PHILOSOPHY of EDUCATION SOCIETY

October 2008 Update

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President's Message: By David Hansen

Our scholarly Society has long been marked by intellectual diversity.  We discuss and debate divergent ideas and their consequences.  We guide our research and our teaching by differing conceptions both of philosophy and of education.  At times it seems we express as many different views of philosophy of education as there are members – a sign at some moments, no doubt, of cacophony, but above all of a dynamic, living association of scholars and teachers.

In 2008 the Society has entered its 65th year.  Today, as in the initial years of its founding, we live in tumultuous times.  Today, as throughout the decades of its existence, the Society provides a context for raising questions about education and its relation to the ever-changing universe of human experience, need, and aspiration.  I want to encourage all of you to plan to attend the PES Annual Meeting, March 20-23, 2009 in Montreal.  I encourage you to tell your colleagues and students about the conference.  The annual meeting is a vital space we have created to come together and discuss, debate, examine, appreciate, and ponder educational possibilities and problems.  We are anticipating a fine conference and the presence of each of you will make it that much richer for everyone.

I would like to thank some colleagues who are steadily working to ensure we have a splendid experience in Montreal:

* Debby Kerdeman for her ongoing work as Program Chair (see her message below) – she has assembled a superb program committee to review submissions
* Kevin McDonough for his continuing work as our Hospitality Chair – he is adding new members to the Hospitality Committee even as I write
* Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon who is chairing the Presidential Luncheon Committee to plan the program that will accompany our annual (and much beloved) Sunday luncheon

My sincere thanks also to these colleagues for their continuing service to the Society:

* Jeff Milligan, our Executive Director as of this past April, who has taken on the role’s many responsibilities with energy and efficiency
* Jim Garrison, who has accepted the role of Chair of the 2008-09 Election Committee to select the Society’s president for 2010-11
* Bob Floden and Craig Cunningham for their ongoing work as chairs, respectively, of the focus group looking at ‘the public face’ of PES and of the committee looking at our website options (please do contact them if you have suggestions and ideas; for background see my message in the July Newsletter)
* Paul Smeyers for chairing a follow-up task force, which includes Nakia Pope and Claudia Ruitenberg, looking at options for the PES Yearbook

Legacy Fund: let me once again strongly encourage everyone to keep the Legacy Fund in mind and to continue making regular donations annually when renewing your membership.  Proceeds from this Fund enable PES to support graduate students to attend the annual meetings.  It is truly important to do all we can to support the next generation of philosophers of education to participate in and contribute to our work.

Meantime I hope to see you in Montreal in 2009, and all good wishes for this academic year.

 

Program Chair's Message - Deborah Kerdeman

Question: What makes our annual meetings and Conference Yearbook so great?
Answer: YOU, our authors and conference participants!

The Open Journal System is ready and waiting (http://ojs.ed.uiuc.edu/) for you to submit your essays and alternative session proposals.  As of this writing, three people already have submitted papers for review.  The submission deadline is 5:00 p.m., November 1, 2008.  Because of the early conference date this year, we will strictly adhere to the November 1 deadline. 

As you prepare your submissions, please keep the following in mind:

• Call for Papers and Proposals : Please click on the link (2009 Call for Papers.html) to find specific information regarding papers and alternative session proposals.  Note: the word limit for essays to be considered for concurrent and general sessions is 4500 words, including footnotes.  Considerations of cost and space in the Conference Yearbook are the reason why we will be enforcing this word limit.  Avoid “word creep!”  Keep those arguments clear and tight! 

• OJS: If you are already registered with the OJS system, you will not need to register again.  If you are new, complete the registration and list yourself as an author for Philosophy of Education 2009.  If you have difficulty or are unable to remember your user name and password, please email Joyce Atkinson (atkinson@uiuc.edu).  Please don’t wait until the last minute to become familiar with OJS.  Upon receipt of your manuscript, you will receive confirmation from OJS. If you do not receive confirmation, your manuscript was not successfully uploaded. Please contact Joyce Atkinson if you have questions or problems.

 • Tips for writing papers: Our outstanding program committee will be reviewing your papers and proposals with the following criteria in mind: Does this paper have: a well-formed question?  a clearly articulated claim?  a persuasive argument?  Is the argument: crafted using appropriate philosophical tools/approaches?  situated in philosophical and/or historical context?  situated in the context of practice?  compelling?  provocative?  Is the essay: well-crafted?  well organized?  Is the question or claim: meaningful? original?  important to the field of educational philosophy or to philosophical reflection on educational practice?  likely to provoke members’ interest and response?

