Paul Smeyers
Biographic Data
| ID | 2544119 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Smeyers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Smeyers |
| SIGNATURE | SMEYERS P |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5427-8014 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 62 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 83 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Collective obituary for James D. Marshall (1937–2021)
Eulogy for Jim Marshall (read at the funeral)Michael A. PetersBeijing Normal UniversityMy deepest condolences to Pepe, Dom and Marcus and to Jim’s grandchildren. Tina and I spent a lot of time at t
The Research Community Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: A Retrospect of Collaborative Research over Two Decades
The Research Community ‘Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education’ was established in 1999. The academics involved in this worldwide network share the belief that there is a place within the discipline of education for so-called foundationalist approaches. This is not, however, to answer a need for a (new) foundation, but to systematically study a particular area from a discipline-oriented stance. This paper details the reasons for es…
The Research Community Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: A Retrospect of Collaborative Research over Two Decades. Continued—Part Two
status: Published
International Handbook of Philosophy of Education
International Handbook of Philosophy of Education
Educacionalização como um processo de modernização em curso
O presente artigo discute a noção de "educacionalização", entendida como a orientação global ou tendência de pensar a educação como ponto focal para abordar ou resolver os problemas sociais. A intenção deste trabalho é oferecer uma visão geral sobre o entendimento de educacionalização e apresentar outros trabalhos que o utilizam como principal lente teórica, propondo-se a ser uma leitura de referência sobre este conceito que vem sendo utilizado p…
Introduction: Educational Research: Discourses of Change and Changes of Discourse
status: Published
Neurophilia: Guiding Educational Research and the Educational Field
For a decade or so there has been a new hype' in educational research: it is called educational neuroscience or even neuroeducation (and neuroethics)there are numerous publications, special journals, and an abundance of research projects together with the advertisement of many positions at renowned research centres worldwide. After a brief introduction of what is going on in the emerging sub-discipline', a number of characterisations are offered …
International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research
International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research
Focusing on presentation instead of representation: Perspectives on representational and non-representational language-games for educational history and theory
Debates in science seem to depend on referential language-games, but in other senses they do not. This article addresses non-representational theory. It is a branch of newer approaches to cultural geography that strive to get a handle on spatial relationships not by representing them, but rather by presenting them. In this case, present connotes spatial and temporal proximity and availability. In non-representational theories, there are no longer…
Material culture and educational research: An introduction
status: Published
Revisiting the Wittgensteinian legacy: Perspectives on representational and non-representational language-games for educational history and theory
Debates in science seem to depend on referential language-games, but in other senses they do not. Language works in more complex ways, even in work that purports to be purely scientific. This article investigates the scope and limitations of language-games in educational history and theory. The study addresses concepts and pictures as examples of how language can work in theoretical, philosophical and historiographical interpretation. Attention i…
Education in/for non-violence: Messages for believers and non-believers? A response to Hanan Alexander and Yusef Waghid
status: Published
Re-envisioning the Future: Democratic Citizenship Education and Islamic Education
In this article we address the issue of why democratic citizenship education should be incorporated more meaningfully into Islamic education discourses in formal institutions in the Arab and Muslim world. In the Arab and Muslim world civic and national education seem to be the dominant discourses. We argue that the latter discourses are inadequate to address some of the dystopias in the Arab and Muslim world such as the perpetuation of patriarchy…
Publish Yet Perish: On the Pitfalls of Philosophy of Education in an Age of Impact Factors
Philosophy and Education: Accepting Wittgenstein's Challenge
Making Sense of the Legacy of Epistemology in Education and Educational Research: The Legacy of Epistemology
Ruitenberg and Phillips maintain that the conventional meanings of epistemology' have been misused and that this obscures the discussion. They accept that talking about knowledge' itself is part of a particular social practice (in the natural as well as the social sciences) and that the epistemic agent is always connected with others. This review questions whether the embeddedness of a particular social practice should not be conceived more radic…
Moral perception and judgment and a truly radical change of social practices: A reply to Paul Standish's ‘Registers of the religious’
