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42IntroductionJournal of Philosophy of Education 51 (3): 557-573. 2017.This volume brings together a number of related contributions on the topic of expertise and education. Expertise is a topic that is beginning to receive more attention in the Philosophy of Education and discussions are closely related to the epistemological debate concerning the nature of know-how which has also burgeoned in recent years within ‘mainstream’ epistemology. More specifically, this volume focuses on the relevance of expertise to professional education and practice, with the aim on s…Read more
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3Civil society's education: reflections on the informal roots of learningBloomsbury Academic. 2025.This book examines the relationship between the educational activities of civil society and those of the state via three case studies in: vocational education, political education and educational markets. Winch argues that the narrower educational activities of the state cannot be understood independently of those that take place in civil society which consists of institutions such as families, churches, businesses, trade unions, charities and political associations.
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Review of Ronald Barnett's “Improving Higher Education: total quality care,” (review)Journal of Philosophy of Education 28 275-9. 1994.
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9Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigationWiley-Blackwell. 2017.Teachers' Know-How: A Philosophical Investigation presents a comprehensive and up to date philosophical treatment of the kinds of knowledge and "know-how" that educators should possess. -Offers an original and in-depth study of teachers' know-how which situates teaching within the spectrum of professions -Critiques the currently fashionable craft conception of teaching and the view of teaching as protocol-driven which is currently influential in policymaking circles -Utilizes epistemological deb…Read more
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14Millions of pounds are spent on educational research each year in the UK alone. By far the greatest proportion of this expenditure is on research which is thought to have practical relevance to educational problems and the vast majority of this is spent on empirical educational research, that is educational research which examines and seeks explanations for actual or proposed educational practices or the kinds of activities, institutions or policies that prepare young people for life (Pring, 201…Read more
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Education, Work and Social Capital: Towards a New Conception of Vocational EducationBritish Journal of Educational Studies 49 (4): 449-450. 2001.
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16The Evolution of the Thought of Richard Peters: Neglected AspectsSATS 24 (1): 29-51. 2023.Peters is best known for ‘Ethics and Education’, (1966) an attempt, using analytical methods, to provide a universal canonical account of the nature of education. This corresponded closely with the prevailing conception of liberal education of the time. Despite the acclaim with which this work was received, Peters became increasingly dissatisfied with his early views of education and in a series of papers written between 1973 and 1982, he retreated slowly from the view that one could construct a…Read more
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Educational Explanations (edited book)Wiley. 2022.Millions of pounds are spent on educational research each year in the UK alone. By far the greatest proportion of this expenditure is on research which is thought to have practical relevance to educational problems and the vast majority of this is spent on empirical educational research, that is educational research which examines and seeks explanations for actual or proposed educational practices or the kinds of activities, institutions or policies that prepare young people for life (Pring, 201…Read more
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10Education and Expertise (edited book)Wiley. 2018.The relevance of expertise to professional education and practice is explored in this collection of original contributions from educationalists, philosophers and psychologists. Discusses the increasingly prominent debates about the nature of know-how in mainstream analytical epistemology Illuminates what is involved in professional expertise and the implications of a sound understanding of professional expertise for professional education practice, curriculum design and assessment All contributi…Read more
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12Vocational and Civic Education: Whither British Policy?In Richard Smith (ed.), Education Policy, Wiley. 2013-04-11.The current crisis in British VET (vocational education and training) is explained in terms of the decline of opportunities beyond preparation for university for young people after school. The continuing large numbers of ‘NEETS’ (those not in employment, education or training) is but one aspect of this problem: much larger is the decline in good quality VET opportunities for those who do not intend to go to university. A very important element in the problem is a misunderstanding of the relation…Read more
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26Professional Knowledge, Expertise and Perceptual AbilityIn Christopher Winch & Mark Addis (eds.), Education and Expertise, Wiley. 2018.This chapter addresses the role of perceptual knowledge (knowledge by acquaintance) in the development of expertise in professional contexts. It seeks to answer the question of how, if at all, does heightened knowledge by acquaintance inform a high level of professional know‐how. Successful action requires the articulation of various epistemic capacities: to draw on relevant systematic knowledge, to understand the nature of the problem faced, to perceive the essentials in complex situations and …Read more
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15IntroductionIn Christopher Winch & Mark Addis (eds.), Education and Expertise, Wiley. 2018.No Abstract.
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9Three Different Conceptions of Know‐How and Their Relevance to Professional and Vocational EducationIn Ben Kotzee (ed.), Education and the Growth of Knowledge, Wiley. 2013-12-25.This article discusses three related aspects of know‐how: skill, transversal abilities and project management abilities, which are often not distinguished within either the educational or the philosophical literature. Skill or the ability to perform tasks is distinguished from possession of technique which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for possession of a skill. The exercise of skill, contrary to much opinion, usually involves character aspects of agency. Skills usually have a soci…Read more
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8The Teacher as a Professional TechnicianIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.This chapter will outline a third conception of the role of the teacher, the professional technician or professional for short. The professional teacher is one who most corresponds to the description of professional occupations described in the literature already discussed. The professional described in this chapter will be an ideal type, whose attributes will be found to a greater or lesser degree in actual teachers around the world. Should this be a preferred model of what a teacher should be?…Read more
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6Teaching as an OccupationIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.In this chapter the notion of a teaching career is introduced and developed. Much of a teacher's work takes place outside the classroom. Options of career development are considered, including curriculum, pedagogy and assessment specialisms among others. Issues of civic engagement on the one hand and retention and attrition on the other are discussed.
