Colin W Evers
Biographic Data
| ID | 770771 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colin W Evers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colin W |
| FAMILY NAME | Evers |
| SIGNATURE | EVERS C W |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Becoming teacher-researchers: Developing a tool for enhancing teachers’ conceptual sensitivity to formulate research questions in lesson study
A teacher – researcher collaborative action research study was conducted to develop a tool based on the Popper cycle to help 20 primary school teachers to formulate ‘researchable’ research questions in lesson study. ‘researchable’ means that the research questions are relevant, significant, ethical, clear and focused, answerable by data, and feasible. This requires teachers to enhance their conceptual sensitivity, that is, the ability to convey t…
AI and the future of humanity: ChatGPT-4, philosophy and education – Critical responses
Notes15 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2022.208555416 https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ai-chatbots-naive-idiots-no-sense-of-irony-by-slavoj-zizek-2023-0317 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html
The importance of context for leadership in education
The doctrine of leader centrism, supported by the concept of methodological individualism, dominates contemporary accounts of leadership in education and is generally applied as the default option that explains how organizations such as schools function. We argue that methodological individualism is not defensible and that as a result, the explanatory value of leadership is an open empirical question, not a default option. Leadership, and especia…
James Walker, Philosopher of Education – Five tributes from colleagues
I first knew Jim Walker when I enrolled in the Diploma of Education at Sydney Teachers College in 1968. The compulsory Philosophy of Education course was taught by the wonderful Anna Hogg (1910–201
Realist Inquiry in Social Sciences
Realist Inquiry in Social Science is an invaluable guide to conducting realist research. Written by highly regarded experts in the field, the first part of the book sets out the fundamentals necessary for rigorous realist research, while the second part deals with a number of its most important applications, discussing it in the context of case studies, action research and grounded theory amongst other approaches.Grounded in philosophical methodo…
New Frontiers in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Theory
Educational leadership, management and administration as a field of study has a rich history of epistemological debate. From the work of Andrew Halpin and Daniel Griffiths in the 1950s and 1960s in
Naturalism and Educational Administration: New directions
The purpose of this paper is to outline some new developments in a mature research program that sees administrative theory as cohering with natural science and uses a coherence theory of epistemic justification to shape the content and structure of administrative theory. Three main developments are discussed. First, the paper shows how to deal with the evaluation of theories (of, say, leadership) where there is a demand that a theory needs to be …
Methodological individualism, educational administration, and leadership
There are two major categories of explanation for organisational performance: structural and individual. With the shift away from systems-theoretic accounts that occurred in the 1980s, structural explanations have been replaced increasingly by the individualism of leadership and leader-centric explanations, especially when it comes to schools. In this paper, we argue that leader-centric accounts involve a commitment to methodological individualis…
Context based inferences in research methodology: The role of culture in justifying knowledge claims
Drawing on work in epistemology and the philosophy of science, this paper seeks to provide very general reasons for why a comparative perspective needs to be applied to the inferential procedures of research methodologies where these concern the issue of justifying knowledge claims. In particular, the paper explores the role of culture on a number of important patterns of reasoning that figure in inferential arguments in research methodologies. T…
Conducting research in Confucian Heritage Cultures: An overview of methodological issues
An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the influence of Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) on educational research, the impact of Hong Kong's Racial Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) on ethnic minority of students in Hong Kong, China education system, and the nuanced analysis of how context of research shows reflexivity. [Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. …
Remembering Pesa: An intellectual journey
(2009). Remembering PESA: An intellectual journey. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 41, Celebration of PESA 40 years, pp. 788-793
Educational leadership in Hong Kong schools, 1950–2000: Critical reflections on changing themes
As a former colony, Hong Kong's education system has been powerfully influenced by ideas from the West. However, these influences have been mediated by a number of factors of contingency – the most important of which is culture – which shapes implementation, particularly of what counts as successful practice. The aim of this paper is to trace the interpretation and implementation of key ideas about school leadership and to offer some analytical p…