• Time-line: You will be notified in early January whether your submission has been accepted or rejected.  You will have reviewers’ comments and the name of your respondent by the end of January.  We will ask that you complete any revisions and provide your respondent a final copy of your paper by early February.  This timeline will enable us to be ready for our early conference date. 

Respondents and Chairs Needed: If you would like to add your name to the list of potential respondents or potential session chairs, please email me: kerdeman@u.washington.edu.  In your email, please let me know your area(s) of expertise and how you can be reached between January 1 and January 18, 2009. 
   
2009 Program Committee: An outstanding international group of colleagues has agreed to serve on the 2009 Program Committee.  I look forward to working with them and would like to thank them on behalf of PES for their service.  This year’s Program Committee members are: Barbara Applebaum (Syracuse University), Ann Chinnery (Simon Fraser University), Andrea English (Mount St. Vincent University), Paul Farber (Western Michigan University), Bob Floden (Michigan State University), Diane Gereluk (Roehampton University), David Granger (SUNY Geneseo), Chris Higgins (University of Illinois), Rob Kunzman (Indiana University), Anne Newman (Washington University), Stephen Norris (University of Alberta), Emily Robertson (Syracuse University), Denis Simard (Université de Laval), Kurt Stemhagen (Virginia Commonwealth University), and Alain Vergnioux (Université de Caen Basse-Normandie).    

2009 Kneller Lecture: Finally, Professor Paul Taylor of Temple University will deliver our Kneller Lecture.  Professor Taylor works in the areas of aesthetics, philosophy of culture, Africana philosophy, philosophy of race, social and political philosophy, and pragmatism.  His current project connects John Dewey’s aesthetic theory to Africana political philosophy.  Professor Taylor has a deep and abiding interest in educational philosophy and practice.  We are thrilled that he will be joining us.

I look forward to seeing you March 20-23, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Montreal!

Deborah Kerdeman, 2009 Program Chair and Yearbook Editor


Hospitality Committee - Kevin McDonough

Meet this year’s Hospitality Committee (as it stands so far)

Megan Boler, OISE/University of Toronto
Scott Johnston, Queen’s University
Kevin McDonough, McGill University (Chair)
Bruce Maxwell, Universite de Montreal
Walter Okshevsky, Memorial University
Daniel Vokey, Simon Fraser University
David Waddington, Concordia University
Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa

We hope to add more members very soon, particularly from institutions outside of Canada!

Booking your room at the Hyatt Regency, Montreal

If you wish to book your room for next year’s conference, there are two easy ways of doing so.  You may contact the Hyatt Regency Reservation Department at 1.800.361.8234 ( mention the convention block code, which is PHLS).  Alternatively, you can reserve online via the Hyatt Regency website at www.hyatt.com. Once you are in the site, select ‘Montreal’ as the location; then enter in the section group/corporate rate the code : G-PHLS. The letter G is very important if you are  booking online!

Aside from that, if you have questions you may contact Kevin McDonough, the committee Chair, at kevin.mcdonough@mcgill.ca.

We look forward to welcoming you in March, 2009.

Executive Director's Message - Jeff Milligan

Conference registration is now open. Click on the following link to register ( Conference Registration). Also, please don't forget to pay your dues. If you haven't paid 2008-2009 dues you will not receive the next copy of Educational Theory. I will try to send out personal reminders shortly.

This year's Elections Committee members are as follows:

Jim Garrison (Chair), Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon, Rene Arcilla, Walter Okshevsky, Eric Bredo, Heesoon Bai and Sigal Ben-Porath. Thanks to all who stood for election.

