short essay entitled “Unterwegs zu einer toleranten Kirche” in April 1969 with this claim: “Hexenjadgen gab es auf die eine oder andere Weise zu allen Zeiten”. After having asserted that it is a universal feature of human existence to elevate customs, laws, thought patterns, and other interests to absolute norms, he argued, “Im Namen dieser Normen stießen sie dann (...) einzelne oder Minderheiten aus ihrer Gemeinschaft aus und trieben sie in die Vereinsamung und oft sogar in den physischen Tod” (In... (shrink)

Der Gegenstand der Medizinethik ist die normative Analyse und ethische Reflexion von praktischen Fragen, denen sich Einzelne oder Gruppen mit Blick auf das Gesundheitswesen und insbesondere mit Blick auf den Umgang mit menschlicher Krankheit und Gesundheit gegenübersehen. Sie gehört damit zu den sogenannten angewandten oder Bereichsethiken.

Les gouvernements réagissent à la crise de Covid-19 en prenant diverses mesures pour réduire sa transmission et pour protéger les personnes jugées à haut risque. Cet article explore les implications de ces mesures au Royaume-Uni pour les personnes handicapées, en se concentrant sur celles conçues pour réduire et remodeler l’utilisation des rues et des espaces publics. Nous divisons les mesures en deux catégories. Premièrement, il existe des mesures conçues pour réduire l’utilisation des rues et espaces publics – par exemple, les (...) règles obligeant les personnes à rester chez eux, sauf dans les circonstances strictement prescrites et les mesures qui nécessitent un soutien spécifique (y compris la livraison de nourriture et les achats en ligne prioritaires) pour les personnes désignées comme “vulnérables.” Deuxièmement, il existe des mesures conçues pour contrôler le comportement des personnes qui utilisent ces espaces – par exemple, les règles sur la distance physique et l’utilisation des masques. Nous explorons les préoccupations liées au handicap associées à ces types de mesures. Nous soulignons également les opportunités présentées par cette crise pour intégrer plus fermement l’accessibilité et l’inclusion dans la trame sociale de nos rues et faisons appel à une résistance renouvelée aux politiques façonnées par les attitudes capacitistes. (shrink)

Conceptions of teaching quality and teacher accountability, and the values and assumptions that underpin them, are relatively under-examined by policy makers. We suggest ways in which philosophers might address this deficit, with reference to policy concerns found in the United Kingdom (UK). Further philosophical questions are generated by this process of reflection and we offer a partial analysis of those we judge to be of particular significance. While optimistic generally, we identify three challenges to asserting a role for philosophical analysis (...) in policy, practice and research concerned with teacher education, and urge philosophers of education to engage in constructive dialogue with other critical and reflective thinkers in the field of education. (shrink)

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...

David Carr, 2003, London, RoutledgeFalmer. Pp. xiii + 294. Hbk. £60.00 and Pbk £18.99.

A modernidade e a pós-modernidade estão atravessando um processo corrosivo da moral, numa relativização de valores em várias esferas. No desejo emancipatório, o indivíduo acaba desconfiado e descrente frente aos projetos históricos, cético frente aos padrões éticos e valores morais. Deseja viver intensamente, embalado pelo prazer. Cai, sem perceber, num individualismo narcisista. No entanto, este individualismo reinante já dá mostras de graus de responsabilidade, aberto às regras morais, à eqüidade, aberto ao futuro, como que numa reabilitação da inteligência sob forma (...) de ética. Verificamos um retorno à ética. (shrink)

Resumo : O presente artigo objetiva investigar o tema cultura da paz no contexto das novas tecnologias. Não obstante os meios de comunicação exponham as diversas faces da violência, o fato é que se está vivendo, em todos os cantos do mundo, um período de muito interesse, criatividade e empenho na luta pela paz. Para explicitar isso, o texto buscará articular quatro pontos: 1) estabelecer a questão fundamental da educação e da cultura da paz , discernindo seu objetivo e escopo (...) fundamental; 2) delinear a habilidade fundamental a ser desenvolvida no processo de educação para a paz, a formação da competência comunicativa; 3) descrever as características fundamentais da metodologia da educação para a paz: a formação de comunidade, o espaço do debate e a ação para a paz; 4) relacionar, finalmente, esses aspectos da educação para a paz com as novas tecnologias. Palavras-chave : Educação. Paz. Tecnologias. Justiça. Direitos humanos.: The present paper aims to research into the theme of the culture of peace in the context of the new technologies. Although the means of communication expose the several faces of violence, the fact is that we are living everywhere in the world a period of great interest, creativity and commitment to the struggle for peace. In order to demonstrate this the text will try to articulate four points: 1) to establish the fundamental question of education and the culture of peace distinguishing its objective and fundamental scope; 2) to delineate the fundamental ability to be developed in the process of education for peace, the formation of communicative competence; 3) to describe the fundamental charac-teristics of the methodology of education for peace: the formation of community, the place of the debate and the action for peace; 4) finally, to link these aspects of education for peace to the new technologies. Keywords : Education. Peace. Technologies. Justice. Human rights. (shrink)

Nossa Igreja, em São Paulo e no Brasil, tem urgente necessidade de uma nova geração de leigos, bem preparados para atuarem em todos os campos da vida social e cultural da sociedade; leigos e leigas com a consciência clara de serem discípulos de Cristo, conhecedores da fé, da moral e da doutrina social da Igreja, capazes de tomarem posição, como cidadãos católicos, sem medo de assumirem sua identidade e sua adesão à Igreja no mundo pluralista, no qual vivemos; este, não (...) deve ser o espaço onde nós calamos nossa voz ou nos eximimos de dar nossa contribuição, talvez temerosos diante de vozes e testemunhos diferentes dos nossos; no espaço plural e democrático, todos podem afirmar e defender suas convicções e colocá-las a serviço da convivência social O Cardeal Odilo Pedro Scherer é Arcebispo de São Paulo e Grão Chanceler da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. (shrink)

Throughout the biological and biomedical sciences there is a growing need for, prescriptive ‘minimum information’ (MI) checklists specifying the key information to include when reporting experimental results are beginning to find favor with experimentalists, analysts, publishers and funders alike. Such checklists aim to ensure that methods, data, analyses and results are described to a level sufficient to support the unambiguous interpretation, sophisticated search, reanalysis and experimental corroboration and reuse of data sets, facilitating the extraction of maximum value from data sets (...) them. However, such ‘minimum information’ MI checklists are usually developed independently by groups working within representatives of particular biologically- or technologically-delineated domains. Consequently, an overview of the full range of checklists can be difficult to establish without intensive searching, and even tracking thetheir individual evolution of single checklists may be a non-trivial exercise. Checklists are also inevitably partially redundant when measured one against another, and where they overlap is far from straightforward. Furthermore, conflicts in scope and arbitrary decisions on wording and sub-structuring make integration difficult. This presents inhibit their use in combination. Overall, these issues present significant difficulties for the users of checklists, especially those in areas such as systems biology, who routinely combine information from multiple biological domains and technology platforms. To address all of the above, we present MIBBI (Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigations); a web-based communal resource for such checklists, designed to act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for those exploring the range of extant checklist projects, and to foster collaborative, integrative development and ultimately promote gradual integration of checklists. (shrink)