Centre for Philosophy of Education

Head of centre: Professor Paul Standish
Operational Director: Professor Jan Derry

Our centre is committed to rigorous exploitation of a variety of philosophical approaches, encompassing such topics as pedagogy, teaching, learning, the curriculum, democracy, citizenship, human rights, inclusive education, moral agency, new technology, arts and humanities research, mental health, and the environment.

About us 

Background

Philosophy has been essential to the work of IOE since its inception.

When practical questions in education are pursued rigorously, they typically lead to philosophical enquiry, into the nature of knowledge, the characteristics of the just society, and the nature of the good life. But such questions involve not only ethics, epistemology, and politics, but also metaphysical matters, to do with subjectivity, objectivity, and truth.

IOE has, through the decades, been in the vanguard of the development and dissemination of work in the field. Its Centre for Philosophy draws together research across the range of IOE as well as showcasing our extensive connections in the field.

Members of the Centre are active in leading international organisations in the field, including:

• Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain
• International Network of Philosophy of Education
• Philosophy of Education Society of North America

Our staff

Core Philosophy staff

• Pip Bennett
• Jack Bicker
• Alison Brady
• Jan Derry
• Kate O'Shaughnessy
• Paul Standish
• Daniel Vanello
• John Vorhaus

Emeritus Professors, Honorary Senior Research Fellow and Research Fellows

• David Bakhurst
• Ruth Cigman
• Michael Fielding
• Lucy Green
• John Hardcastle
• Ruth Heilbronn
• Yvonne Reynolds
• David Scott
• Judith Suissa
• Shone Surendran
• Shelia Webb
• John White
• Patricia White
• Michael Young

Invited members from across IOE

• Lesley Gourlay
• David Guile
• Jeremy Hayward
• Rupert Higham
• Claudia Lapping
• Tristan McCowan
• Martin Oliver
• Caroline Pelletier
• Michael Reiss
• Elaine Unterhalter

Associate members

Leading members of philosophy and related departments in other universities:

• Larry Blum, University of Massachusetts
• Vincent Colapietro, Pennsylvania State University
• David Cooper, Durham University
• Andrew Feenberg, Simon Fraser University
• Professor Larry Hickman, Center for Dewey Studies and Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• Michael Luntley, Warwick University
• Susan Mendus, York University
• Adrian Moore, Oxford University
• Daniele Moyal-Sharrock, President, British Wittgenstein Society
• Adam Swift, UCL
• Ken Westphal, University of East Anglia
• Meredith Williams, Johns Hopkins University
• Jonathan Wolff, Oxford University

Study with us 

Programmes

We support research students and training through:

• The Doctoral School – Research Training Programme, the EdD programme and postdoctoral fellowship
• Research Days for doctoral students in philosophy of education which are held on a termly basis. These include reading sessions and opportunities for students to present their work.

For more info contact Jan Derry: j.derry@ucl.ac.uk

Master's degrees

• Philosophy of Education MA

Activities

Our academic staff publish, teach and speak widely on a range of topical educational issues, including:

• the arts and creativity
• citizenship and belonging
• the humanities
• human rights
• inclusion, disability and special educational needs
• moral agency
• knowledge and the curriculum
• language and translation
• race and racism
• technology
• student-teacher relationships.

Our research

Examples of research carried out at the centre include:

• Mental Health, Education and Therapeutic Philosophy in conjunction with Warwick University, funded by the British Academy – Alison Brady and Emma Williams.
• Project on TV series and moral education, principally with colleagues from Paris 1er (the Sorbonne) – Paul Standish.
• Project on moral perfectionism, principally with colleagues from Paris 1er (the Sorbonne), Sapienza University of Rome, and Kyoto University – Paul Standish.
• Developing experimentation-based probability education: Inferentialism, contextualization and variation in collaboration, funded by the Swedish Research Council – Jan Derry with colleagues.
• The Utopias, Axioms and Science Fiction – A Quest for Educational Imageries doctoral school, funded by PESGB and the Polish Naval Academy – Alison Brady, Aline Nardo, Piotr Zamojski, Stefano Oliverio and Kai Wortmann.
• An evaluation of the use of Philosophy for Children in Southwark primary schools for Southwark Local Education Authority – Jan Derry with colleagues.
• Philosophy of Technology Enhanced Learning special interest group – Jan Derry.
• Phenomenology and Existentialism SIG at PES – Alison Brady.
• Post-Critical Researcher Network – Alison Brady, in conjunction with colleagues from across Europe and North America.

See details on UCL Research Portal to find more about our researchers, publications, activities, groups and themes.