Culture, Cognitive Pluralism and Rationality
This paper considers the prospects for objectivity in reasoning strategies in response to empirical studies that apparently show systematic culture‐based differences in patterns of reasoning. I argue that there is at least one modest class of exceptions to the claim that there are alternative, equally warranted standards of good reasoning: the class that entails the solution of certain well‐structured problems which, suitably chosen, are common, …
On Generalising from Single Case Studies: Epistemological Reflections
The aim of this paper is to explore the conditions under which generalisation from single case studies, in the sense of making inferences concerning a wider class of phenomena beyond a case, is reasonable. Two sets of conditions, in particular, provide the basis for our consideration of this issue. The first is an exploration of the impressive amount of empirical knowledge that is contained within the theories that are used to make observations, …
Knowledge, Certainty, and Openness in Educational Administration
Response to Barlosky: Methodological Reflections on Postmodernism
Analytic and Post-analytic Philosophy of Education: Methodological Reflections
(1993). ANALYTIC AND POST‐ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 35-45
Educating the Brain
Policy analysis, values and complexity
Theoretical writings on policy analysis have often dealt with the problem of adjudicating value issues as well as the problem of complexity. Since both these problems are ultimately epistemological in character, this paper explores their structure from a less familiar non‐foundational, coherentist epistemological framework, within the context of the synoptic/anti‐synoptic debate in policy analaysis. The paper argues against a sharp distinction be…
Two responses to Laura: Evers, and Phillips
Epistemology and the Structure of Educational Theory: Some reflections on the O'Connor-Hirst debate
Journal Article Epistemology and the Structure of Educational Theory: some reflections on the O'Connor-Hirst debate Get access C Evers C Evers Correspondence: C. W. Evers, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia, 3168. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 21, Issue 1, July 1987, Pages 3–14, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1987.tb00138.…
Naturalism and philosophy of education
(1987). Naturalism and philosophy of education. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 11-21
Theory, politics, and experiment in educational research methodology
Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extensionality: A refutation of the forms of knowledge thesis
Journal Article Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extensionality: a refutation of the forms of knowledge thesis Get access C W Evers, C W Evers Correspondence: C. W. Evers and J. C. Walker, Department of Education, University of Sydney, N.S.W. 2006, Australia. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar J C Walker J C Walker Correspondence: C. W. Evers and J. C. Walker, Department of Education, University of Sydney, N.S…
Epistemology and Justifying the Curriculum of Educational Studies
AI and the future of humanity: ChatGPT-4, philosophy and education – Critical responses
Notes15 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2022.208555416 https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ai-chatbots-naive-idiots-no-sense-of-irony-by-slavoj-zizek-2023-0317 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html
On Generalising from Single Case Studies: Epistemological Reflections
The aim of this paper is to explore the conditions under which generalisation from single case studies, in the sense of making inferences concerning a wider class of phenomena beyond a case, is reasonable. Two sets of conditions, in particular, provide the basis for our consideration of this issue. The first is an exploration of the impressive amount of empirical knowledge that is contained within the theories that are used to make observations, …
Analytic Philosophy of Education: From a Logical Point of View
(1979). Analytic Philosophy of Education: From a Logical Point of View. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 1-15
Methodological individualism, educational administration, and leadership
There are two major categories of explanation for organisational performance: structural and individual. With the shift away from systems-theoretic accounts that occurred in the 1980s, structural explanations have been replaced increasingly by the individualism of leadership and leader-centric explanations, especially when it comes to schools. In this paper, we argue that leader-centric accounts involve a commitment to methodological individualis…
Educating the Brain
Theory, politics, and experiment in educational research methodology
Naturalism and philosophy of education
(1987). Naturalism and philosophy of education. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 11-21
Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extensionality: A refutation of the forms of knowledge thesis
