Peters, Michael A., Obama and The End of the American Dream: Essays in Political and Economic Philosophy, (Sense: Rotterdam) 2012

The American Dream that crystallized around James Truslow Adams' The Epic of America originally formulated in the early 1930s and was conditioned by a decade of complexity and contradiction, of big government projects, intensely fierce nationalism, the definition of the American way, and a distinctive collection of American iconic narratives has had the power and force to successively reshape America for every new generation. Indeed, Adam's dream of opportunity for each according to ability or achievement shaped against the old class culture of Europe emphasizes a vision of social order in which each person can succeed despite their social origins. Barack Obama, a skillful rhetorician and intelligent politician, talks of restoring the American and has used its narrative resources to define his campaign and his policies. In a time of international and domestic crisis, of massive sovereign debt, of the failure of neoliberalism, of growing inequalities, the question is whether the American Dream and the vision of an equal education on which it rests can be revitalized.

http://www.amazon.com/Obama-The-End-American-Dream/dp/9460917690

Lazariou, George, Liber amicorum: A Philosophical Conversation among Friends • A Festschrift for Michael A. Peters, (Addleton Academic Publications: New York) 2014

The notion of an academic friendship implied in “book of friends” -- Liber amicorum -- suggests a mutual caring about ideas and their representation, an intimacy that differs from the impersonal and bureaucratic relationships that distinguish neoliberal universities, and shared activity in the joint pursuits of conferences, seminars, books and papers implied in co-authorship, in a shared body of literature, in shared perspectives. Academic friendship is built into the notion of philosophy and is not only a shared love of wisdom in the original Greek meaning of the term but an essential relation that is at the basis of being a colleague: it is inherent in the idea of dialogue, communication and the very possibility of conversation.

This Romantic analysis that revolves around academic exchange, mutual acknowledgement, and shared standards of scholarship stands in marked contrast to the knowledge hoarding and privatisation of research that characterises the neoliberal university that imposes its industrial line management psychology to police, monitor and increasingly spy on the performativity of its faculty. In the “university of friends” it is our special responsibility to be critical of one another and to learn to take criticism in a positive sense as the lifeblood of scholarship: criticism without meanness, without rancour, and without nastiness.

http://www.amazon.com/Liber-amicorum-Philosophical-Conversation-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B00N8YKRVM

Peters, Michael A. & Besley, Tina, The Creative University, (Sense: Rotterdam) 2013

The concept of the “Creative University” signals that higher education stands at the center of the creative economy indicating the growing significance of intellectual capital and innovation for economic growth and cultural development. Increasingly economic activity is socialised through new media and depends on immaterial and digital goods.

This immaterial economy includes new international labour markets that demand analytic skills, global competencies and an understanding of markets in tradeable knowledges. Delivery modes in education are being reshaped. Global cultures are spreading in the form of knowledge and research networks.

Openness, networking, cross-border people movement, flows of ideas, capital and scholars are changing the conditions of imagining and producing creative work. The economic aspect of creativity refers to the production of new ideas, aesthetic forms, scholarship, original works of art and cultural products, as well as scientific inventions and technological innovations. It embraces both open source communication as well as commercial intellectual property.

This collection explores these ideas as the basis for a new development agenda for universities.

The chapters that form this edited book are a selection of papers given at an international conference held called The Creative University held at the University of Waikato on 15-17 August 2102. This conference investigated all the aspects of education in (and as) the creative economy.

https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/creative-education-bookseries/the-creative-university/#!prettyPhoto

Besley, Tina & Peters, Michael A., Re-imagining the Creative University for the 21st Century, (Sense: Rotterdam) 2013

The creative university is a new concept that has a number of competing conceptions emphasizing digital teaching, learning and research infrastructures, the paradigm of intellectual property, creative social development and academic entrepreneurship. Not only does the concept include the fostering and critique of creative content industries and new forms of distance and online education but more fundamentally it refers to a reassessment of neoliberal strategies to build the knowledge economy. The economic aspect of creativity refers to the production of new ideas, aesthetic forms, scholarship, original works of art and cultural products, as well as scientific inventions and technological innovations. It embraces open source communication as well as commercial intellectual property. All of this positions education at the center of the economy/ creativity nexus. But are education systems, institutions, assumptions and habits positioned and able so as to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges? This book uses different contexts to explore these vital issues.