The Lure of Psychology for Education and Educational Research: Psychology, Education, and Educational Research
Psychology has penetrated many domains of society and its vocabulary and discourse has become part of our everyday conversations. It not only carries with it the promise that it will deliver insights into human behaviour, but it is also believed that it can address many of the problems human beings are confronted with. As a discipline it thrives in the present climate of performativity, where more attention is given to means than to ends. The art…
Chains of Dependency: On the Disenchantment and the Illusion of Being Free at Last (Part 2)
This paper is the sequel to Part 1, which appeared in this Journal, Vol. 46 No. 2, 2012. Following Cavell and his insistence that we should not try to escape from the existential conditions we find ourselves in and look for false certainties, the relevance of embracing a particular stance is elaborated. A commitment to giving substance to an ideal of the good life is neither an injustice towards the other nor an ignorance of her freedom. On the c…
Chains of Dependency: On the Disenchantment and the Illusion of Being Free at Last (Part 1)
Time, space, causality, communicating and acting together set limits on our freedom. Starting from the position of Wittgenstein, who advocates neither a position of pure subjectivity nor of pure objectivity, and taking into account what is implied by initiation into the symbolic order of language and culture, it is argued that the limitations on our freedom are not to be deplored. The problems of conservatism, relativism and scepticism—which conf…
How to Improve your Impact Factor: Questioning the Quantification of Academic Quality
A broad-scale quantification of the measure of quality for scholarship is under way. This trend has fundamental implications for the future of academic publishing and employment. In this essay we want to raise questions about these burgeoning practices, particularly how they affect philosophy of education and similar sub-disciplines. First, details are given of how an 'impact factor' is calculated. The various meanings that can be attached to it …
Taking into account African Philosophy: An impetus to amend the agenda of philosophy of education
Sceptics of an Africanisation of education have often lambasted its proponents for re-inventing something that has very little, if any, role to play in contemporary African society. The contributors to this issue hold a different view and, through the papers included in this issue, arguments are proffered in defence of an Africanisation of education on the African continent, particularly through the notion of ubuntu
Reconsidering Ubuntu: On the educational potential of a particular ethic of care
In this article we argue that ubuntu (human interdependence) is not some form of essentialist notion that unfolds in exactly the same way as some critics of ubuntu might want to suggest. Rather, we offer a philosophical position that (re)considers the situation of the self in relation to others. The article starts from the general issues at stake in the debate concerning particularity and universalist ethics. We then reconsider the general positi…
Narrative analysis as philosophical research: Bridging the gap between the empirical and the conceptual
There is a longstanding debate about what can be expected from philosophy of education and what its place can be in educational theory. A remarkable resemblance can be found between the debate about the usefulness of qualitative research methods and the kinds of insights they produce. The debate between proponents of empirical (quantitative) research and of qualitative research can be traced to the opposition between the need for understanding an…
How to Improve your Impact Factor: Questioning the Quantification of Academic Quality
A broad-scale quantification of the measure of quality for scholarship is under way. This trend has fundamental implications for the future of academic publishing and employment. In this essay we want to raise questions about these burgeoning practices, particularly how they affect philosophy of education and similar sub-disciplines. First, details are given of how an 'impact factor' is calculated. The various meanings that can be attached to it …
Reconsidering Ubuntu: On the educational potential of a particular ethic of care
In this article we argue that ubuntu (human interdependence) is not some form of essentialist notion that unfolds in exactly the same way as some critics of ubuntu might want to suggest. Rather, we offer a philosophical position that (re)considers the situation of the self in relation to others. The article starts from the general issues at stake in the debate concerning particularity and universalist ethics. We then reconsider the general positi…
Educational Research and the Practical Judgement of Policy Makers
This publication arises in a context in which policy-makers and educational researchers are increasingly vocal in their demands that educational policy and practice should be informed by high quality research. In some renderings in the USA and the UK this has been translated into the language of ‘evidence-based ’ policy and practice and in both countries this in turn has led to ‘systematic reviews ’ of educational research aimed at sifting what i…
Care’ and Wider Ethical Issues