Journal Article Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extensionality: a refutation of the forms of knowledge thesis Get access C W Evers, C W Evers Correspondence: C. W. Evers and J. C. Walker, Department of Education, University of Sydney, N.S.W. 2006, Australia. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar J C Walker J C Walker Correspondence: C. W. Evers and J. C. Walker, Department of Education, University of Sydney, N.S…
Conducting research in Confucian Heritage Cultures: An overview of methodological issues
An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the influence of Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) on educational research, the impact of Hong Kong's Racial Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) on ethnic minority of students in Hong Kong, China education system, and the nuanced analysis of how context of research shows reflexivity. [Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. …
New Frontiers in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Theory
Educational leadership, management and administration as a field of study has a rich history of epistemological debate. From the work of Andrew Halpin and Daniel Griffiths in the 1950s and 1960s in
Naturalism and Educational Administration: New directions
The purpose of this paper is to outline some new developments in a mature research program that sees administrative theory as cohering with natural science and uses a coherence theory of epistemic justification to shape the content and structure of administrative theory. Three main developments are discussed. First, the paper shows how to deal with the evaluation of theories (of, say, leadership) where there is a demand that a theory needs to be …
Remembering Pesa: An intellectual journey
(2009). Remembering PESA: An intellectual journey. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 41, Celebration of PESA 40 years, pp. 788-793
Culture, Cognitive Pluralism and Rationality
This paper considers the prospects for objectivity in reasoning strategies in response to empirical studies that apparently show systematic culture‐based differences in patterns of reasoning. I argue that there is at least one modest class of exceptions to the claim that there are alternative, equally warranted standards of good reasoning: the class that entails the solution of certain well‐structured problems which, suitably chosen, are common, …
Policy analysis, values and complexity
Theoretical writings on policy analysis have often dealt with the problem of adjudicating value issues as well as the problem of complexity. Since both these problems are ultimately epistemological in character, this paper explores their structure from a less familiar non‐foundational, coherentist epistemological framework, within the context of the synoptic/anti‐synoptic debate in policy analaysis. The paper argues against a sharp distinction be…
Analytic Philosophy of Education: From a Logical Point of View
(1979). Analytic Philosophy of Education: From a Logical Point of View. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 1-15
Epistemology and Justifying the Curriculum of Educational Studies
Epistemology and justifying the curriculum of educational studies
Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extensionality: A refutation of the forms of knowledge thesis
Journal Article Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extensionality: a refutation of the forms of knowledge thesis Get access C W Evers, C W Evers Correspondence: C. W. Evers and J. C. Walker, Department of Education, University of Sydney, N.S.W. 2006, Australia. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar J C Walker J C Walker Correspondence: C. W. Evers and J. C. Walker, Department of Education, University of Sydney, N.S…
Theory, politics, and experiment in educational research methodology
Epistemology and the Structure of Educational Theory: Some reflections on the O'Connor-Hirst debate
Journal Article Epistemology and the Structure of Educational Theory: some reflections on the O'Connor-Hirst debate Get access C Evers C Evers Correspondence: C. W. Evers, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia, 3168. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 21, Issue 1, July 1987, Pages 3–14, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1987.tb00138.…
Naturalism and philosophy of education
(1987). Naturalism and philosophy of education. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 11-21
Policy analysis, values and complexity
Theoretical writings on policy analysis have often dealt with the problem of adjudicating value issues as well as the problem of complexity. Since both these problems are ultimately epistemological in character, this paper explores their structure from a less familiar non‐foundational, coherentist epistemological framework, within the context of the synoptic/anti‐synoptic debate in policy analaysis. The paper argues against a sharp distinction be…
Two responses to Laura: Evers, and Phillips
Educating the Brain
Analytic and Post-analytic Philosophy of Education: Methodological Reflections
(1993). ANALYTIC AND POST‐ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 35-45
Knowledge, Certainty, and Openness in Educational Administration
Response to Barlosky: Methodological Reflections on Postmodernism
On Generalising from Single Case Studies: Epistemological Reflections