https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/creative-education-bookseries/re-imagining-the-creative-university-for-the-21st-century/

Engels-Schwarzpaul, A.-Chr., & Peters, M. A. (Eds.), Of Other Thoughts: Non-traditional ways to the doctorate. A guidebook for candidates and supervisors, (Sense Publishers: Rotterdam, Netherlands) 2013

Of Other Thoughts offers a path-breaking critique of the traditions underpinning doctoral research. Working against the grain of traditional research orthodoxies, graduate researchers (almost all from Indigenous, transnational, diasporic, coloured, queer and ethnic minorities) AND their supervisors offer insights into non-traditional and emergent modes of research—transcultural, post-colonial, trans-disciplinary and creative practice-led. Through case studies and contextualizing essays, Of Other Thoughts provides a unique guide to doctoral candidates and supervisors working with different modes of research. More radically, its questioning of traditional assumptions about the nature of the literature review, the genealogy of research practices, and the status and structuring of the thesis creates openings for alternative modes of researching. It gives our emerging researchers the courage to differ and challenges the University to take up its public role as critic and conscience of society.

Barbara Bolt | Associate Professor and Associate Director of Research and Research Training | The Victorian College of the Arts |University of Melbourne | Australia

These writings are essential reading for all PhD students interested in making their critical work count for more. They examine multiple sites where conservative politics and ethics, institutional regulations, culturally constrained supervisory practices, and disciplinary boundary maintenance run counter to the radical and transforming potential of critical PhD work.

Graham Hingangaroa Smith | Distinguished Professor | Vice-Chancellor/Chief Executive Officer | Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi| Whakatāne | Aotearoa – New Zealand

This book makes a distinctive and valuable contribution to the growing literature on doctoral education. Readers will find a wonderfully diverse collection of perspectives on non-traditional paths to the PhD. The book synthesises theory with practice in a highly effective and engaging

https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/other-books/of-other-thoughts-non-traditional-ways-to-the-doctorate/

Burgh, Gilbert; Field, Terri & Freakley, Mark, Ethics and the Community of Inquiry: Education for deliberative democracy, (Cengage) 2006

Ethics and the Community of Inquiry gets to the heart of democratic education and how best to achieve it. The book radically reshapes our understanding of education by offering a framework from which to integrate curriculum, teaching and learning and to place deliberative democracy at the centre of education reform. It makes a significant contribution to current debates on educational theory and practice, in particular to pedagogical and professional practice, and ethics education.

Ethics and the Community of Inquiry develops a practical philosophy of education that addresses professional values and conduct and pedagogical practice.

http://www.cengage.com/aushed/instructor.do?product_isbn=9780170122191

http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2008.00419.x

http://www.cengage.com/aushed/instructor.do?disciplinenumber=1015&product_isbn=9780170122191&courseid=&codeid=&subTab=&mainTab=Reviewers_Quotes&mailFlag=true&topicName=

Stolz, Steven, The Philosophy of Education: A New Perspective, (Routledge) 2014

The discipline area of physical education has historically struggled for legitimacy, sometimes being seen as a non-serious pursuit in educational terms compared to other subjects within the school curriculum. This book represents the first attempt in nearly 30 years to offer a coherent philosophical defence and conceptualisation of physical education and sport as subjects of educational value, and to provide a philosophically sound justification for their inclusion in the curriculum.

The book argues that rather than relegating the body to ‘un-thinking’ learning, a person’s essential being is not confined to their rationality but involves an embodied dimension. It traces the changing conceptions of the body, in philosophy and theology, that have influenced our understanding of physical education and sport, and investigates the important role that embodiment and movement play in learning about, through and in physical education. Physical education is defended as a vital and necessary part of education because the whole person goes to school, not just the mind, but the thinking, feeling and acting facets of a person. It is argued that physical education has the potential to provide a multitude of experiences and opportunities for students to become aware of their embodiment, explore alternative modes of awareness and to develop insights into and new modes of being not available elsewhere in the curriculum, and to influence moral character through the support of a moral community that is committed to that practice.

Representing a sophisticated and spirited defence of the educational significance and philosophical value of physical education and sport, this book will be fascinating reading for any advanced student or researcher with an interest in physical education, the philosophy of sport, or the philosophy of education.