Public engagement

• British Society of Aesthetics Conference: Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Gender-Based Violence, 20–21 February 2025 at UCL (Paul Standish in collaboration with Warwick University) 
• Teachers and Existential Philosophy. Alison Brady interviewed for Neil Selwyn’s Meet the Education Researcher, 2023
• Webinar | What is Education and Why Do We Need It? (cranfield.ac.uk) (YouTube video). Cranfield School of Management, 2023
• Daniel Vanello interviewed for a podcast episode by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) on emotions and moral learning in early childhood, April 2022
• Emotions and Moral Learning in Early Childhood Education, workshop by Daniel Vanello in collaboration with the British Educational Research Association (BERA), October 2021
• The Possibility of Agency: examining assumptions about knowledge through an Inferentialist lens. Keynote, Educational Studies Association of Ireland, March 2021. Keynote by Jan Derry
• A Problem for Cognitive Load Theory – the Distinctively Human Life-Form. PESGB Annual Conference 2019. IOE. University of Oxford. Keynote by Jan Derry
• Knowledge in education: Why philosophy matters, IOE, 22 May 2018. Public Lecture by Jan Derry
• Understanding the use and integration of assistive technology for students with additional needs. University of Edinburgh workshop, 18 June 2018. Presented by Professor Jan Derry
• Something Animal, in Symposium: Memory, Language, Instinct. British Wittgenstein Society Conference 2018. Keynote lecture by Paul Standish
• Nothing but sounds, ink-marks – Is nothing hidden? Must everything be transparent (YouTube video). Danish Philosophy Association Conference, 2017. Keynote lecture by Paul Standish
• Wittgenstein’s Impact on the Philosophy of Education. British Wittgenstein Society Conference 2017. Keynote lecture by Paul Standish
• Barbara Cassin and Nostalgia: When are we ever at home? (YouTube video). Kyoto International Frontiers of Educational Research (2016). Presentation by Paul Standish
• Empiricism and the Avoidance of Philosophy (YouTube video). ECER, 2016. Keynote by Paul Standish
• The Anxiety of Inclusion: Introduction (YouTube video). Kyoto International Frontiers of Educational Research (2016). Presentation by Paul Standish
• Wittgenstein, meaning, and the following of a rule (YouTube video). Kyoto International Frontiers of Educational Research (2016). Presentation by Paul Standish
• Cultivating Political Emotions: Some Central Concepts (YouTube video). Kyoto International Frontiers of Educational Research (2015). Presentation by Paul Standish
• Lost in Translation (YouTube video). Kyoto International Frontiers of Educational Research (2014). Presentation by Paul Standish
• Sophie Coppola’s 'Valentine to Tokyo' (YouTube Video). Kyoto International Frontiers of Educational Research (2014). Presentation by Paul Standish

Publications

• Vanello, D. (ed.) (Forthcoming). Autobiographical Memory and Moral Agency. Routledge
• Vanello, D. (Forthcoming). Autobiographical Memory and Moral Identity Development. Journal of Consciousness Studies
• Standish, P. (2024) Crisis of Expression, in Francesco Gandellini, Gordon Bearn, and Filippo Casati (eds), Special Issue on Stanley Cavell’s Here and Now, Conversations
• Standish, P. (2024) Coming into the world, coming into language, reading the world, A contrario
• Standish, P. (2024) Exceeding Thought: essays on philosophy and education Tokyo: Hosei University Press (Japanese)
• Standish, P. (2024) Reading Paul Standish’s Philosophy of Education, translated and introduced by Sang-eun Lee and Sojin Lee, Paju: Kyoyukbook (Korean)
• Standish, P. (2024) Thoreau’s Exemplary Act, in: Paola Marrati (ed.) Understanding Cavell, Understanding Modernism (London, Bloomsbury)
• Vanello, D. (2024). Moral Identity, Moral Integration, and Autobiographical Narrative. Review of Philosophy and Psychology
• Bennett, Pip Seton; (2023) Degrees of Care: Success, Recognition, and Completion. Hypatia , 38 (3)
• Bennett, Philip Pip Seton; (2023) Care ethics, needs recognition, and educational encounters. Journal of Philosophy of Education
• Brady, A. M. (2023). Being a Teacher: From Technicist to Existential Accounts, in conversation with Jean-Paul Sartre. Springer
• Standish, P. (2023) The provenance of the forms of knowledge thesis, in: Patricia White and David Bridges (eds), Special Issue on Paul Hirst, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 57.1
• Brady, A. M. (2022). Mental health, resilience and existential literature. Journal of Philosophy of Education
• Brady, A. (2022). Accounting for oneself in teaching: trust, parrhesia, and bad faith. Studies in Philosophy and Education: an international quarterly
• Vanello, D. (2022). Moral Understanding, Affect, and the Imagination. Inquiry: an interdisciplinary journal of philosophy.
• Vorhaus, J. (2022) Membership in a kind: Nature, norms, and profound disability. Metaphilosophy , 53 (1)
• Vorhaus, J. (2021) Respect, cognitive capacity and profound disability. Metaphilosophy, 52 (5)
• Vorhaus, J. (2021) Bringing people down: degrading treatment and punishment. New Criminal Law Review: an international and interdisciplinary journal , 24 (3)
• Brady, A. M. (2020). Response and Responsibility: Rethinking Accountability in Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 55 (1)
• Brady, A. M. (2020). From the Reflective to the Post-Personal Teacher, Educational Theory
• Brady, A. M. (2020). Struggling Teachers and the Recognition of Effective Practice. Journal of Philosophy of Education
• Derry, J. (2020). A Problem for Cognitive Load Theory – the Distinctively Human Life-form. Journal of Philosophy of Education 54 (1)
• Vorhaus, JS. (2020) Respect, identification and profound cognitive impairment. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability. Oxford University Press
• Brady, A. M. (2019). Anxiety of performativity and anxiety of performance: self-evaluation as bad faith. Oxford Review of Education
• Bicker, J. (2018). Teacher-led codeswitching: Adorno, race, contradiction, and the nature of autonomy. Ethics and Education, 13(1)
• Derry, J. (2018). Knowledge in Education: Why Philosophy Matters. IOE Press 
• Derry, J. (2017). An introduction to inferentialism in mathematics education. Mathematics Education Research Journal. doi:10.1007/s13394-017-0193-7 
• Derry, J. (2013). Vygotsky, philosophy and education. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell

Seminars

The Philosophy Centre runs a weekly Philosophy of Education Research Seminar, in conjunction with the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, every Wednesday evening during term time.

Contact us

Centre for Philosophy of Education
Department of Education, Practice and Society
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
University College London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL