Several philosophers and psychologists of education have taken the position that wellbeing should be at theheart of our educational system, if not its primary goal. The aim of this paper is to outline, question, andchallenge this position. It starts by discussing the main approaches that consider student wellbeing as theprimary goal of the…

In recent decades, the pursuit of excellence, broadly defined as high educational achievement, has shaped the education systems and the research agendas of many countries across the world. Schools have been encouraged to provide a world-class quality education, with an emphasis on outstanding performance for some students, alongside a general…

This article examines a Confucian conception of competence and its corresponding response to the competencies agenda that underpins international large-scale assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It is argued that standardised transnational assessments are undergirded by a technical rationality that…