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138792289/

John O'Toole and David Beckett, Educational Research: Creative Thinking and Doing, (Oxford University Press: Melbourne) 2013

Second edition of this well-received textbook for the expert educational practitioner who is beginning or underway in a research degree, such as a PhD or a DEd. Also helpful for those doing 'capstone' projects in Masters degrees. The conceptual approach is explicitly Wittgensteinian: 'back to the rough ground' of practice(s). First edition was 2010. Nothing from that was deleted. Various improvements include updated qualitative methodology sections and more examples of actual theses.

http://www.oup.com.au/titles/higher_ed/education/9780195518313

Benade, L.W., From Technicians to Teachers: Ethical Teaching in the Context of Globalized Education Reform., (Continuum International: New York) 2012

From Technicians to Teachers provides theoretical and practical reasons for suggesting that widespread, international curriculum reform of the post-1990 period need not deprofessionalise teaching. The widely held deprofessionalisation thesis is both compelling and fatalistic, leading to a despairing sense that teachers are either no more than technicians, or that they can be reprofessionalised through definitions of ‘effective teachers' promoted by the reforms. However, there are many teachers who do not see their work in either of these ways.

The book is structured around an in-depth case study detailing the implementation of The New Zealand Curriculum in that nation - one of the best international examples of neoliberal reform. Benade argues that curriculum policy can and should be analysed critically, while pointing out the dangers for ethical teachers that can exist in national or state curricula.

Energising and inspiring, this book reminds teachers and teacher educators that although they work in a globalised context, their own role is fundamental and has a profoundly ethical basis, despite the negative impacts of three decades of education reform.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/search?q=benade&Gid=1

Lam, Chi-Ming, Childhood, Philosophy and Open Society: Implications for Education in Confucian Heritage Cultures, (Springer) 2013

The purpose of this book is to develop a theory and practice of education from Karl Popper’s falsificationist philosophy for promoting an open society. Specifically, the book is designed to develop an educational programme for achieving Popper’s ideal of fostering critical thinking in children for full participation in an open democratic society.

Arguing that Matthew Lipman’s Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme can fulfil the requirements of Popper’s educational ideal in schools, this study conducted an experiment to assess the effectiveness of the programme in promoting students’ critical thinking in Hong Kong, China – arguably a Confucian heritage society. The students who were taught P4C were found to perform better in the reasoning test than those who were not, to be capable of discussing philosophical problems in a competent way, and to have a very positive attitude towards doing philosophy in the classroom. It was also found that P4C played a major role in developing the students’ critical thinking.

Considering that the construction of children by adults as incompetent in the sense of lacking reason, maturity, or independence reinforces the traditional structure of adult authority over children in society, it runs counter to the goal of fostering critical thinking in children. As a way to return justice to childhood and to effectively promote critical thinking in children, this study suggested reconstructing the concept of childhood, highlighting the importance of establishing a coherent public policy on promotion of agency in children and also the importance of empowering them to participate actively in research, legal, and educational institutions.

http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/book/978-981-4451-05-5

Bleazby, Jennifer, Social Reconstruction Learning: Dualism, Dewey and Philosophy in Schools, (Routledge) 2013

This volume argues that educational problems have their basis in an ideology of binary opposites often referred to as dualism, which is deeply embedded in all aspects of Western society and philosophy, and that it is partly because mainstream schooling incorporates dualism that it is unable to facilitate the thinking skills, dispositions and understandings necessary for autonomy, democratic citizenship and leading a meaningful life. Drawing on the philosophy of John Dewey, feminist pragmatism, Matthew Lipman’s Philosophy for Children program, and the service learning movement, Bleazby proposes an approach to schooling termed "social reconstruction learning," in which students engage in philosophical inquiries with members of their community in order to reconstruct real social problems, arguing that this pedagogy can better facilitate independent thinking, imaginativeness, emotional intelligence, autonomy, and active citizenship.

http://www.routledgementalhealth.com/books/details/9780415636247/

Quay, John, John Dewey and Education Outdoors, (Sense Publishers) 2013

In this book we take the reader on a journey through the various curriculum reforms that have emerged in the USA around the idea of conducting education outdoors – through initiatives such as nature-study, camping education, adventure education, environmental education, experiential education and place based education. This is a historical journey with an underlying message for educators, one we are able to illuminate through the educational theories of John Dewey. Central to this message is a deeper understanding of human experience as both aesthetic and reflective, leading to a more coherent comprehension of not just outdoor education, but of education itself.

https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/other-books/john-dewey-and-education-outdoors/#!prettyPhoto