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117Untangling the mother knot: some thoughts on parents, children and philosophers of educationEthics and Education 1 (1): 65-77. 2006.Although children and parents often feature in philosophical literature on education, the nature of the parent–child relationship remains occluded by the language of rights, duties and entitlements. Likewise, talk of ‘parenting’ in popular literature and culture implies that being a parent is primarily about performing tasks. Drawing on popular literature, moral philosophy and philosophy of education, I make some suggestions towards articulating a richer philosophical conception of this relation…Read more
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38Seducing Souls: Education and the Experience of Human Well‐BeingEducational Theory 65 (1): 73-78. 2015.
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202Anarchism, Utopias and Philosophy of EducationJournal of Philosophy of Education 35 (4): 627-646. 2001.This paper presents a discussion of some central ideas in anarchist thought, alongside an account of experiments in anarchist education. In the course of the discussion, I try to challenge certain preconceptions about anarchism, especially concerning the anarchist view of human nature. I address the questions of whether or not anarchism is utopian, what this means, and what implications these ideas may have for dominant paradigms in philosophy of education.
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192Tiger Mothers and Praise Junkies: Children, Praise and the Reactive AttitudesJournal of Philosophy of Education 47 (1): 1-19. 2013.In this article, I look at some discussions of praising children in contemporary parenting advice. In exploring what is problematic about these discussions, I turn to some philosophical work on moral praise and blame which, I argue, indicates the need for a more nuanced response to questions about the significance of praise. A further analysis of the moral aspects of praise suggests a significant dimension of the parent-child relationship that is missing from, and obscured by, the kind of parent…Read more
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196Lessons from a new science? On teaching happiness in schoolsJournal of Philosophy of Education 42 (3-4): 575-590. 2008.Recent media reports about new programmes for 'happiness lessons' in schools signal a welcome concern with children's well-being. However, as I shall argue, the presuppositions of the discourse in which many of these proposals are framed, and their orientation towards particular strands of positive psychology, involve ideas about human life that are, in an important sense, anti-educational.
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128Parents as ‘educators’: languages of education, pedagogy and ‘parenting’Ethics and Education 6 (2): 197-212. 2011.In this article, we explore to what extent parents should be ‘educators’ of their children. In the course of this exploration, we offer some examples of these practices and ways of speaking and thinking, indicate some of the problems and limitations they import into our understanding of the parent–child relationship, and make some tentative suggestions towards an alternative way of thinking about this relationship.