The aim of this paper is to explore the conditions under which generalisation from single case studies, in the sense of making inferences concerning a wider class of phenomena beyond a case, is reasonable. Two sets of conditions, in particular, provide the basis for our consideration of this issue. The first is an exploration of the impressive amount of empirical knowledge that is contained within the theories that are used to make observations, …
Culture, Cognitive Pluralism and Rationality
This paper considers the prospects for objectivity in reasoning strategies in response to empirical studies that apparently show systematic culture‐based differences in patterns of reasoning. I argue that there is at least one modest class of exceptions to the claim that there are alternative, equally warranted standards of good reasoning: the class that entails the solution of certain well‐structured problems which, suitably chosen, are common, …
Educational leadership in Hong Kong schools, 1950–2000: Critical reflections on changing themes
As a former colony, Hong Kong's education system has been powerfully influenced by ideas from the West. However, these influences have been mediated by a number of factors of contingency – the most important of which is culture – which shapes implementation, particularly of what counts as successful practice. The aim of this paper is to trace the interpretation and implementation of key ideas about school leadership and to offer some analytical p…
Remembering Pesa: An intellectual journey
(2009). Remembering PESA: An intellectual journey. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 41, Celebration of PESA 40 years, pp. 788-793
Context based inferences in research methodology: The role of culture in justifying knowledge claims
Drawing on work in epistemology and the philosophy of science, this paper seeks to provide very general reasons for why a comparative perspective needs to be applied to the inferential procedures of research methodologies where these concern the issue of justifying knowledge claims. In particular, the paper explores the role of culture on a number of important patterns of reasoning that figure in inferential arguments in research methodologies. T…
Conducting research in Confucian Heritage Cultures: An overview of methodological issues
An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the influence of Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) on educational research, the impact of Hong Kong's Racial Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) on ethnic minority of students in Hong Kong, China education system, and the nuanced analysis of how context of research shows reflexivity. [Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. …
Methodological individualism, educational administration, and leadership
There are two major categories of explanation for organisational performance: structural and individual. With the shift away from systems-theoretic accounts that occurred in the 1980s, structural explanations have been replaced increasingly by the individualism of leadership and leader-centric explanations, especially when it comes to schools. In this paper, we argue that leader-centric accounts involve a commitment to methodological individualis…
New Frontiers in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Theory
Educational leadership, management and administration as a field of study has a rich history of epistemological debate. From the work of Andrew Halpin and Daniel Griffiths in the 1950s and 1960s in
Naturalism and Educational Administration: New directions
The purpose of this paper is to outline some new developments in a mature research program that sees administrative theory as cohering with natural science and uses a coherence theory of epistemic justification to shape the content and structure of administrative theory. Three main developments are discussed. First, the paper shows how to deal with the evaluation of theories (of, say, leadership) where there is a demand that a theory needs to be …
Realist Inquiry in Social Sciences
Realist Inquiry in Social Science is an invaluable guide to conducting realist research. Written by highly regarded experts in the field, the first part of the book sets out the fundamentals necessary for rigorous realist research, while the second part deals with a number of its most important applications, discussing it in the context of case studies, action research and grounded theory amongst other approaches.Grounded in philosophical methodo…
James Walker, Philosopher of Education – Five tributes from colleagues
I first knew Jim Walker when I enrolled in the Diploma of Education at Sydney Teachers College in 1968. The compulsory Philosophy of Education course was taught by the wonderful Anna Hogg (1910–201
The importance of context for leadership in education
The doctrine of leader centrism, supported by the concept of methodological individualism, dominates contemporary accounts of leadership in education and is generally applied as the default option that explains how organizations such as schools function. We argue that methodological individualism is not defensible and that as a result, the explanatory value of leadership is an open empirical question, not a default option. Leadership, and especia…
Sociology (23 works) · Epistemology (21 works) · Philosophy (20 works) · Political science (18 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Computer Science (9 works)