I am a member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB).
Here is the abstract for the paper I delivered at the PESGB's fiftieth Annual Conference (March 2015). For a copy of the paper, please contact me directly ([email protected]):
Secondary English, Creative Writing, and Moral Education
The purpose of this paper is to outline some philosophical arguments for the importance of creative writing practices to secondary English studies and to moral education. The thoughts presented herein are the philosophical points of departure for a larger project, the aims of which are to work “up” and “through” further philosophical approaches to creativity and creative writing practices in secondary education, and to “test” these against students’ perspectives on their educational experiences generally. My philosophical approach in this paper involves consideration of the aims of education (and the positioning of the student-as-moral-agent in terms of those aims); the role of arts-practices in education and how these relate to what it is to know; and reassessment of just what is meant by the designation “creative writing.” Drawing on the work of John White, John Baldacchino, Jacques Rancière, and others, I argue that English should be thought of the model of other arts subjects, and as having creative writing practices as its chief mode of learning. Creative writing practices, understood as modes of knowing rather than means by which students attain to forms or bodies of knowledge, make good Baldacchino’s arguments for “unlearning,” situate the student-as-moral-agent at the centre of its educational aims, and also promise to enact the pedagogical dynamics of what Rancière calls the “emancipated spectator” and the “ignorant schoolmaster.”
Secondary English, Creative Writing, and Moral Education
The purpose of this paper is to outline some philosophical arguments for the importance of creative writing practices to secondary English studies and to moral education. The thoughts presented herein are the philosophical points of departure for a larger project, the aims of which are to work “up” and “through” further philosophical approaches to creativity and creative writing practices in secondary education, and to “test” these against students’ perspectives on their educational experiences generally. My philosophical approach in this paper involves consideration of the aims of education (and the positioning of the student-as-moral-agent in terms of those aims); the role of arts-practices in education and how these relate to what it is to know; and reassessment of just what is meant by the designation “creative writing.” Drawing on the work of John White, John Baldacchino, Jacques Rancière, and others, I argue that English should be thought of the model of other arts subjects, and as having creative writing practices as its chief mode of learning. Creative writing practices, understood as modes of knowing rather than means by which students attain to forms or bodies of knowledge, make good Baldacchino’s arguments for “unlearning,” situate the student-as-moral-agent at the centre of its educational aims, and also promise to enact the pedagogical dynamics of what Rancière calls the “emancipated spectator” and the “ignorant schoolmaster.”