Journal Article 'Care' and Wider Ethical Issues Get access Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers Correspondence: Prof dr Paul Smeyers, Centre for Philosophy of Education, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 33, Issue 2, July 1999, Pages 233–251, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.00133 Published: 16 December 2002
Child‐Rearing: On government intervention and the discourse of experts
For Kant, education was understood as the ‘means’ to become human—and that is to say, rational. For Rousseau by contrast, and the many child‐centred educators that followed him, the adult world, far from representing reason, is essentially corrupt and given over to the superficialities of worldly vanity. On this view, the child, as a product of nature, is essentially good and will learn all she needs to know from experience. Both positions have t…
What it Makes Sense to Say: Education, Philosophy and Peter Winch on Social Science
This paper sets out Peter Winch’s central ideas about the nature of the social sciences, and reappraises their potential for educational research. It is argued that the dichotomy between ‘reasons’ and ‘causes’ has done much harm, and that the important matter of understanding ‘what is real for us’ has recently been neglected. Winch’s philosophy suggests a more adequate framework for educational research: one that embraces a pluralistic interpreti…
The Necessity for Particularity in Education and Child-Rearing: The moral issue
The justification debate has always been a major issue within philosophy of education. In this study Wittgensteinian interpretation of this matter is offered. It is argued that in using his framework justification itself has to be thought of differently, i.e. as making explicit the bedrock of the form of life the educator finds him or herself in. But Wittgenstein's insights highlight too the particularity of the ethical and therefore also of the …
Re-envisioning the Future: Democratic Citizenship Education and Islamic Education
In this article we address the issue of why democratic citizenship education should be incorporated more meaningfully into Islamic education discourses in formal institutions in the Arab and Muslim world. In the Arab and Muslim world civic and national education seem to be the dominant discourses. We argue that the latter discourses are inadequate to address some of the dystopias in the Arab and Muslim world such as the perpetuation of patriarchy…
The Narrative of a Happy Childhood: On the Presumption of Parents' Power and the Demand for Integrity
Educational situations, in the context of the family as well as in the context of the school, can be conceived in terms of power relations. Often the focus of interest is the outcome of the educator's involvement with the child. Though in general the instrumental way of thinking, in which a certain state of human well-being is an end to be reached, has been criticised, it seems to be presupposed by parents who express that what they want is that …
Qualitative and quantitative research methods: Old wine in new bottles? On understanding and interpreting educational phenomena
Generally educational research is grounded in the empirical traditions of the social sciences (commonly called quantitative and qualitative methods) and is as such distinguished from other forms of scholarship such as theoretical, conceptual or methodological essays, critiques of research traditions and practices and those studies grounded in the humanities (e.g. history, philosophy, literary analysis, arts‐based inquiry). Since the early twentie…
Focusing on presentation instead of representation: Perspectives on representational and non-representational language-games for educational history and theory
Debates in science seem to depend on referential language-games, but in other senses they do not. This article addresses non-representational theory. It is a branch of newer approaches to cultural geography that strive to get a handle on spatial relationships not by representing them, but rather by presenting them. In this case, present connotes spatial and temporal proximity and availability. In non-representational theories, there are no longer…
Taking into account African Philosophy: An impetus to amend the agenda of philosophy of education
Sceptics of an Africanisation of education have often lambasted its proponents for re-inventing something that has very little, if any, role to play in contemporary African society. The contributors to this issue hold a different view and, through the papers included in this issue, arguments are proffered in defence of an Africanisation of education on the African continent, particularly through the notion of ubuntu
On the Epistemological Basis of Large-Scale Population Studies and their Educational Use
This paper attempts to take seriously the claim that we can look for causes in order to understand the reality we live (in), and focuses therefore primarily on ‘the natural world’. It will be argued that even if we were to fully endorse the programme of looking for antecedents, a dominant driver for many educational researchers, this would still not solve the problems they commonly set out to address. It will illustrate the problem of contextuali…
Educational Research: Language and Content. Lessons in Publication Policies from the Low Countries
Owing to the growing internationalisation of research, educational researchers in the Netherlands are increasingly expected to publish through the medium of the English language. Though this undoubtedly benefits the communication between scholars, there are also side-effects. This paper discusses problematic issues from three perspectives: (i) the use of a non-native language for communication between scholars in the area of education; (ii) the u…
Education and the Educational Project I: The atmosphere of post-modernism
Journal Article Education and the Educational Project I: the atmosphere of post-modernism Get access Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers, Centre for Philosophy of Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Louvain, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 29, Issue 1, March 1995, Pages 109–119, https:…
The Research Community Philosophy and History of the Discipline of Education: A Retrospect of Collaborative Research over Two Decades. Continued—Part Two
status: Published
Neurophilia: Guiding Educational Research and the Educational Field
For a decade or so there has been a new hype' in educational research: it is called educational neuroscience or even neuroeducation (and neuroethics)there are numerous publications, special journals, and an abundance of research projects together with the advertisement of many positions at renowned research centres worldwide. After a brief introduction of what is going on in the emerging sub-discipline', a number of characterisations are offered …
Publish Yet Perish: On the Pitfalls of Philosophy of Education in an Age of Impact Factors
The Lure of Psychology for Education and Educational Research: Psychology, Education, and Educational Research
Psychology has penetrated many domains of society and its vocabulary and discourse has become part of our everyday conversations. It not only carries with it the promise that it will deliver insights into human behaviour, but it is also believed that it can address many of the problems human beings are confronted with. As a discipline it thrives in the present climate of performativity, where more attention is given to means than to ends. The art…
Chains of Dependency: On the Disenchantment and the Illusion of Being Free at Last (Part 1)
Time, space, causality, communicating and acting together set limits on our freedom. Starting from the position of Wittgenstein, who advocates neither a position of pure subjectivity nor of pure objectivity, and taking into account what is implied by initiation into the symbolic order of language and culture, it is argued that the limitations on our freedom are not to be deplored. The problems of conservatism, relativism and scepticism—which conf…
Empathy, Paternalism and Practical Reason: Philosophy of Education and the Ethics of Care Revisited
Journal Article Empathy, Paternalism and Practical Reason: Philosophy of Education and the Ethics of Care Revisited Get access Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers University of Ghent and K.U. Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Dunantlaan 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium Correspondence: Paul Smeyers, University of Ghent and K.U. Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Dunantlaan 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]…
On Cioran's Criticism of Utopian Thinking and the History of Education
The starting point of our research is the recent discussion within history of education about the aim and scope of historical educational research. More specifically, it deals with the relationship between the past and the future and is characterized by two clashing paradigms. The recent discussion within history of education is from the perspective of philosophy of education extremely interesting. Particularly intriguing is the way in which hist…
The Labouring Sleepwalker: Evocation and expression as modes of qualitative educational research
This paper deals with the highly personal way an individual makes sense of the world in a way that avoids the pitfalls of the so‐called private language. For Wittgenstein following a rule can never mean just following another rule, though we do follow rules blindly. His idea of the ‘form of life’ elicits that ‘what we do’ refers to what we have learnt, to the way in which we have learnt it and to how we have grown to find it self‐evident. But the…
Nihilism: Beyond Optimism and Pessimism
The Necessity for Particularity in Education and Child-Rearing: The moral issue
The justification debate has always been a major issue within philosophy of education. In this study Wittgensteinian interpretation of this matter is offered. It is argued that in using his framework justification itself has to be thought of differently, i.e. as making explicit the bedrock of the form of life the educator finds him or herself in. But Wittgenstein's insights highlight too the particularity of the ethical and therefore also of the …
Philosophy and Education: Accepting Wittgenstein’s Challenge
Education and the Educational Project II: Do we still care about it
The paper continues the earlier Education and the Educational Project I: the atmosphere of postmodernism.1 Following the later Wittgenstein a different view of human action, emphasising the educator’s intention, is argued for. A conception of education as the ongoing discussion of mankind is outlined and, drawing on Frankfurt’s view of the importance of what we care about, the idea of an educational project is re-conceived. It is concluded that n…
Education and the Educational Project I: The atmosphere of post-modernism
Journal Article Education and the Educational Project I: the atmosphere of post-modernism Get access Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers, Centre for Philosophy of Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Louvain, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 29, Issue 1, March 1995, Pages 109–119, https:…
