Building on the careful racial analyses of Charles W. Mills, this article uses the example case of Black ethnics to illustrate the general plausibility of ethnic identity as a useful political analytic category, suggesting that the absence of ethnic identity in racial analyses mutes important aspects of the lived experiences of racialized persons…

During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision-makers faced numerous ethical questions in biomedical science, public health, educational policy, and education practice. Bioethicists were key partners in informing decision-making in their areas of expertise; educational ethicists, on the other hand, had to fight our way to the table if…

In his article 'An Ameliorative Analysis of the Concept of Education', Jack Marley-Payne sets out to provide an ameliorative analysis of the concept 'education'. Marley-Payne draws an important distinction between what he labels the 'Broad' and the 'Narrow' account of education. His conclusion is that an ameliorative conceptual analysis of…

Ameliorative analysis is a powerful new approach to understanding concepts, stemming from cutting-edge work at the intersection of philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and metaphysics. It offers the potential to improve our understanding of a range of subject matters. One topic to which it has not yet been applied is the concept of…

Research conducted in England over the last decade has documented sustained, significant decreases in children's wellbeing. While recent changes to curriculum policy promoting children's wellbeing have been introduced, a notable feature of the discourse surrounding the promotion of children's wellbeing is that wellbeing is regarded as opposed to,…

This article is a reply to Matthew Clayton and David Stephens's 2018 article 'What is the point of religious education?' (see EJ1173708). I begin by problematising the 'acceptability requirement' used to justify the authors' conclusions. I then disambiguate the key claim made in the article. If interpreted broadly, as an attack on curricula that…

Drawing on empirical data, this article makes a contribution to knowledge through bringing together the apparently disparate elements of contemporary education policy, religion, civic virtue and values teaching, in particular, the teaching of 'fundamental British values'. I illustrate, through a discussion of the linkages between these elements,…

Assessing the value of HE has now become embroiled in discussions of its functions and outputs in the context of increased marketisation. Much of this is based on a fairly crude value framing concerning the economic impact, return value and, measured performance, derived from HE. This article explores the concept of value associated with the work…

The United States considers educating all students to a threshold of adequate outcomes to be a central goal of educational justice. The No Child Left Behind Act introduced evidence-based policy and accountability protocols to ensure that all students receive an education that enables them to meet adequacy standards. Unfortunately, evidence-based…

Some liberal societies continue to require their schools to offer non-directive but, specifically, religious education as part of the curriculum. This article challenges that practice. It does so by articulating and defending the moral requirement that education policy must be regulated by principles that are acceptable to reasonable people.…

Many egalitarians believe that there is a pro tanto reason to remedy inequalities of opportunity in access to higher education. This consensus, I argue, masks practical disagreement among egalitarians: in many real-world choice contexts, egalitarians will disagree about which policies are to be endorsed, both from the point of view of equality and…

Current trends indicate declining distinctions between "public" and "private" sectors in education. Reformers see sector barriers as unnecessary impediments to innovation, distracting attention and effort from "what works". This analysis questions whether trends in education policy are simply a natural evolution away…

Although the policy and methodological legacy of "Equality of Educational Opportunity," the so-called Coleman Report published by the US Department of Education in 1966, is widely recognized, the way in which it played a role in shaping theorizing about equality of educational opportunity has been less well-explored. This article…

This article explores the ways that philosophy and evidence interact in the exploration of normative questions in philosophy of education. First, the authors provide a description of reflective equilibrium, a central method in normative philosophizing. They proceed to describe three tasks of normative philosophy, each of which requires engagement…

This article largely agrees with John White's characterizations of the relationships among philosophy of education, philosophy more generally, and the conventional world. It then extends what White identifies as the fundamental problem that should now be occupying philosophy of education--the irreconcilable opposition between education for…