 Announcements, Calls for Papers, and New Books by PES Members

CALLS FOR PAPERS

  • The conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia will be held December 4-7, 2008 on the Queensland University of Technology Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane. Full details of the programme and tourism opportunities are on the Society's website: http://www.pesa.org.au
  • The tenth biennia international conference of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group will take place at Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana, June 24-28, 2009. It will be hosted by the University of Notre Dame's HPS Graduate Program and Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values. The conference will continue the IHPST tradition of sustained and serious research being presented and discussed in a collegial and convivial atmosphere. As many of the pressing issues in science education are foundational ones, philosophers of education are especially encouraged to contribute. Information can be obtained from the conference chair, Don Howard (dhoward1@nd.edu) or the president of the IHPST Group, Michael Matthews (m.matthews@unsw.edu.au).
  • Theory and Research in Education is soliciting submissions for a special issue on homeschooling. Homeschooling has emerged as an increasingly important educational and social phenomenon, facilitated by the repeal of many of the regulatory requirements that had limited its scope. Scholarly commentary on the normative and policy issues surrounding homeschooling has been limited, perhaps in part because there have been few studies of the nature and aspirations of the homeschool movement. To what extent, if any, should public policy discourage the spread of homeschooling or reinstate regulations calculated to ensure its adequacy? To what extent, if any, should public resources be directed toward facilitating or ensuring the adequacy of homeschooling? What tests of adequacy, or protections of children’s rights, should apply? In contemplating homeschooling, how should we understand the nature and extent of parent’s claims to control the education of their children? What if any legitimate public interests, and children’s interests, are advanced, and which hindered, by homeschooling? What would be an appropriate policy framework governing homeschooling? The editors of Theory and Research in Education invite papers addressing any subset of these questions, as well as historical, sociological, or other studies relevant to answering them. Papers and inquiries may be directed to any of the editors: Prof. Harry Brighouse [mhbrigho@wisc.edu], Prof. Randall Curren [rcurren@mail.rochester.edu], Prof. Elaine Unterhalter [Elaine.unterhalter@gmail.com], or Mr. Mitja Sardoc [Mitja.sardoc@guest.arnes.si]. Deadline: April 15, 2009.
  • Journal of Educational Controversy announces a new call for papers on the theme: What is the Role of Professionals in the Public Square? Professionals in all fields bring a special expertise to the discussion of ideas in the public square of a democracy. At times, democratic decisions or views widely held by the public conflict with sound professional knowledge and other imperatives faced by the professional, and challenge the integrity of the choices that a professional must make in a particular case. Under those circumstances, the professional is left with a decision about the ethical path to follow. This issue invites authors to compose a dilemma that pits a democratic decision of widely held view against the expertise of professional standards or other imperatives faced by a professional, examine the choices that would have to be weighed, and consider the most ethical position that should be taken. This issue of the journal invites authors from all professions to look at the dilemma from within the context of their own professions. DEADLINE FOR MANUSCRIPTS: May 31, 2009. For more information: http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/

 

  • NEW BOOKS BY PES MEMBERS
  • G.H. Mead (2008). The Philosophy of Education. Edited and introduced by Gert Biesta and Daniel Trohler. London: Paradigm Publishers.
  • Barbara Thayer-Bacon, Beyond Liberal Democracy in Schools: The Power of Pluralism. New York: Teachers College Press, 2008. http://www.tcpress.com
  • Bill Proefriedt, High Expectations: The Cultural Roots of Standards Reform in American Education. New York: Teachers College Press. http://store.tcpress.com/0807748749.shtml
  • Susan Laird, Mary Wollstonecraft: Philosophical Mother of Coeducation (Continuum Library of Educational Thought, Vol. 15), London: Continuum, 2008.
  • D.G. Mulcahy, The Educated Person: Toward a New Paradigm for Liberal Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008.
  • Deron Boyles, ed., The Corporate Assault on Youth: Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
  • Jana Noel, Ed., Classic Edition Sources: Multicultural Education (2nd Ed.), New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008 and Developing Multicultural Educators (2nd Ed.), Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
  • Sarah M. Stitzlein Breaking Bad Habits of Race and Gender: Transforming Identity in Schools. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Green Theory & Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy (Vol. 4, No. 1) would like to announce publication of its June issue and a general CFP for future issues. This peer-reviewed journal is dedicated to interdisciplinary research at the transformative nexus of ecological politics and culture, critical theory/pedagogy, ecocriticism and sustainability education. Send questions to Richard Kahn, richard.kahn@und.edu. The current issue is online at http://greentheoryandpraxis.ecopedagogy.org/index.php/journal/issue/current
  • The Journal of Educational Controversy announces the "Talking with Authors" video series. Starting this summer, interviews with authors whose articles are published in the journal will be webstreamed within the journal itself. The Winter 2009 issue, dedicated to Maxine Greene, on the theme, "Art, Social Imagination and Democratic Education," has been extended to September 1, 2008. http://www.wce.wwu.edu/eJournal/

 

CONTACT: PES Executive Cris Mayo
217-333-3673; cmayo@illinois.edu