On the unavoidability of power in child-rearing: Is the language of rights educationally appropriate
The Wittgensteinian frame of reference and philosophy of education at the end of the twentieth century: An introduction to philosophy and education: Accepting Wittgenstein's challenge
Initiation and newness in education and child-rearing
Epilogue
Back to the Individual: On the educational importance of commitment
The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor is widely known in the field of 'pure' Philosophy as well as within the Social Sciences. His Explanation of Behaviour
Educating ethically: Culture, commitment and integrity
Child‐rearing and Parental ‘Intentions' in Postmodernity
(1998). Child‐rearing and Parental ‘Intentions' in Postmodernity. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 193-214
Care’ and Wider Ethical Issues
Journal Article 'Care' and Wider Ethical Issues Get access Paul Smeyers Paul Smeyers Correspondence: Prof dr Paul Smeyers, Centre for Philosophy of Education, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 33, Issue 2, July 1999, Pages 233–251, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.00133 Published: 16 December 2002
Precarious Work
Educational Research: Language and Content. Lessons in Publication Policies from the Low Countries
Owing to the growing internationalisation of research, educational researchers in the Netherlands are increasingly expected to publish through the medium of the English language. Though this undoubtedly benefits the communication between scholars, there are also side-effects. This paper discusses problematic issues from three perspectives: (i) the use of a non-native language for communication between scholars in the area of education; (ii) the u…
Narrative analysis as philosophical research: Bridging the gap between the empirical and the conceptual
There is a longstanding debate about what can be expected from philosophy of education and what its place can be in educational theory. A remarkable resemblance can be found between the debate about the usefulness of qualitative research methods and the kinds of insights they produce. The debate between proponents of empirical (quantitative) research and of qualitative research can be traced to the opposition between the need for understanding an…
Qualitative Versus Quantitative Research Design: A Plea for Paradigmatic Tolerance in Educational Research
The tension between the generality of approach in causally-driven quantitative educational research and the individuality of particular cases is exemplified in the types of reasoning employed. Unlike the scientific search for antecedents, still popular in some forms of educational research, investigating particular persons and policies necessarily requires a form of practical reasoning. In order to ease this tension between qualitative and quanti…
Carpe Diem: Tales of Desire and the Unexpected
Education generally and philosophy of education in particular cannot turn a blind eye to the world of young people. Thus there are interesting questions about artists such as Marilyn Manson: is his popularity due to the performance or the music? Is his act an expression of frustration at the lack of an answer to the question of the meaning of life? And is the quest for the sensual the modern version of carpe diem? After noting the creative and de…
Unnecessary Supplement
The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education
Nihilism: Beyond Optimism and Pessimism
The Labouring Sleepwalker: Evocation and expression as modes of qualitative educational research
This paper deals with the highly personal way an individual makes sense of the world in a way that avoids the pitfalls of the so‐called private language. For Wittgenstein following a rule can never mean just following another rule, though we do follow rules blindly. His idea of the ‘form of life’ elicits that ‘what we do’ refers to what we have learnt, to the way in which we have learnt it and to how we have grown to find it self‐evident. But the…
Education as Initiation Into Practices
A bstract In this essay, Paul Smeyers and Nicholas Burbules reexamine the concept of “practice” and propose a new way of conceiving it that does justice to the idea that education is in some sense an initiation into practices without endorsing either the conservative and reproductive conception of what initiation entails or the radically social constructionist idea that all practices are arbitrary and groundless. First, drawing from the work of L…
What it Makes Sense to Say: Education, Philosophy and Peter Winch on Social Science
This paper sets out Peter Winch’s central ideas about the nature of the social sciences, and reappraises their potential for educational research. It is argued that the dichotomy between ‘reasons’ and ‘causes’ has done much harm, and that the important matter of understanding ‘what is real for us’ has recently been neglected. Winch’s philosophy suggests a more adequate framework for educational research: one that embraces a pluralistic interpreti…
What Philosophy can and cannot do for Education
Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education
Sociology (55 works) · Philosophy (43 works) · Epistemology (42 works) · Political science (39 works) · Law (35 works) · Philosophy (35 works) · Law (30 works) · Higher education (29 works) · Psychology (26 works) · Philosophy of education (25 works)