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11The idea of the ‘executive technician’ or the teacher who follows theoretically prescribed rules is outlined. Through a discussion of the ideas of Oakeshott the idea of a rule‐following rigid practitioner of prescribed protocols is developed. The advantages of this conception of teaching as well as its disadvantages are outlined. Some practical applications of the executive technician conception of the teacher in both developed and developing countries are presented.
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10The Elements of Teacher Knowledge and Know‐HowIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.The focus of this chapter's discussion is on the specific nature of teacher knowledge, including KT (propositional knowledge), KH (know‐how), KA (knowledge by acquaintance) and their interrelationship. There are features of teaching that it may share with other occupations, namely those associated with craft, executive technician and technician occupations. There are also features of teacher knowledge that are specific to teaching, which receive attention in the literature.
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15Teaching as a Craft OccupationIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.The craftworker is considered to be an exemplar of attention to quality, service to the public, personal satisfaction and the embodiment of tradition. The teacher as craftworker can safely be seen as one of the three archetypes of the teacher described briefly in Chapter 4. Furthermore, it is perhaps the default conception of the teacher in recent philosophical treatments of the nature of teacher's work. This conception is examined and criticised.
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11Towards a Typology of OccupationsIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.In Chapter 3, the different dimensions of know‐how relevant to teaching were examined. It is now time to see how these different dimensions are incorporated into different conceptions of occupations. The procedure will be to develop ‘ideal types’ of each, without a commitment to the existence of any in their pure form, to begin a brief description of their characteristics and their relationships with each other and, finally, to relate them to different conceptions of what it might be to be a tea…Read more
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13Dimensions of Expertise and Their Relevance to TeachingIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.This chapter will consider the kinds of knowledge and know‐how that practitioners of occupations are expected to possess. It will begin by reviewing the literature on know‐how and attempting a conceptual map of this terrain, showing where teaching or, rather, various conceptions of teaching are located on it. The endpoint of this investigation will be the development of a typology of teachers and their know‐how, which will then be examined in more detail in subsequent chapters.
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4Schooling and the Occupation of TeachingIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.A distinction between the division of labour and the fragmentation of the labour process is drawn. Economic sectors and occupations are distinguished. The institution of the school as a vehicle of compulsory mass education is introduced. Some distinctions within the concept of education are outlined. The nature of professions and the place of teaching within the field of the professions is discussed. The question of whether teaching has a distinctive ethical mission is outlined.
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12Introduction: Education and TeachingIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.The relationship between education and teaching is outlined. Categorial (universal) conceptions of education and of teaching are introduced and the distinction between categorial concepts and particular conceptions of education and teaching are explained. Attention is given to the categorial concept of teaching and how particular conceptions relate to it. An outline of the following chapters is presented.
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5Some Outstanding IssuesIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.The concluding chapter of this book will address a number of related topics that have not yet received explicit attention, although the approach taken to them should be implicit in what has been said in the foregoing chapters. These include: discipline, classroom management, school culture, leadership and accountability. In doing so, I will attempt to show how the professional technician conception of the teacher is the most suited to educational needs in developed societies.
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10A Good Teacher?In Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.The aim of this chapter is to try to answer the question ‘What makes a teacher a good teacher?’ or at least to frame this question so that it encourages intelligible answers. Part of the problem is that there is a lack of consensus about questions of pedagogic methods and effectiveness, and this is an inevitable consequence of the contests that pervade different and competing conceptions of education. This chapter helps to frame a discussion of this issue.
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10Teacher EducationIn Teachers' know-how: a philosophical investigation, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.We will need to consider some general questions pertaining to teacher education as well as to the specifics of preparation to be a professional in the sense developed so far in this book. We will consider: the selection of potential teachers, different models of initial teacher education, early career qualification and career professional development. In the course of doing so, we will look at some of the contemporary debates concerning teacher education that are relevant to this question.
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22The Honey Trap: the social and cognitive adequacy of language in educational contextsJournal of Applied Philosophy 5 (2): 211-224. 1988.ABSTRACT The attack on bidialectal approaches to the teaching of writing mounted by John Honey in The Language Trap is examined and critically discussed. It is argued that Honey confuses the issues of the social and the cognitive adequacy of a particular variety of language. In particular, his critique of bidialectalism, in so far as it is based on a version of verbal deficit theory and/or cognitive relativism, is misconceived. There are valid criticisms to be made of the bidialectal approach, b…Read more
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51Women, reason and educationJournal of Philosophy of Education 19 (1). 1985.Christopher Winch; Women, Reason and Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 19, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 91–98, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467.
London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |