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What Is Academic Writing? | Dos and Don’ts for Students

Academic writing is a formal style of writing used in universities and scholarly publications. You’ll encounter it in journal articles and books on academic topics, and you’ll be expected to write your essays , research papers , and dissertation in academic style.

Academic writing follows the same writing process as other types of texts, but it has specific conventions in terms of content, structure and style.

Table of contents

Types of academic writing, academic writing is…, academic writing is not…, academic writing checklist.

Academics mostly write texts intended for publication, such as journal articles, reports, books, and chapters in edited collections. For students, the most common types of academic writing assignments are listed below.

Different fields of study have different priorities in terms of the writing they produce. For example, in scientific writing it’s crucial to clearly and accurately report methods and results; in the humanities, the focus is on constructing convincing arguments through the use of textual evidence. However, most academic writing shares certain key principles intended to help convey information as effectively as possible.

Whether your goal is to pass your degree, apply to graduate school , or build an academic career, effective writing is an essential skill.

Formal and unbiased

Academic writing aims to convey information in an impartial way. The goal is to base arguments on the evidence under consideration, not the author’s preconceptions. All claims should be supported with relevant evidence, not just asserted.

To avoid bias, it’s important to represent the work of other researchers and the results of your own research fairly and accurately. This means clearly outlining your methodology  and being honest about the limitations of your research.

The formal style used in academic writing ensures that research is presented consistently across different texts, so that studies can be objectively assessed and compared with other research.

Because of this, it’s important to strike the right tone with your language choices. Avoid informal language , including slang, contractions , clichés, and conversational phrases:

• Also , a lot of the findings are a little unreliable.
• Moreover , many of the findings are somewhat unreliable.

Clear and precise

It’s important to use clear and precise language to ensure that your reader knows exactly what you mean. This means being as specific as possible and avoiding vague language :

• People have been interested in this thing for a long time .
• Researchers have been interested in this phenomenon for at least 10 years .

Avoid hedging your claims with words like “perhaps,” as this can give the impression that you lack confidence in your arguments. Reflect on your word choice to ensure it accurately and directly conveys your meaning:

• This could perhaps suggest that…
• This suggests that…

Specialist language or jargon is common and often necessary in academic writing, which generally targets an audience of other academics in related fields.

However, jargon should be used to make your writing more concise and accurate, not to make it more complicated. A specialist term should be used when:

• It conveys information more precisely than a comparable non-specialist term.
• Your reader is likely to be familiar with the term.
• The term is commonly used by other researchers in your field.

The best way to familiarize yourself with the kind of jargon used in your field is to read papers by other researchers and pay attention to their language.

Focused and well structured

An academic text is not just a collection of ideas about a topic—it needs to have a clear purpose. Start with a relevant research question or thesis statement , and use it to develop a focused argument. Only include information that is relevant to your overall purpose.

A coherent structure is crucial to organize your ideas. Pay attention to structure at three levels: the structure of the whole text, paragraph structure, and sentence structure.

Well sourced

Academic writing uses sources to support its claims. Sources are other texts (or media objects like photographs or films) that the author analyzes or uses as evidence. Many of your sources will be written by other academics; academic writing is collaborative and builds on previous research.

It’s important to consider which sources are credible and appropriate to use in academic writing. For example, citing Wikipedia is typically discouraged. Don’t rely on websites for information; instead, use academic databases and your university library to find credible sources.

You must always cite your sources in academic writing. This means acknowledging whenever you quote or paraphrase someone else’s work by including a citation in the text and a reference list at the end.

There are many different citation styles with different rules. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago . Make sure to consistently follow whatever style your institution requires. If you don’t cite correctly, you may get in trouble for plagiarism . A good plagiarism checker can help you catch any issues before it’s too late.

You can easily create accurate citations in APA or MLA style using our Citation Generators.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

Correct and consistent

As well as following the rules of grammar, punctuation, and citation, it’s important to consistently apply stylistic conventions regarding:

• How to write numbers
• Introducing abbreviations
• Using verb tenses in different sections
• Capitalization of terms and headings
• Spelling and punctuation differences between UK and US English

In some cases there are several acceptable approaches that you can choose between—the most important thing is to apply the same rules consistently and to carefully proofread your text before you submit. If you don’t feel confident in your own proofreading abilities, you can get help from Scribbr’s professional proofreading services or Grammar Checker .

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Academic writing generally tries to avoid being too personal. Information about the author may come in at some points—for example in the acknowledgements or in a personal reflection—but for the most part the text should focus on the research itself.

Always avoid addressing the reader directly with the second-person pronoun “you.” Use the impersonal pronoun “one” or an alternate phrasing instead for generalizations:

• As a teacher, you must treat your students fairly.
• As a teacher, one must treat one’s students fairly.
• Teachers must treat their students fairly.

The use of the first-person pronoun “I” used to be similarly discouraged in academic writing, but it is increasingly accepted in many fields. If you’re unsure whether to use the first person, pay attention to conventions in your field or ask your instructor.

When you refer to yourself, it should be for good reason. You can position yourself and describe what you did during the research, but avoid arbitrarily inserting your personal thoughts and feelings:

• In my opinion…
• I think that…
• I like/dislike…
• I conducted interviews with…
• I argue that…
• I hope to achieve…

Long-winded

Many students think their writing isn’t academic unless it’s over-complicated and long-winded. This isn’t a good approach—instead, aim to be as concise and direct as possible.

If a term can be cut or replaced with a more straightforward one without affecting your meaning, it should be. Avoid redundant phrasings in your text, and try replacing phrasal verbs with their one-word equivalents where possible:

• Interest in this phenomenon carried on in the year 2018 .
• Interest in this phenomenon continued in 2018 .

Repetition is a part of academic writing—for example, summarizing earlier information in the conclusion—but it’s important to avoid unnecessary repetition. Make sure that none of your sentences are repeating a point you’ve already made in different words.

Emotive and grandiose

An academic text is not the same thing as a literary, journalistic, or marketing text. Though you’re still trying to be persuasive, a lot of techniques from these styles are not appropriate in an academic context. Specifically, you should avoid appeals to emotion and inflated claims.

Though you may be writing about a topic that’s sensitive or important to you, the point of academic writing is to clearly communicate ideas, information, and arguments, not to inspire an emotional response. Avoid using emotive or subjective language :

• This horrible tragedy was obviously one of the worst catastrophes in construction history.
• The injury and mortality rates of this accident were among the highest in construction history.

Students are sometimes tempted to make the case for their topic with exaggerated , unsupported claims and flowery language. Stick to specific, grounded arguments that you can support with evidence, and don’t overstate your point:

• Charles Dickens is the greatest writer of the Victorian period, and his influence on all subsequent literature is enormous.
• Charles Dickens is one of the best-known writers of the Victorian period and has had a significant influence on the development of the English novel.

Use the checklist below to assess whether you have followed the rules of effective academic writing.

• Checklist: Academic writing

I avoid informal terms and contractions .

I avoid second-person pronouns (“you”).

I avoid emotive or exaggerated language.

I avoid redundant words and phrases.

I avoid unnecessary jargon and define terms where needed.

I present information as precisely and accurately as possible.

I use appropriate transitions to show the connections between my ideas.

My text is logically organized using paragraphs .

Each paragraph is focused on a single idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Every part of the text relates to my central thesis or research question .

I support my claims with evidence.

I use the appropriate verb tenses in each section.

I consistently use either UK or US English .

I format numbers consistently.

I cite my sources using a consistent citation style .

Your text follows the most important rules of academic style. Make sure it's perfect with the help of a Scribbr editor!

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Journal of Academic Writing

Current Issue

Editorial and production credits (vol. 12 no. 1 winter 2022), eataw2021: selected papers from the 11th conference of the european association for the teaching of academic writing, vsb-technical university of ostrava (online), czech republic, july, 2021, themed discussions, amazement and trepidation: implications of ai-based natural language production for the teaching of writing, academic writing in times of crisis: refashioning writing tutor development for online environments, using a literacy tutor's reflexive journaling for addressing l1 literacy gaps in a central asian emi university, writing for architecture and civil engineering: comparing czech and italian students’ needs in esp, academic writing development of master’s thesis pair writers: negotiating writing identities and strategies, ‘and thou shall find your path’: the manifesto in doctoral writing development, teaching practice papers, writing fellows as support for digital introductory lectures: advantages and challenges, providing online social support to student writers: virtual teaching strategies for positive engagement, book reviews, review of creating digital literacy spaces for multilingual writers, review of what is good academic writing eds. whong & godfrey.

The Journal of Academic Writing is an international, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the teaching, tutoring, researching, administration and development of academic writing in higher education in Europe.

Published by the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing, the Journal of Academic Writing is relevant to teachers, scholars, and program managers across disciplines and across the world who are interested in conducting, debating and learning from research into best practices in the teaching of writing.

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How to write and structure a journal article

Sharing your research data  can be hugely  beneficial to your career , as well as to the scholarly community and wider society. But before you do so, there are some important ethical considerations to remember.

What are the rules and guidance you should follow, when you begin to think about how to write and structure a journal article? Ruth First Prize winner Steven Rogers, PhD said the first thing is to be passionate about what you write.

Steven Nabieu Rogers, Ruth First Prize winner.

Let’s go through some of the best advice that will help you pinpoint the features of a journal article, and how to structure it into a compelling research paper.

Planning for your article

When planning to write your article, make sure it has a central message that you want to get across. This could be a novel aspect of methodology that you have in your PhD study, a new theory, or an interesting modification you have made to theory or a novel set of findings.

2018 NARST Award winner Marissa Rollnick advised that you should decide what this central focus is, then create a paper outline bearing in mind the need to:

Isolate a manageable size

Create a coherent story/argument

Make the argument self-standing

Target the journal readership

Change the writing conventions from that used in your thesis

Get familiar with the journal you want to submit to

It is a good idea to choose your target journal before you start to write your paper. Then you can tailor your writing to the journal’s requirements and readership, to increase your chances of acceptance.

When selecting your journal think about audience, purposes, what to write about and why. Decide the kind of article to write. Is it a report, position paper, critique or review? What makes your argument or research interesting? How might the paper add value to the field?

If you need more guidance on how to choose a journal,  here is our guide to narrow your focus.

Once you’ve chosen your target journal, take the time to read a selection of articles already published – particularly focus on those that are relevant to your own research.

This can help you get an understanding of what the editors may be looking for, then you can guide your writing efforts.

The  Think. Check. Submit.  initiative provides tools to help you evaluate whether the journal you’re planning to send your work to is trustworthy.

The journal’s  aims and scope  is also an important resource to refer back to as you write your paper – use it to make sure your article aligns with what the journal is trying to accomplish.

Keep your message focused

The next thing you need to consider when writing your article is your target audience. Are you writing for a more general audience or is your audience experts in the same field as you? The journal you have chosen will give you more information on the type of audience that will read your work.

When you know your audience, focus on your main message to keep the attention of your readers. A lack of focus is a common problem and can get in the way of effective communication.

Stick to the point. The strongest journal articles usually have one point to make. They make that point powerfully, back it up with evidence, and position it within the field.

How to format and structure a journal article

The format and structure of a journal article is just as important as the content itself, it helps to clearly guide the reader through.

How do I format a journal article?

Individual journals will have their own specific formatting requirements, which you can find in the  instructions for authors.

You can save time on formatting by downloading a template from our  library of templates  to apply to your article text. These templates are accepted by many of our journals. Also, a large number of our journals now offer  format-free submission,  which allows you to submit your paper without formatting your manuscript to meet that journal’s specific requirements.

General structure for writing an academic journal article

The title of your article is one of the first indicators readers will get of your research and concepts. It should be concise, accurate, and informative. You should include your most relevant keywords in your title, but avoid including abbreviations and formulae.

Keywords are an essential part of producing a journal article. When writing a journal article you must select keywords that you would like your article to rank for.

Keywords help potential readers to discover your article when conducting research using search engines.

The purpose of your abstract is to express the key points of your research, clearly and concisely. An abstract must always be well considered, as it is the primary element of your work that readers will come across.

An abstract should be a short paragraph (around 300 words) that summarizes the findings of your journal article. Ordinarily an abstract will be comprised of:

What your research is about

What methods have been used

What your main findings are

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements can appear to be a small aspect of your journal article, however it is still important. This is where you acknowledge the individuals who do not qualify for co-authorship, but contributed to your article intellectually, financially, or in some other manner.

When you acknowledge someone in your academic texts, it gives you more integrity as a writer as it shows that you are not claiming other academic’s ideas as your own intellectual property. It can also aid your readers in their own research journeys.

Introduction

An introduction is a pivotal part of the article writing process. An introduction not only introduces your topic and your stance on the topic, but it also (situates/contextualizes) your argument in the broader academic field.

The main body is where your main arguments and your evidence are located. Each paragraph will encapsulate a different notion and there will be clear linking between each paragraph.

Your conclusion should be an interpretation of your results, where you summarize all of the concepts that you introduced in the main body of the text in order of most to least important. No new concepts are to be introduced in this section.

References and citations

References and citations should be well balanced, current and relevant. Although every field is different, you should aim to cite references that are not more than 10 years old if possible. The studies you cite should be strongly related to your research question.

Clarity is key

Make your writing accessible by using clear language. Writing that is easy to read, is easier to understand too.

You may want to write for a global audience – to have your research reach the widest readership. Make sure you write in a way that will be understood by any reader regardless of their field or whether English is their first language.

Write your journal article with confidence, to give your reader certainty in your research. Make sure that you’ve described your methodology and approach; whilst it may seem obvious to you, it may not to your reader. And don’t forget to explain acronyms when they first appear.

Engage your audience. Go back to thinking about your audience; are they experts in your field who will easily follow technical language, or are they a lay audience who need the ideas presented in a simpler way?

Be aware of other literature in your field, and reference it

Make sure to tell your reader how your article relates to key work that’s already published. This doesn’t mean you have to review every piece of previous relevant literature, but show how you are building on previous work to avoid accidental plagiarism.

When you reference something, fully understand its relevance to your research so you can make it clear for your reader. Keep in mind that recent references highlight awareness of all the current developments in the literature that you are building on. This doesn’t mean you can’t include older references, just make sure it is clear why you’ve chosen to.

How old can my references be?

Your literature review should take into consideration the current state of the literature.

There is no specific timeline to consider. But note that your subject area may be a factor. Your colleagues may also be able to guide your decision.

Researcher’s view

Grasian Mkodzongi, Ruth First Prize Winner

Top tips to get you started

Communicate your unique point of view to stand out. You may be building on a concept already in existence, but you still need to have something new to say. Make sure you say it convincingly, and fully understand and reference what has gone before.

Editor’s view

Professor Len Barton, Founding Editor of Disability and Society

Be original

Now you know the features of a journal article and how to construct it. This video is an extra resource to use with this guide to help you know what to think about before you write your journal article.

Expert help for your manuscript

Taylor & Francis Editing Services  offers a full range of pre-submission manuscript preparation services to help you improve the quality of your manuscript and submit with confidence.

Related resources

How to write your title and abstract

Journal manuscript layout guide

Improve the quality of English of your article

How to edit your paper

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Writing for an academic journal: 10 tips

1) Have a strategy, make a plan

Why do you want to write for journals? What is your purpose? Are you writing for research assessment? Or to make a difference? Are you writing to have an impact factor or to have an impact? Do you want to develop a profile in a specific area? Will this determine which journals you write for? Have you taken their impact factors into account?

Have you researched other researchers in your field – where have they published recently? Which group or conversation can you see yourself joining? Some people write the paper first and then look for a 'home' for it, but since everything in your article – content, focus, structure, style – will be shaped for a specific journal, save yourself time by deciding on your target journal and work out how to write in a way that suits that journal.

Having a writing strategy means making sure you have both external drivers – such as scoring points in research assessment or climbing the promotion ladder – and internal drivers – which means working out why writing for academic journals matters to you. This will help you maintain the motivation you'll need to write and publish over the long term. Since the time between submission and publication can be up to two years (though in some fields it's much less) you need to be clear about your motivation.

2) Analyse writing in journals in your field

Take a couple of journals in your field that you will target now or soon. Scan all the abstracts over the past few issues. Analyse them: look closely at all first and last sentences. The first sentence (usually) gives the rationale for the research, and the last asserts a 'contribution to knowledge'. But the word 'contribution' may not be there – it's associated with the doctorate. So which words are used? What constitutes new knowledge in this journal at this time? How can you construct a similar form of contribution from the work you did? What two sentences will you write to start and end your abstract for that journal?

Scan other sections of the articles: how are they structured? What are the components of the argument? Highlight all the topic sentences – the first sentences of every paragraph – to show the stages in the argument. Can you see an emerging taxonomy of writing genres in this journal? Can you define the different types of paper, different structures and decide which one will work best in your paper? Select two types of paper: one that's the type of paper you can use as a model for yours, and one that you can cite in your paper, thereby joining the research conversation that is ongoing in that journal.

3) Do an outline and just write

Which type of writer are you: do you always do an outline before you write, or do you just dive in and start writing? Or do you do a bit of both? Both outlining and just writing are useful, and it is therefore a good idea to use both. However, make your outline very detailed: outline the main sections and calibrate these with your target journal.

What types of headings are normally used there? How long are the sections usually? Set word limits for your sections, sub-sections and, if need be, for sub-sub-sections. This involves deciding about content that you want to include, so it may take time, and feedback would help at this stage.

When you sit down to write, what exactly are you doing:using writing to develop your ideas or writing to document your work? Are you using your outline as an agenda for writing sections of your article? Define your writing task by thinking about verbs – they define purpose: to summarise, overview, critique, define, introduce, conclude etc.

4) Get feedback from start to finish

Even at the earliest stages, discuss your idea for a paper with four or five people, get feedback on your draft abstract. It will only take them a couple of minutes to read it and respond. Do multiple revisions before you submit your article to the journal.

5) Set specific writing goals and sub-goals

Making your writing goals specific means defining the content, verb and word length for the section. This means not having a writing goal like, 'I plan to have this article written by the end of the year' but 'My next writing goal is to summarise and critique twelve articles for the literature review section in 800 words on Tuesday between 9am and 10.30'. Some people see this as too mechanical for academic writing, but it is a way of forcing yourself to make decisions about content, sequence and proportion for your article.

6) Write with others

While most people see writing as a solitary activity, communal writing – writing with others who are writing – can help to develop confidence, fluency and focus. It can help you develop the discipline of regular writing. Doing your academic writing in groups or at writing retreats are ways of working on your own writing, but – if you unplug from email, internet and all other devices – also developing the concentration needed for regular, high-level academic writing.

At some point – ideally at regular intervals – you can get a lot more done if you just focus on writing. If this seems like common sense, it isn't common practice. Most people do several things at once, but this won't always work for regular journal article writing. At some point, it pays to privilege writing over all other tasks, for a defined period, such as 90 minutes, which is long enough to get something done on your paper, but not so long that it's impossible to find the time.

7) Do a warm up before you write

While you are deciding what you want to write about, an initial warm up that works is to write for five minutes, in sentences, in answer to the question: 'What writing for publication have you done [or the closest thing to it], and what do you want to do in the long, medium and short term?'

Once you have started writing your article, use a variation on this question as a warm up – what writing for this project have you done, and what do you want to do in the long, medium and short term? Top tip: end each session of writing with a 'writing instruction' for yourself to use in your next session, for example, 'on Monday from 9 to 10am, I will draft the conclusion section in 500 words'.

As discussed, if there are no numbers, there are no goals. Goals that work need to be specific, and you need to monitor the extent to which you achieve them. This is how you learn to set realistic targets.

8) Analyse reviewers' feedback on your submission

What exactly are they asking you to do? Work out whether they want you to add or cut something. How much? Where? Write out a list of revision actions. When you resubmit your article include this in your report to the journal, specifying how you have responded to the reviewers' feedback. If your article was rejected, it is still useful to analyse feedback, work out why and revise it for somewhere else.

Most feedback will help you improve your paper and, perhaps, your journal article writing, but sometimes it may seem overheated, personalised or even vindictive. Some of it may even seem unprofessional. Discuss reviewers' feedback – see what others think of it. You may find that other people – even eminent researchers – still get rejections and negative reviews; any non-rejection is a cause for celebration. Revise and resubmit as soon as you can.

9) Be persistent, thick-skinned and resilient

These are qualities that you may develop over time – or you may already have them. It may be easier to develop them in discussion with others who are writing for journals.

10) Take care of yourself

Writing for academic journals is highly competitive. It can be extremely stressful. Even making time to write can be stressful. And there are health risks in sitting for long periods, so try not to sit writing for more than an hour at a time. Finally, be sure to celebrate thoroughly when your article is accepted. Remind yourself that writing for academic journals is what you want to do – that your writing will make a difference in some way.

These points are taken from the 3rd edition of Writing for Academic Journals .

Rowena Murray is professor in education and director of research at the University of the West of Scotland – follow it on Twitter @UniWestScotland

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How to Review a Journal Article

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For many kinds of assignments, like a  literature review , you may be asked to offer a critique or review of a journal article. This is an opportunity for you as a scholar to offer your  qualified opinion  and  evaluation  of how another scholar has composed their article, argument, and research. That means you will be expected to go beyond a simple  summary  of the article and evaluate it on a deeper level. As a college student, this might sound intimidating. However, as you engage with the research process, you are becoming immersed in a particular topic, and your insights about the way that topic is presented are valuable and can contribute to the overall conversation surrounding your topic.

IMPORTANT NOTE!!

Some disciplines, like Criminal Justice, may only want you to summarize the article without including your opinion or evaluation. If your assignment is to summarize the article only, please see our literature review handout.

Before getting started on the critique, it is important to review the article thoroughly and critically. To do this, we recommend take notes,  annotating , and reading the article several times before critiquing. As you read, be sure to note important items like the thesis, purpose, research questions, hypotheses, methods, evidence, key findings, major conclusions, tone, and publication information. Depending on your writing context, some of these items may not be applicable.

Questions to Consider

To evaluate a source, consider some of the following questions. They are broken down into different categories, but answering these questions will help you consider what areas to examine. With each category, we recommend identifying the strengths and weaknesses in each since that is a critical part of evaluation.

Evaluating Purpose and Argument

• How well is the purpose made clear in the introduction through background/context and thesis?
• How well does the abstract represent and summarize the article’s major points and argument?
• How well does the objective of the experiment or of the observation fill a need for the field?
• How well is the argument/purpose articulated and discussed throughout the body of the text?
• How well does the discussion maintain cohesion?

Evaluating the Presentation/Organization of Information

• How appropriate and clear is the title of the article?
• Where could the author have benefited from expanding, condensing, or omitting ideas?
• How clear are the author’s statements? Challenge ambiguous statements.
• What underlying assumptions does the author have, and how does this affect the credibility or clarity of their article?
• How objective is the author in his or her discussion of the topic?
• How well does the organization fit the article’s purpose and articulate key goals?

Evaluating Methods

• How appropriate are the study design and methods for the purposes of the study?
• How detailed are the methods being described? Is the author leaving out important steps or considerations?
• Have the procedures been presented in enough detail to enable the reader to duplicate them?

Evaluating Data

• Scan and spot-check calculations. Are the statistical methods appropriate?
• Do you find any content repeated or duplicated?
• How many errors of fact and interpretation does the author include? (You can check on this by looking up the references the author cites).
• What pertinent literature has the author cited, and have they used this literature appropriately?

Following, we have an example of a summary and an evaluation of a research article. Note that in most literature review contexts, the summary and evaluation would be much shorter. This extended example shows the different ways a student can critique and write about an article.

Chik, A. (2012). Digital gameplay for autonomous foreign language learning: Gamers’ and language teachers’ perspectives. In H. Reinders (ed.),  Digital games in language learning and teaching  (pp. 95-114). Eastbourne, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Be sure to include the full citation either in a reference page or near your evaluation if writing an  annotated bibliography .

In Chik’s article “Digital Gameplay for Autonomous Foreign Language Learning: Gamers’ and Teachers’ Perspectives”, she explores the ways in which “digital gamers manage gaming and gaming-related activities to assume autonomy in their foreign language learning,” (96) which is presented in contrast to how teachers view the “pedagogical potential” of gaming. The research was described as an “umbrella project” consisting of two parts. The first part examined 34 language teachers’ perspectives who had limited experience with gaming (only five stated they played games regularly) (99). Their data was recorded through a survey, class discussion, and a seven-day gaming trial done by six teachers who recorded their reflections through personal blog posts. The second part explored undergraduate gaming habits of ten Hong Kong students who were regular gamers. Their habits were recorded through language learning histories, videotaped gaming sessions, blog entries of gaming practices, group discussion sessions, stimulated recall sessions on gaming videos, interviews with other gamers, and posts from online discussion forums. The research shows that while students recognize the educational potential of games and have seen benefits of it in their lives, the instructors overall do not see the positive impacts of gaming on foreign language learning.

The summary includes the article’s purpose, methods, results, discussion, and citations when necessary.

This article did a good job representing the undergraduate gamers’ voices through extended quotes and stories. Particularly for the data collection of the undergraduate gamers, there were many opportunities for an in-depth examination of their gaming practices and histories. However, the representation of the teachers in this study was very uneven when compared to the students. Not only were teachers labeled as numbers while the students picked out their own pseudonyms, but also when viewing the data collection, the undergraduate students were more closely examined in comparison to the teachers in the study. While the students have fifteen extended quotes describing their experiences in their research section, the teachers only have two of these instances in their section, which shows just how imbalanced the study is when presenting instructor voices.

Some research methods, like the recorded gaming sessions, were only used with students whereas teachers were only asked to blog about their gaming experiences. This creates a richer narrative for the students while also failing to give instructors the chance to have more nuanced perspectives. This lack of nuance also stems from the emphasis of the non-gamer teachers over the gamer teachers. The non-gamer teachers’ perspectives provide a stark contrast to the undergraduate gamer experiences and fits neatly with the narrative of teachers not valuing gaming as an educational tool. However, the study mentioned five teachers that were regular gamers whose perspectives are left to a short section at the end of the presentation of the teachers’ results. This was an opportunity to give the teacher group a more complex story, and the opportunity was entirely missed.

Additionally, the context of this study was not entirely clear. The instructors were recruited through a master’s level course, but the content of the course and the institution’s background is not discussed. Understanding this context helps us understand the course’s purpose(s) and how those purposes may have influenced the ways in which these teachers interpreted and saw games. It was also unclear how Chik was connected to this masters’ class and to the students. Why these particular teachers and students were recruited was not explicitly defined and also has the potential to skew results in a particular direction.

Overall, I was inclined to agree with the idea that students can benefit from language acquisition through gaming while instructors may not see the instructional value, but I believe the way the research was conducted and portrayed in this article made it very difficult to support Chik’s specific findings.

Some professors like you to begin an evaluation with something positive but isn’t always necessary.

The evaluation is clearly organized and uses transitional phrases when moving to a new topic.

This evaluation includes a summative statement that gives the overall impression of the article at the end, but this can also be placed at the beginning of the evaluation.

This evaluation mainly discusses the representation of data and methods. However, other areas, like organization, are open to critique.

Scholarly Journals

Welcome to the WAC Clearinghouse Journal Listings. These listings include journals that are available online and/or in print. Whenever possible, a link has been provided to a website associated with a journal. The majority of the descriptions provided through this site are based on information found in individual journals or on their associated websites. If you would like to add a journal to this list or if you find any of our descriptions inaccurate, please contact us .

://English Matters http://chnm.gmu.edu/ematters/

://English Matters is "a journal where language meets hypermedia. We invite teachers and students of English who are questioning and creating new texts and pedagogies on the web to browse through, linger over, and contribute to this collection of essays, exhibits, and performances."

Academic.Writing https://wac.colostate.edu/aw/

Across the Disciplines . Archives for Academic.Writing are available through the WAC Clearinghouse. The mission of the journal was to provide information for – and an opportunity for interaction among – scholars interested in writing, speaking, and otherwise communicating across the curriculum (CAC). A primary goal of the journal was to support individuals ranging from CAC researchers to CAC program designers to teachers interested in using communication assignments and activities in their courses. In January 2004,  Academic.Writing  merged with  Language and Learning Across the Disciplines  to form  Across the Disciplines .

Across the Disciplines   https://wac.colostate.edu/atd

Across the Disciplines , a refereed journal devoted to language, learning, and academic writing, publishes articles relevant to writing and writing pedagogy in all their intellectual, political, social, and technological complexity.  Across the Disciplines  shares the mission of the WAC Clearinghouse in making information about writing and writing instruction freely available to members of the CAC, WAC, and ECAC communities.  Across the Disciplines is the official journal of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC).

Asian Journal of English Language Studies https://ajels.ust.edu.ph

Asian Journal of English Language Studies is the official journal of the Department of English of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the oldest university in Asia. It is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that aims to provide current literature to those concerned with research in the realm of English language studies and English language teaching and learning either as a second or a foreign language.

Assessing Writing http://www.journals.elsevier.com/assessing-writing/

Assessing Writing is a refereed international journal providing a forum for ideas, research and practice on the assessment of written language. Assessing Writing publishes articles, book reviews, conference reports, and academic exchanges concerning writing assessments of all kinds, including traditional ('direct' and standardised forms of) testing of writing, alternative performance assessments (such as portfolios), workplace sampling and classroom assessment.

BWe: Basic Writing e-Journal http://bwe.ccny.cuny.edu/

Basic Writing e-Journal is designed to be an electronic forum to help broaden conversations about Basic Writing. BWe also provides additional publication opportunities to scholars involved in BW; allows for publication of those pieces that perhaps don't fit, for whatever reason, the Journal of Basic Writing ; provides a space for teachers to respond, to question, to further explore, etc. issues that appear in BWe, in JBW, and in other venues; provides a forum for review and discussion of books focusing on Basic Writing issues; continues to inform interested parties about what will happen at future 4Cs; and publishes the text and handouts workshop presenters provided at the most recent conference.

Business and Professional Communication Quarterly https://www.businesscommunication.org/page/bcq

BPCQ publishes scholarship that advances knowledge about business communication pedagogy in both academic and workplace settings. Articles in BPCQ present a variety of theoretical, applied, and practical approaches and perspectives, including program design and assessment, the impact of technology, global and multicultural issues, qualitative and quantitative research on classroom teaching, and case studies of best practices.

Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie http://journals.sfu.ca/cjsdw/index.php/cjsdw

Formerly known as  Technostyle ,  Canadian Journal for Studies in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie  (CJSDW/R) is the official journal of Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing. Since 1982, the journal has been publishing articles of interest to teachers of technical, professional, scientific and academic writing. The journal shifted to the open access format in 2011 with a broader focus on discourse and writing studies. Currently the journal is hosted by the Public Knowledge Project at the Bennett Library of Simon Fraser University.. 

CCC Online cccc.ncte.org/cccc/online-archive/

CCC Online provides "a highly interactive, online space where members of our community may submit and access peer-reviewed multimedia texts that will help shape the direction of rhetoric and composition research and pedagogy in the 21st century." You may be required to log in.

College Composition and Communication (CCC)   https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/ccc/

College Composition and Communication is the journal of CCCC, the Conference on College Composition and Communication. CCC publishes research and scholarship in composition studies that support those who teach writing at the college level. The field of composition studies draws on research and theories from a broad range of humanistic disciplines while supporting a number of subfields of its own, such as technical communication, computers and composition, history of composition, writing center work, assessment, and others. Articles for CCC may stem from any of these fields, and are relevant to the work of college writing teachers and responsive to recent work in composition studies.

College English   http://www.ncte.org/resources/journals/college-english/

College English is the official journal of the College Section of the National Council of Teachers of English. It has been published since 1939. College English publishes articles about literature, rhetoric-composition, critical theory, creative writing theory and pedagogy, linguistics, literacy, reading theory, pedagogy, and professional issues related to the teaching of English. Each issue also includes opinion pieces, review essays, and letters from readers. Contributions may work across traditional field boundaries; authors represent the full range of institutional types.

Communication Center Journal http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ccj/

The Communication Center Journal ( CCJ ) is a national, peer-reviewed journal that features research and perspectives relevant to communication centers in higher education.

Communication Design Quarterly https://sigdoc.acm.org/blog/category/cdq-article/

CDQ is the official of Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on the Design of Communication (DOC). The journal welcomes submissions of (1) articles that cross disciplinary boundaries as they focus on effective and efficient methods of designing and communicating information; (2) reports presenting project- or workplace-focused summaries of important technologies, techniques, methods, pedagogies, or product processes; and (3)reviews of books that may be of interest to the communication design field.

Communication Monographs https://www.natcom.org/publications/nca-journals/communication-monographs

Communication Monographs reports original, theoretically grounded research dealing with human symbolic exchange across the broad spectrum of interpersonal, group, organizational, cultural and mediated contexts in which such activities occur. The scholarship reflects diverse modes of inquiry and methodologies that bear on the ways in which communication is shaped and functions in human interaction. Requires log in.

Community Literacy Journal https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/communityliteracy/

The Community Literacy Journal is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes both scholarly work that contributes to theories, methodologies, and research agendas and work by literacy workers, practitioners, and community literacy program staff. We are especially committed to presenting work done in collaboration between academics and community members, organizers, activists, teachers, and artists.

Composition Forum http://compositionforum.com/

Composition Forum is a peer-reviewed journal for scholars and teachers interested in the application of composition theory to the teaching of writing. The journal focuses on articles that explore the intersections of composition theory and pedagogy, including essays that examine specific pedagogical theories or describe classroom practices, methodology, and research. Also featured are articles on the application of interdisciplinary approaches to teaching writing, including issues of workplace, multiple, political, critical, and computer literacies; graduate and undergraduate education; literature and writing; and cultural studies. Composition Forum also publishes articles that describe specific and innovative writing program practices and writing courses, reviews of relevant books in composition studies, and interviews with notable scholars and teachers who can address issues germane to our theoretical approach. All articles published in Composition Forum are subject to rigorous peer review by at least two reviewers who are experts in the topical area.

Composition Studies https://compstudiesjournal.com/

The oldest independent periodical in its field, Composition Studies is an academic journal dedicated to the range of professional practices associated with rhetoric and composition: teaching college writing; theorizing rhetoric and composing; administering writing related programs; preparing the field's future teacher-scholars.

Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/

Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine provides insight into views and issues about the online world through its monthly magazine archive plus current news feeds.

Computers and Composition Online http://cconlinejournal.org/

Computers and Composition Online is the refereed online companion journal to Computers and Composition: An International Journal, now in its 23rd year and currently published by Elsevier. The goal of C&C Online is to be a significant online resource for scholar-teachers interested in the impact of new and emerging media upon the teaching of language and literacy in both virtual and face-to-face forums. Journal archives are available for print up to 1995 and for the online journal since its founding.

Computers and Composition: An International Journal https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-and-composition/

Computers and Composition: An International Journal is devoted to exploring the use of computers in writing classes, writing programs, and writing research. It provides a forum for discussing issues connected with writing and computer use. It also offers information about integrating computers into writing programs on the basis of sound theoretical and pedagogical decisions, and empirical evidence. It welcomes articles, reviews, and letters to the Editors that may be of interest to readers, including descriptions of computer-aided writing and/or reading instruction, discussions of topics related to computer use of software development; explorations of controversial ethical, legal, or social issues related to the use of computers in writing programs; and to discussions of how computers affect form and content for written discourse, the process by which this discourse is produced, or the impact this discourse has on an audience.

Computers and Texts http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ctitext2/publish/comtxt/

Computers & Texts was the journal/newsletter of the CTI Centre for Textual Studies. It was edited by Michael Fraser and published around March and August of each year. Issues 11 through 19 are available on its Web site.

Conference on Basic Writing Archives https://cbwblog.wordpress.com/tag/conference-on-basic-writing/

The CBW archive contains The CBWS/CBW Newsletter from 1982-1998, as well as additional historical material, such as the original flyer Charles Guilford produced to advertise CBW or the call to convention of the 4th National Basic Writing Conference, sponsored by CBW.

connexions • international professional communication journal https://connexionsjournal.org/

Articles in connexions , which was published between 2013 and 2018, address communication practices, research, pedagogy, methodology, and technology as original research articles, reviews, focused commentary and industry perspectives, and teaching cases. 

constellations: a cultural rhetorics publishing space http://constell8cr.com/

constellations  is an online double-blind peer review publishing space focused on cultural rhetorics scholarship, teaching, and practice. The editors of the journal observe, "The field of cultural rhetorics is anchored in the belief that all cultures are rhetorical and all rhetorics are cultural. This belief forms a set of constellating methodologies, theories, and practices that draw attention to the intricate ways meaning emerges in human practices." The journal invites submissions from scholars, teachers, artists, activists, and community members whose work is accessible in all media forms suitable for web-based publication and distribution.

Currents in Electronic Literacy https://elmcip.net/publisher/currents-electronic-literacy

Currents in Electronic Literacy is an electronic journal published by the Computer Writing and Research Lab of the Division of Rhetoric and Composition at The University of Texas at Austin. Currents' purpose is to provide for the scholarly discussion of issues pertaining to electronic literacy, widely construed. In general, Currents seeks work addressing the use of electronic texts and technologies in reading, writing, teaching, and learning in fields including but not restricted to the following: literature (in English and in other languages), rhetoric and composition, languages (English, foreign, and ESL), communications, media studies, and education.

Dangling Modifier  http://sites.psu.edu/thedanglingmodifier/

Dangling Modifier is a peer tutor newsletter/e-journal written by and for peer tutors in writing. Founded by Ron Maxwell through NCPTW, the journal offers publication opportunities for tutors who work within our centers to share their experiences with others.

Double Helix: A Journal of Critical Thinking and Writing   https://wac.colostate.edu/double-helix

Double Helix publishes work addressing linkages between critical thinking and writing, in and across the disciplines, and it is especially interested in pieces that explore and report on connections between pedagogical theory and classroom practice. The journal also invites proposals from potential guest editors for specially themed volumes that fall within its focus and scope.

Electronic Book Review http://www.electronicbookreview.com/

Electronic Book Review promotes print/screen transformations and weaving new modes of critical writing into the Web.

English Education https://ncte.org/resources/journals/english-education/

English Education , an official NCTE publication, is published by CEE, the Conference on English Education, and serves as a forum for discussion of issues related to (1) the nature of our discipline, especially as it spans all levels of instruction, and (2) the education and development of teachers of English at all levels.

English Journal https://ncte.org/resources/journals/english-journal/

English Journal , an NCTE publication, is a journal of ideas for English language arts teachers in junior and senior high schools and middle schools. EJ presents information on the teaching of writing and reading, literature, and language. Each issue examines the relationship of theory and research to classroom practice and reviews current materials of interest to English teachers, including books and electronic media.

English Teaching: Practice and Critique https://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/journal/  

English Teaching encourages critical reflective practice and classroom-based research. It seeks to promote theorizing about English/literacy that is grounded in a range of contexts: classrooms, schools and wider educational constituencies. It provides a place where authors from a range of backgrounds can identify matters of common concern and thereby foster professional communities and networks.

IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=47

Readers and contributors represent engineers, scientists, writers, information designers, managers, and others, working as scholars, educators, and practitioners from across the globe, all of whom share an interest in the effective communication of technical and business information. The IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication is a refereed quarterly journal published since 1957 and sponsored by the Professional Communication Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning http://imej.wfu.edu/

IMEJ was an interactive multimedia electronic journal edited and produced at Wake Forest University. It published articles from 1999 to 2006. The goals of IMEJ wereto provide a peer-reviewed forum for innovations in computer-enhanced learning, to serve as a model and testbed for an electronic journal with a high level of multimedia and interactivity, and to advance the acceptance of electronic publication as a legitimate and valuable form of academic discourse.

International Journal of Business Communication  https://www.businesscommunication.org/page/ijbc

The International Journal of Business Communication (IJBC) publishes manuscripts that contribute to knowledge and theory of business communication as a distinct, multifaceted field approached through the administrative disciplines, the liberal arts, and the social sciences.

International Journal of TESOL Studies   https://www.tesolunion.org

International Journal  of TESOL Studies  is a peer-reviewed journal published on behalf of the International TESOL Union. It publishes both original empirical research and systematic review studies on teaching and learning English as a second and foreign language at all education levels. 

Intraspection: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, and Style   http://intraspection.org

Intraspection  publishes academic work that exhibits compelling prose, captivating arguments, and rhetorical flair. While  Intraspection  ostensibly classifies itself as belonging to disciplines of Rhetoric, Cultural Studies, Communication, and English Studies generally, it welcomes radical connections, profound meanderings, and cross/trans/inter-disciplinary work, whether it be an experimental essay, creative non-fiction, long poetry, multimedia, performance art, or a traditional article. 

Issues in Writing http://www.uwsp.edu/english/iw/

Issues in Writing is a semiannual, refereed journal devoted to the study of writing in science and technology, government, education, business and industry, the arts and humanities, and the professions. The journal seeks to provide insights for teachers in all disciplines who must prepare students to write effectively in their fields; to encourage discussion of writing in ways that cut across disciplines, definitions, and traditional boundaries; and to publish contributions by all members of the writing community, including those professionals who work in non-academic situations. Seventeen volumes were published, the last in 2008.

JoSch: Journal of Writing Studies   https://www.josch-journal.de/

The  Journal für Schreibwissenschaft  (JoSch, formerly Journal der Schreibberatung) covers the entire spectrum of topics in writing didactics and research. While it focuses on the German-speaking higher education area, it is open to all (educational) institutions where writing and writing is reflected.

Journal of Academic Language and Learning http://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/index

The  Journal of Academic Language and Learning  (JALL) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal which is devoted to the interests of educators who provide academic language and learning development to students and staff in tertiary education settings.

Journal of Academic Writing   publications.coventry.ac.uk/index.php/joaw/index

The  Journal of Academic Writing  is an international, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the teaching, tutoring, researching, administration and development of academic writing in higher education in Europe. It is published by the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing ( EATAW ).

Journal of Advanced Composition https://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/JAC/

JAC was a forum for the interdisciplinary study of rhetoric, writing, culture, and politics. It published four book-length issues per year, featuring articles, interviews, book reviews, and essay responses to previously published articles. Its archives are available through the University of North Texas Library.

Journal of Basic Writing https://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/

JBW is a publication of the Conference on Basic Writing. The Clearinghouse hosts the archives.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication http://jbt.sagepub.com/

The Journal of Business and Technical Communication publishes research-based articles on problems and trends in written, oral and electronic communication in all areas of business, science and government. It was created in 1986 to meet the growing demand for research and analysis in issues such as: managerial communication, collaborative writing, ethics of business communication, technical writing pedagogy, gender differences in writing, international communication, graphic design, and ethnography of corporate culture.

Journal of Business Communication http://job.sagepub.com/

Journal of Business Communication (JBC), peer-reviewed and published quarterly, provides rigorous original research that contributes to the knowledge and theory of business communication as a distinct, multifaceted field, approached through the administrative disciplines, the liberal arts, and the social sciences. JBC is the official publication of the Association for Business Communication.

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication http://jcmc.indiana.edu/

The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC) is a web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Its focus is social science research on computer-mediated communication via the Internet, the World Wide Web, and wireless technologies. Within that general purview, the journal is broadly interdisciplinary, publishing work by scholars in communication, business, education, political science, sociology, media studies, information science, and other disciplines. Acceptable formats for submission include original research articles, meta-analyses of prior research, synthesizing literature surveys, and proposals for special issues.

Journal of Creative Writing Studies https://scholarworks.rit.edu/jcws/

Journal of Creative Writing Studies is a peer reviewed, open access journal. It publishes research that examines the teaching, practice, theory, and history of creative writing. This scholarship makes use of theories and methodologies from a variety of disciplines. The journal editors believe knowledge is best constructed in an open conversation among diverse voices and multiple perspectives. With this in mind, they actively seek to include work from marginalized and underrepresented scholars. Journal of Creative Writing Studies is dedicated to the idea that humanities research ought to be accessible and available to all.

Journal for Expanded Perspectives on Learning   https://trace.tennessee.edu/jaepl/

The Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL), an official assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, provides a common ground for theorists, researchers, and practitioners to explore ideas on the subject; to participate in programs and projects on it; to integrate these efforts with others in related disciplines: to keep abreast of activities along these lines of inquiry; and to promote scholarship and publications of these activities. The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning , JAEPL , meets this need. It provides a forum to encourage research, theory, and classroom practice involving expanded concepts of language. It contributes to a sense of community in which scholars and educators from pre-school through the university exchange points of view and cutting-edge approaches to teaching and learning. JAEPL is especially interested in helping those teachers who experiment with new strategies of learning to share their practices and confirm their validity through publication in professional journals.

Journal of Global Literacies, Technology, and Emerging Pedagogies http://jogltep.com/

JOGLTEP focuses on glocal (global + local) literacies, cross-cultural networked communities, digital global learning communities, trans-border and trans-national networked pedagogies, geopolitical dynamics of education, digital learning ecologies, and knowledge- and information-based societies.

Journal of Interactive Media in Education http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/

The aims of JIME are, among others, to foster a multidisciplinary and intellectually rigorous debate on the theoretical and practical aspects of interactive media in education, to clarify the cognitive, social and cultural issues raised by the use of interactive media in education, to radically improve teaching and learning through better interactive media, and to publish leading international research on the theories, practices and experiences in the field.

Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy http://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu

The Journal , which is committed first and foremost to teaching and learning, is intended – both in process and in product – to provide opportunities to reveal, reflect on, and revise academic publication and classroom practice.

Journal of Literacy Innovation https://journalofliteracyinnovation.weebly.com

The Journal of Literacy Innovation is a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to share ideas about innovative practices in literacy education with K-12 teachers and college-level teacher educators. It focuses on innovative, practical ideas that offer new insights to the field of literacy instruction and can be applied to the classroom.

Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics   http://journalofmultimodalrhetorics.com/

The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics , or JOMR , is a completely online, open-access journal featuring essays and other items that examine multimodality in all of its cultural, material, temporal, and pedagogical manifestations.

Journal of Pedagogic Development http://www.beds.ac.uk/jpd

The Journal of Pedagogic Development (JPD) is a publication of the University of Bedfordshire Centre for Learning Excellence. Its focus is on teaching, learning and assessment.

Journal of Response to Writing   https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/journalrw/

The Journal of Response to Writing publishes papers based on research, theory, and/or practice that meaningfully contribute to an understanding of how response practices lead to better writing. Its purposes are to provide a venue for theorizing and reporting ground-breaking research on response to writing; invite writing theorists, researchers, and practitioners to a venue to share their work with one another and colleagues in adjacent fields; and provide new or inexperienced teachers with immediate suggestions for use in giving, encouraging, or managing responses to their students’ writing.

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/rpcg/

The Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization publishes articles on the theory, practice, and teaching of professional communication in critical global contexts.

Journal of Second Language Writing http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-second-language-writing/

The Journal of Second Language Writing , a refereed international journal appearing four times a year, features theoretically grounded reports of research and discussion of central issues in second language and foreign language writing and writing instruction.

Journal of Teaching Writing http://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/teachingwriting

JTW is a refereed journal for classroom teachers and researchers at all academic levels whose interest or emphasis is the teaching of writing. Appearing semi-annually, JTW publishes articles on the theory, practice, and teaching of writing throughout the curriculum. Each issue covers a range of topics from composition theory and discourse analysis to curriculum development and innovative teaching techniques.

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication   https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jtw

Published quarterly,  JTWC  publishes peer-reviewed research on communications-related issues, as well as relevant materials on the teaching of technical and professional writing and reviews of recently published books. For over forty years, the journal has served as a major professional and scholarly journal for practitioners and teachers of most functional forms of communication.

Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning http://trace.tennessee.edu/jaepl/

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, JAEPL , provides a forum to encourage research, theory, and classroom practice involving expanded concepts of language. It contributes to a sense of community in which scholars and educators from pre-school through the university exchange points of view and cutting-edge approaches to teaching and learning. JAEPL is especially interested in helping those teachers who experiment with new strategies of learning to share their practices and confirm their validity through publication in professional journals.

Journal of Writing Analytics   https://wac.colostate.edu/jwa/

The Journal of Writing Analytics  ( Analytics ) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal published by the WAC Clearinghouse. Additional support for the journal is provided by Ohio State University. Conceptualized as a multidisciplinary field, Writing Analytics is defined as the study of communication processes and genres as they occur in digital educational environments. The journal operates at the intersection of educational measurement, massive data analysis, digital learning ecologies, and ethical philosophy. Intended to give voice to an emerging community, the journal is devoted to programs of research providing evidence of fair, reliable, and valid analytics. Dedicated to application, such multidisciplinary research will demonstrate its usefulness to educational stakeholders as they expand opportunities for diverse learners.

Journal of Writing Assessment https://escholarship.org/uc/jwa

The Journal of Writing Assessment provides a forum for the publication of manuscripts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives that address topics in writing assessment. Articles address assessment-related topics including grading and response, program assessment, historical perspectives on assessment, assessment theory, and educational measurement as well as other relevant topics. Book reviews of recent publications related to writing assessment and annotated bibliographies of current issues in writing assessment also appear in the journal.

Journal of Writing Research   http://www.jowr.org/

The  Journal of Writing Research  (JoWR) is an international peer reviewed journal that publishes papers that describe scientific study studies of the processes by which writing is produced and or by which it can be effectively taught.

Kairos: A Journal For Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/

Kairos is a refereed online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy. Each issue presents varied perspectives on special topics, typically in the form of "webtexts" -- texts authored specifically for publication on the World Wide Web. These webtexts include scholarly examinations of large-scale issues related to special topics, individual and collaborative reviews of books and media, news and announcements of interest, interactive exchanges about previous Kairos publications, and extended interviews with leading scholars.

KB: The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society  http://kbjournal.org/

KBJ publishes original scholarship that addresses, applies, extends, repurposes, or challenges the writings of Kenneth Burke, which include but are not limited to the major books and hundreds of articles by Burke, as well as the growing corpus of research material about Burke.

Language and Learning Across the Curriculum   wac.colostate.edu/llad/

In 2004, LLAD merged with the online journal Academic.Writing to form Across the Disciplines , published by the WAC Clearinghouse. The archives of LLAD are available at the Clearinghouse. LLAD published articles that make connections between the discourses, disciplines, and locations covered by the journal, general issues of language use, classroom practices, curricula, learning theory, critical thinking, composition theory, and educational technology from either a theoretical perspective or as it appears in single or multi-disciplinary programs at the undergraduate or graduate level. Writers were encouraged to address these topics from diverse critical stances including but not limited to: ethnographic research, cognitive approaches, feminist and gender-based perspectives, rhetorical theory, genre theory, and cultural and international studies.

Language Arts https://ncte.org/resources/journals/language-arts/

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Northern California Writing Centers Association Newsletter https://sites.google.com/view/ncwca/home/newsletter

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The Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies http://www.ojcmt.net

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Philosophy & Rhetoric http://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_pr.html

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Research in the Teaching of English https://ncte.org/resources/journals/research-in-the-teaching-of-english/

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Rhetoric of Health & Medicine   http://journals.upress.ufl.edu/rhm/

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Rhetnet: A Dialogic Publishing (ad)venture https://wac.colostate.edu/rhetnet/

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Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture https://msupress.org/ journals/rhetoric-politics- and-culture/

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Rhetoric Review http://www.rhetoricreview.com/

Rhetoric Review: A Journal of Rhetoric and Composition is a scholarly interdisciplinary journal publishing in all areas of rhetoric and writing and providing a professional forum for its readers to consider and discuss current topics and issues. The journal publishes manuscripts that explore the breadth and depth of the discipline, including history, theory, writing, praxis, technical/professional communication, philosophy, rhetorical criticism, cultural studies, multiple literacies, technology, literature, public address, graduate education, and professional issues.

Rhetoric Society Quarterly http://associationdatabase.com/aws/RSA/pt/sp/rsq

Published by the Rhetoric Society of America, Rhetoric Society Quarterly publishes articles on all aspects of rhetoric, including theory, history, criticism, and pedagogy.

Rhetorica http://rh.ucpress.edu/

Rhetorica's articles, book reviews and bibliographies examine the theory and practice of rhetoric in all periods and languages and their relationship with poetics, philosophy, religion, and law.

RhetTech Journal https://www.jmu.edu/wrtc/students/undergraduate/rhet-tech.shtml

RhetTech  showcases exemplary work being done in undergraduate writing, rhetoric, and technical communication courses around the country. This journal is run by young scholars in James Madison University ’s School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication.

Spark: A 4C4Equality Journal   https://sparkactivism.com

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Sweetland Writing Center Newsletter https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/alumni-friends/newsletters.html

Published by the University of Michigan's Sweetland Writing Center, this electronic newsletter provides access to articles relevant to writing center and WAC practices.

Syllabus   http://www.syllabusjournal.org/

Syllabus publishes original syllabi, assessment instruments, assignments and activities, and articles related to college teaching. The editors observe, "A good syllabus is a piece of original scholarship; a great one is also an art form. A research or theory paper go through peer review process to be recognized and validated; the same process should be available to course materials. This is a small step towards taking teaching as seriousely as we take research."

Teaching English in the Two-Year College https://ncte.org/resources/journals/teaching-english-in-the-two-year-college/

TETYC publishes articles for two-year college teachers and those teaching the first two years of English in four-year institutions. The journal seeks articles in all areas of composition (basic, first-year, and advanced); business, technical, and creative writing; and the teaching of literature in the first two college years. TETYC also publishes articles on topics such as staffing, assessment, technology, writing program administration, speech, journalism, reading, ESL, and other areas of professional concern.

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education is a peer reviewed journal focusing on issues of writing teacher education – the development, education, and mentoring of prospective, new, and experienced teachers of writing at all levels. The journal draws from composition studies – writing program administrators, writing across-the-curriculum specialists, and other teaching mentors; English education – including voices from secondary and elementary teacher educators at both the graduate and undergraduate levels; and from teacher educators from K-12 settings - including leaders and mentors in the National Writing Project and those in high school, middle school, and elementary school English leadership positions.

Technical Communication and Social Justice   https://techcommsocialjustice.org TCSJ , an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal, focuses on considerations of social justice in the research, teaching, and practice of technical communication and professional communication.  TCSJ  publishes articles—empirical research, pedagogical approaches, case studies, integrative literature reviews, workplace studies, etc.—that advance themes (1) exploring the systems and structures that legitimize and sustain injustice and/or (2) redressing injustice and/or enacting social justice in spheres of technical communication work.

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Technical Communication Quarterly is a scholarly journal devoted to the teaching, study, and practice of technical communication in academic, scientific, technical, governmental, and business/industrial fields. Access to the journal's Web site requires free registration.

Trace: A Journal of Writing, Media, and Ecology   http://tracejournal.net/ Trace  is an online, refereed, open-access journal that publishes interdisciplinary research at the intersections of writing studies, media studies, cultural studies, and ecocriticism. The journal considers the material and ethical impacts of media in all forms with specific interest in scholarship that theorizes the confluences of technology, culture, and life.

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Published by Clemson University, Parlor Press, and the WAC Clearinghouse,  The WAC Journal  is an annual collection of articles by educators about their WAC ideas and WAC experiences. It is a journal of practical ideas and pertinent theory.

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Formerly the  Writing Lab Newsletter ,  WLN  is a forum for exchanging ideas and information about writing centers in high schools, colleges, and universities. Articles focus on challenges in tutoring theory and methodology, handling ESL issues, directing a writing center, training tutors, adding computers, designing and expanding centers, and using tutorial theory and pedagogy. In addition to articles, issues contain conference announcements, book reviews, professional news, and a column by and for tutors.  WLN  is published bi-monthly from September to June.

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Writing & Pedagogy   https://journal.equinoxpub.com/WAP

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[email protected] http://wac.gmu.edu/program/newsletter/

Published once a semester by George Mason University's WAC Program, the newsletter features articles describing "best practices" in courses across the university; tips on teaching with writing; discussions of issues related to responding to, evaluating, and assessing student writing; tutors' observations on sessions with their UWC clients; and summaries of brown bag discussions on WAC topics.

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Xchanges  is an interdisciplinary Technical Communication, Writing/Rhetoric, and Writing Across the Curriculum journal, which publishes two issues annually from its home in the English Department at the University of New Mexico.  The fall issue each year features undergraduate research.  The spring issue features graduate-student research.  In each undergraduate issue, the journal publishes theses and research projects of upper-level undergraduate students.  The graduate-student issues features MA- and Ph.D.-level original research from emerging professionals in the journal's focal fields.  Xchanges  receives submissions from students from a wide array of institutions across the country and abroad.  Its faculty review board, comprised of TC, Comp/Rhet, and WAC faculty from throughout the U.S., reviews these submissions on a blind basis. 

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Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric , A Peer-Reviewed Journal for Undergraduates, "is dedicated to publishing research articles written by undergraduates in a wide variety of disciplines associated with rhetoric and writing. It is guided by these central beliefs: (1) that research can and should be a crucial component of rhetorical education and (2) that undergraduates engaged in research about writing and rhetoric should have opportunities to share their work with a broader audience of students, scholars, and teachers through national publication."

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Article Contents

Liberal education and the nature of knowledge, from forms of knowledge to social practices, educational theory, practice, and policy, education and the arts, religious upbringing and moral education, acknowledgements.

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A celebration of the writing and professional work of Paul Hirst: an introduction

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Patricia White , David Bridges, A celebration of the writing and professional work of Paul Hirst: an introduction, Journal of Philosophy of Education , Volume 57, Issue 1, February 2023, Pages 3–29, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopedu/qhad011

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This paper introduces this Special Issue celebrating the writing and professional work of Paul Hirst. The international range of contributors include scholars who knew him and his work in his heyday, as well as younger generations of philosophers of education. In this Introduction the editors, in conversation, first introduce the papers on Hirst’s early work on liberal education and the nature of knowledge, and then go on to discuss his later turn to advocacy of an education centred on social practices and his discussions of the nature of educational theory and teacher education. They consider those papers that refer to his work on the place of the arts in education and those involving detailed exploration of his work in moral and religious education. The extensive nature of his high-level administrative work in London and Cambridge, as well as nationally, is also recognized. A paper based on his personal correspondence reveals the lively man behind the work. An Appendix to this Introduction includes two extensive bibliographies, of Hirst’s writings and of critical discussions of his work.

David Bridges : Patricia, you were a close friend and colleague of Paul for over half a century, and this is shown very clearly in the correspondence that forms the basis of your contribution on ‘Work, Music and Friendship’ to this Special Issue. In many ways he was a very private man, but were there aspects of his personal life that were reflected in his educational and philosophical writing?

Patricia White : This question doesn’t permit one brief answer. So let me offer several.

If we think about personal references in Paul’s writing, in the way, say, that Richard Peters refers to golf or Bernard Williams to opera, then there is nothing, no personal examples—because there are virtually no examples at all. One of our contributors ( Tone Kvernbekk ) bitterly laments this and sees it in some places at least as a serious impediment to the cogency of Paul Hirst’s arguments. Many readers (including myself) who have pored over those pages of abstract carefully reasoned prose over the years will have shared that longing for even just one example. So there is nothing really by way of examples to offer glimpses of Hirst’s personal life.

Some, though, may see what may seem to be an ‘obvious’ connection between Paul’s narrowly circumscribed early upbringing and his advocacy of a liberal education based on the search for truth in the various forms it may take. His own accounts of his schooling describe him as a gifted student fast-tracked into following a limited curriculum, from fourteen studying mathematics and physics almost exclusively ( Hirst 2008 , 2010 ). The result of this narrowly focussed industry was a place at Cambridge, with scholarships to support him, to read Mathematics. Immediately on arrival, he was struck by the shocking narrowness of his intellectual, cultural, and social background. Fortunately, he found that the undergraduate Mathematics course presented no difficulties for him and, in his own words, he ‘used all the immense facilities of the place to get something like the liberal education that had so far been denied me’ ( 2008 :115). Here we see how his personal background may throw light on how he came to write ‘Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge’.

According to his own accounts of his early upbringing within the family, his life was not circumscribed simply by a narrow school curriculum but, more comprehensively, by the religious beliefs and teachings of his father, a preacher in a fundamentalist evangelical sect. It was an austere, simple life, its overriding aim being the spiritual development of oneself and others and avoiding the evil and sin that worldly concerns might lead to. It was a life without toys, non-religious books, outings, birthday celebrations, friends outside the sect. This may well have informed Paul’s writings on religious education and moral education and his exploration of the possibility of the autonomy of the moral life.

Personal influences like these may well have been significant in Hirst’s work. But more important perhaps was the historical context in which he first began to write on philosophy of education. The late 1950s and 1960s were an idealistic, hopeful time in which people looked to post-war education to help bring about social change towards a more equal society. Sociologists, like Halsey and Floud, amassed impressive amounts of data on class-based inequalities in access to formal schooling. But the concern of philosophers of education went beyond this interest in access to institutions to provision within them. What form should a good school education take? What should be its aims and its curricular arrangements? It was surrounded by this optimistic Zeitgeist that Paul worked as a schoolteacher, and later as a lecturer in Oxford University education department and at the London Institute.

There was a similar public concern in the post Second World War period about religious education and its relationship to moral education. Could there be morals without religion? James Conroy ’s contribution to this volume documents and illuminates this public concern and highlights the connection often made at the time with civic education. In all this he sees Hirst as a liminal figure.

So, Paul’s early writings about curriculum and moral education chime with his personal experience, but they were also a response to public pressure for re-assessment driven by the contemporary social context. I see the latter as the main driving force behind these works.

We come back later in our discussion to this issue of the private and the personal. Interestingly, one contributor ( John Tillson) takes issue with Hirst’s own view of his parents’ role in his upbringing.

Bridges : Although Paul is best known for his contributions to philosophy of education, I think I am right in saying that he never studied philosophy in any conventional way. As you have indicated, as an undergraduate at Cambridge he read Mathematics (with considerable distinction). In a conversation that I recorded for the Cambridge Journal of Education when he arrived back in Cambridge in 1971 ( Bridges 1971 ), he recalled that although he had been in the same college as Wittgenstein (Trinity) and saw him around the place he had never heard him teach.

White : It’s true that Paul did not have a formal philosophical training in the shape of a first degree or a Masters in Philosophy. But from his time at Cambridge as an undergraduate in mathematics, he avidly pursued a self-chosen pathway of studies in philosophy. He went to Bertrand Russell’s lectures, read his books, including The Principles of Mathematics. Puzzling over the basis of religious truth claims at this time, he also read with great interest and some scepticism Ayer’s Language, Truth and Logic ( Hirst 2008 ).

Teaching mathematics in school after leaving Cambridge led him to ponder how school mathematics could be reformed to convey to school students the true nature of mathematics and its significance and power. This led to his first encounter with the London Institute where he enrolled as a part-time doctoral student starting a thesis on teaching school mathematics, co-supervised by Louis Arnaud Reid, the Professor of Philosophy of Education, and a psychologist. Attending postgraduate seminars in philosophy of education there led to encounters with Ryle’s The Concept of Mind ( 1949 ) and R. M. Hare’s The Language of Morals ( 1952 ), and with Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (1953). Paul then applied to the Oxford Education Department for a lectureship in the teaching of mathematics. By the end of the interview he had been invited to run an optional seminar in contemporary philosophy and education. This was a licence to explore the philosophical riches of Oxford at that time. Between his own teaching commitments he was able to attend seminars and lectures by Anscombe, Toulmin, Ryle, Strawson, Urmson, Hare, and Austin. Meanwhile, in his spare time, he was delving into the history of philosophy and describes being ‘particularly swept off my feet by careful reading of Kant’s Critiques of Pure and Practical Reason ’ ( Hirst 2008 : 117).

So, when Paul Hirst returned to London after four years in Oxford, besides his explorations in the philosophy of mathematics and the history of philosophy, he had an enviably broad background in contemporary philosophy. When I joined the staff in 1965, though, his ‘lack of qualifications’ was still a source of sotto voce comment amongst colleagues. Nowadays, I imagine, if he’d even had the temerity to apply, his application would have been straight into the reject folder!

Bridges : That probably applies to many of us appointed to posts in universities and colleges of education in that era! Whatever his philosophical training (or lack of it) he certainly had a huge impact on the field of philosophy of education. Indeed the response of distinguished scholars across the world to the invitation to contribute to this volume bears witness both to the breadth of his influence and the enduring fertility of even his earliest writing.

White : Did any of those early pieces of writing that our contributors have taken up in this Special Issue have a lasting impact on your own thinking?

Bridges : Well, the forms of knowledge thesis (which I taught for many years and which became imprinted in my consciousness!) has clearly had an important influence, even if I have taken it in my own direction. Hirst was of course not the first to argue for different forms of knowledge or to classify them: we might start with Aristotle, though in this issue Paul Standish attaches particular importance to Kant and to Wittgenstein as sources for his ‘forms of knowledge’. Nor was Hirst the first to make a connection between different kinds of knowledge and the curriculum. The classical and medieval quadrivium , after all, not only distinguished the different kinds of knowledge that should appear in the curriculum but attached to them a kind of hierarchy of value. Paul Standish points to Oakeshott’s writing about the ‘conversation of mankind’ (quoted appreciatively by Hirst in his conclusion to ‘Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge’) and to Hirst’s mentor and colleague Louis Arnaud Reid’s Ways of Knowledge and Experience (1961) as important sources of influence. In the same period in the United States Philip Phenix was writing about different ‘realms of meaning’ as a basis for the curriculum.

Hirst’s characterization of forms of knowledge as having distinctive ‘tests for truth’ may sound rather hard-nosed in these postmodern times, but I remain attached to the idea that, whatever the source of our beliefs and opinions (and these are many and unreliable), we need some way of separating what merits our confidence in what we should believe and what we should ignore or dispute—including what was well described by one of my former students, by then a leading headteacher, as the ‘educational bullshit’ that pervades popular, political, and sometimes (dare I say it!) even academic educational discourse.

So this led Hirst to make a connection between being able to test and scrutinize received beliefs in different ways and being rationally autonomous, and hence to its significance for a ‘liberal’ education, one which was in this sense liberating and also sufficiently wide-ranging or general to encompass different forms of knowledge and critique. It also led to a view of educational theory as ‘not itself an autonomous “form” of knowledge or an autonomous discipline’. It involves, he writes, ‘no conceptual structure unique in its logical features and no unique test for validity’ ( Hirst 1966 : 55).

A lot of my own work in the last three decades has taken off from the requirement to give a different account of educational theory, or more specifically, educational research. I have been concerned to examine the different ways in which we can evaluate claims made about educational policy and practice ( Bridges 2017 ); to resist the reductionism associated with, for example, the ‘what works’ movement and narrower conceptions of ‘evidence based educational practice’ (Bridges, Smeyers, and Smith 2008; Bridges 2008 ); to clarify what might constitute the discipline in disciplined inquiry ( Bridges 2006 ); and to give an account of what might constitute the ‘rigour’ that is perceived as a hallmark of excellence in research ( Bridges 2019 ). All of this seems to me to lie not a million miles away from the idea that there might be some distinctive ‘tests for truth’ that mark out different ways of knowing! And, of course, the contents of this Special Issue indicate that I am not alone in finding this early work of Hirst’s a continuing stimulus to writing.

White : As he would occasionally remark, Paul Hirst felt that he could do a more fundamental and incisive critique of his forms of knowledge theory than his critics (see Jau Wei Dan ’s paper)! An exception was Jim Mackenzie ( Mackenzie 1998 ) whom Paul Hirst later acknowledged as both his most sympathetic and most astute critic. What do the critics in our collection make of the forms of knowledge theory nearly sixty years after the publication of his 1965 paper?

Bridges : They vary. Paul Standish in ‘The Provenance of the Forms of Knowledge Thesis’ provides perhaps the widest-ranging discussion of Hirst’s core ideas about knowledge and the curriculum—one which is in many respects sympathetic, but which also hints at reservations. It is especially insightful in its account of the ‘provenance’ of Hirst’s thinking, making particular reference, as I have already indicated, to the work of Hirst’s mentor and colleague Louis Arnaud Reid, to Michael Oakeshott, and to Wittgenstein’s thinking about ‘language games’—a retrospective that concludes with reflection on ‘the future of a liberal education’.

Richard Smith , in ‘Forms of Knowledge and Forms of Philosophy’, writes approvingly of Hirst’s defence of a liberal education, of which ‘the importance deserves wider recognition’ and in particular Hirst’s resistance to the reductivism that puts forward science as the model that all knowledge should emulate. But then Smith takes us into more recent work on virtue epistemology, so-called postmodern reservations about truth and reason, the rise of ‘powerful knowledge’, and arguments concerning the importance of philosophy in orienting us to reality as the home of thinking.

Hirst always insisted that to describe the structure of knowledge, the forms of knowledge, was to say nothing about how they should appear in the curriculum or how they should be taught—and this is the theme taken up by Alessia Marabini in ‘Paul Hirst, Education and Epistemic Justice’. She starts from Hirst’s view of liberal education as based on teaching and learning networks of possible relationships among core concepts. Following Hirst, she agrees that teachers should keep these formal networks separated from the psychological processes involved in acquiring them. But she wants to go further, arguing that overlooking their difference can foster forms of injustice in education—first and foremost a form of ‘epistemic injustice’. This is a phenomenon characterized by unfairness in the distribution of epistemic goods.

Hirst’s claim that the curriculum for a liberal education needed to reflect in some way the nature and structure of knowledge itself carried enormous weight for some time after it was published and taught to a new generation of teacher educators and students. One result of this was considerable debate about what might or might not count as a ‘form of knowledge’: could literature and the fine arts really be characterized as statements with tests for truth? Was geography a distinct form of knowledge? And what about physical education and movement?

In this collection David Aldridge interestingly discusses Hirst’s inclusion of religion as a form of knowledge (as well as his other perhaps more subtle commentaries on the subject of religious education), but we will come to that below in the section on moral and religious education.

Perhaps the most radical challenge to Hirst’s forms of knowledge thesis and its link to a concept of a liberal education comes in ‘Paul Hirst, Liberal Education and the Postcolonial Project in Education’ by Penny Enslin and Stephen Daniels . In view of contemporary calls to decolonize knowledge by ‘delinking’ it from ‘Western’ Enlightenment traditions, Enslin and Daniels consider the extent to which Hirst’s account of liberal education still has a place in the postcolonial era. They outline Hirst’s defence of liberal education and how it changed over time and show how philosophy of education in the tradition in which Hirst had been influential soon departed from Hirst’s account of liberal education, with some of these trends anticipating postcolonial imperatives. After considering the postcolonial critique of liberal thought in general as complicit in colonialism, Enslin and Daniels conclude with a judicious assessment of the contribution Hirst’s conception of liberal education could still make to the postcolonial project. In this assessment, interestingly, they also reveal a degree of openness to aspects of the decolonial project.

The contributions I have signposted so far focus in particular on Hirst’s earlier work and in particular ‘Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge’, but of course several contributions to this Special Issue are interested in the contrast between Hirst’s earlier work and what some see as his ‘dramatic’ shift from a knowledge-based curriculum to one based on ‘practice’ or ‘practices’ ( Hirst 1993 , 1999a , 2008 ; White 1994 ). I know you have looked at these and differences of opinion among them. Do you want to say something about this?

White : Yes, indeed, there are some interesting perspectives here. Let me start with Jau Wei Dan . He explores this shift in ‘Was Paul Hirst ever a Deweyan?’, drawing on personal correspondence with Paul Hirst himself in the 1990s (four of the personal letters form an appendix to his paper). From the perspective of intellectual history and curiosity about Hirst’s personal intellectual development, Dan follows suggestions from this correspondence and conversations with Hirst in the 1990s, to explore the following questions. How does Hirst see his two theories? Why does he think his early theory cannot stand? Is his personal account adequate in explaining his own intellectual shift? Does his later theory, as some have suggested, have a trace of John Dewey’s pragmatism? Was he ever a Deweyan? Exploring these questions, Dan sketches Hirst’s two theories, points out the differences and continuities between them, suggests why Hirst’s early theory cannot stand, and gives a short account of Dewey’s theory of education. He concludes that, even if his later theory might be said to suggest a Deweyan approach, Paul Hirst was never a Deweyan.

Katariina Holma , too, discusses the fundamental change in Hirst’s thinking in her paper ‘The rejection of rational autonomy as an educational ideal? In search of a philosophical justification for radical change in Paul Hirst’s thinking’. Her discussion has an interesting link to Dan’s. Holma notes that Hirst is clear that his earlier idea that ‘a good life is one of rational autonomy is both inadequate and mistaken’ ( Hirst 1999a : 128), and that ‘if we unstick moral reasoning and moral virtues from the very practices in which they are necessarily embedded, we put our personal and social lives in peril’ ( Hirst 1999b : 103). Instead of rational autonomy, the later Hirst argues that the main constituent of the good life is the satisfaction of needs and interests in relevant social practices and therefore the main aim of education should be initiation into social practices.

Bridges : And would you say that Holma goes along with this revision?

White : Yes, and no. She agrees with Hirst about the problematic nature of views that take as an educational starting-point an individual, rational, autonomous moral subject and sees, consistently with him, that the problem of the separation of moral thinking and action is related to these views. However, she disagrees with Hirst about the justification of Aristotelian theory on which Hirst bases his new thinking, especially in terms of the distinction between theoretical and practical reason. Holma argues that the most important change is Hirst’s shift from a ‘Kantian’ moral theory which sees reason as transcending emotions as a precondition of moral thinking and action. By utilizing resources from such pragmatists as Charles S. Peirce, John Dewey (and here in the reference to Dewey is the connection with Dan’s paper), Israel Scheffler, and Nicholas Rescher, Holma defends an account where there is no dichotomy between theoretical and practical reason, where both reason and emotion work in collaboration in acquiring moral knowledge, and where moral thinking and action can be both learned and improved in responsible social practices.

Bridges : So, in a sense Holma tries to close the gap between Hirst’s earlier and later thinking. This is a part of Christopher Winch ’s argument too, isn’t it?

White : Yes. In ‘Subjects, Disciplines, and Practices’, Winch declares himself unconvinced that Hirst’s later emphasis on social practices represents quite the dramatic departure from his earlier writing that is sometimes supposed (even by Hirst himself!).

Winch attempts to show how Hirst’s earlier work on forms of knowledge, and his later work on education as an inculcation into practices, have close connections, closer than those that appear in his own writings. In fact, he suggests, in some sense, the idea of a practice is fundamental to understanding the ways in which knowledge is organized, and thus to the epistemic claim that knowledge is organized differently according to the various ways in which it is acquired and evaluated. Winch argues that this approach allows us to make a distinction between disciplines and subjects that in turn allows us to distinguish knowledge-seeking from knowledge-transmitting activities, particularly in the context of school subjects, and thus to bring out more clearly the relationship between the practical side of knowledge acquisition and evaluation, on the one hand, and the structure of the knowledge thus acquired, on the other. By doing this, says Winch, we can see an underlying unity in Hirst’s concerns that is not so obvious at first sight.

Bridges : Hirst’s conversion to the idea of social practices became the focus of a full-on philosophical exchange between him and Wilfred Carr ( Hirst and Carr 2005 ). One of our contributors to this special issue, Koichiro Misawa , takes this as the starting point for his contribution on ‘Practical Rationality in Education: Beyond the Hirst-Carr Debate’.

White : Yes. This is another example of a contributor seeking to close the gap between two apparently disparate views. Misawa points out that Hirst and Carr share the view that skilled actions in actual educational contexts are not something that can first be formulated in theoretical or propositional terms and then applied in practice. Predicated on their shared conviction that what is operating in these situations is (situational) practical reasoning, not (detached) theoretical reason, they also concur that a primary task of their discipline is to ‘[cultivate] the educational practitioner’s natural human capacity of phronesis ’ ( Hirst and Carr 2005 : 626, 630).

Misawa claims, however, that Carr’s proposed non-theoretical reflective philosophy is a non sequitur since Carr, along with the bathwater (i.e. theory as synonymous with an omniscient God’s-eye perspective), throws out the baby (i.e. theory relevant to (1) cultivating phronesis and (2) making sense of the practical character of critical-reflective activities).

In contrast, Hirst, even after his philosophical ‘conversion’, has kept the view that philosophy (of education) is a second-order theoretical discipline, rejecting Carr’s ‘death-of-theory’ argument. Hirst’s preoccupation with remedying his own neglect of practical reason in his earlier work, however, gives rise to a ‘foundationalist’ two-part picture where practical and theoretical reason are sharply distinguished. The resulting ‘social practices’ view implies that both practical and theoretical reason are accommodated within the sphere of practical reason, relegating theoretical reason to indirect or marginal relevance. In other words, Misawa concurs with Hirst’s view that the question of how to live the good and worthwhile life can in no way be fully addressed without philosophically analysing the nature and place of reason in human life, but suggests that even the later Hirst seems not to fully acknowledge the possibility that practical rationality cannot be completely independent of theoretical rationality.

Misawa suggests that, looking back from the twenty-first century, at least some of Hirst’s views (on, say, reason) can certainly be faulted for his narrow understanding of the relevant issues, but he always addressed education head-on. This, in turn, might force his modern-day counterparts, who, like David Bakhurst, are concerned with the nature of persons and the character of reason, to take seriously the possibility that their conception of the educational is too broad, implying that any philosophical issue can be deemed an educational issue. Paul Hirst’s legacy, Misawa maintains, will definitely last long beyond his own lifetime.

Bridges : Just to pick up on what you’ve said about Hirst’s shift in the direction of social practices, Tone Kvernbekk also alludes to this in her discussion of Paul Hirst’s writings on educational theory in her paper ‘Hirst on Educational Theory’. These writings, she says, have been and continue to be important to the field of education. She centres her discussion on three issues. First, she looks at the ‘big picture’, how Hirst situates educational theory between the foundation disciplines and educational practice, and in so doing endows it with a single function. His view is contrasted with the view of D. J. O’Connor; the discussion between the two of them is well known. With the big picture in place, second, she inquires more deeply into Hirst’s view of the raison d’être of educational theory. Here his views are compared with those of the German philosopher of education Erich Weniger. And then, finally, she discusses Hirst’s later revisions of his view, most notably his argument that justification of educational theory by the foundation disciplines is not enough: educational theory must also pass the test of practice. But Kvernbekk concludes that this is not only a considerable change, but one that blurs the big picture rather than making it any clearer. So this is another of our contributors who is not entirely convinced of the wisdom of this move.

White : You’re right. And now that we are talking about Tone Kvernbekk, I would like to mention again that she complains several times in this paper about the lack of examples in Hirst’s writings. The absence of concrete examples, she claims, impedes understanding of what Hirst means by (in this case) ‘educational theory’ and makes it difficult to judge the adequacy of the analysis. This will resonate, I think, with many readers of Hirst’s writings, and not just those interested in the nature of educational theory. Readers will perhaps be reassured to realize that they are not alone in feeling that just one example could do so much to help them to grasp what is at stake and properly assess the claims being made.

Bridges : Paul Hirst was, of course, centrally involved professionally as well as philosophically in debates about educational theory, and in particular its place in teacher education. In Cambridge he was, after all, head of a Department of Education whose main business was the provision of a Postgraduate Certificate of Education as well as running a University faculty that had some oversight over not only Homerton College and its large Bachelor of Education programme, but also the Cambridge Institute of Education with its extensive programme of in-service training for teachers.

The rationale for involving teachers as researchers of their own practice is connected with an aspiration to give them control over what is to count as knowledge about practice. As action researchers, teachers are knowledge generators rather than appliers of knowledge generated by outsiders. ( Elliott 1994 : 133)

The background is relevant, secondly, because it provides a context to the welcome contribution to this Special Issue by Janet Orchard , a philosopher who has remained firmly connected to the changing world of teacher education throughout her work in philosophy of education. In her paper, ‘Pursuing Rational Public Defence: Paul Hirst on Teacher Education’, Orchard notes that ‘whether and in what sense there is a useful place for “theory” in initial teacher education’ ( McIntyre 1995 : 365) were questions that interested Paul Hirst throughout his academic career. He made a significant contribution to that debate in two regards: through teaching and helping to establish the place of Philosophy of Education in teacher education in the 1960s and 1970s; and as a commentator on teacher education valued by professional researchers in the area.

Hirst’s point that teachers need to be exposed to ‘rational public defence’ during their professional formation is well made, but there has always been a problem with this idea, even in relation to the highly respected ‘practical theorizing’ approach that underpins the Oxford Internship model. Meanwhile, the early experiments in which he was involved where teachers were engaged with theory in innovative ways and as part of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)—as described in the paper—continue to offer a useful model for including philosophy meaningfully in professional formation, albeit that those opportunities are now more limited than they were then.

Orchard argues that the innovatory approaches under the label of ‘new philosophy of education/philosophy in teacher education’ also need to attend to Hirst’s point about exposure to rational public defence, or they fall prey to the same criticism as that of the Oxford Internship Scheme. Otherwise, why not support the pedagogically sound critically reflective teacher education practice that is there already? Orchard, like some other contributors, tells us that although she has not found Hirst’s writings easy to engage with, she has come to see how thought provoking and still highly relevant they are.

We welcome, too, a contribution by another philosopher of education who has consistently engaged with the vagaries of policy and practice. Andrew Davis brings the tools of critical analysis to the activities of that over-inflated instrument of educational obedience and conformity in the UK, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).

Andrew Davis reminds us in ‘Knowing and Learning: from Hirst to Ofsted’ that Hirst always highlighted knowledge when reflecting on the school curriculum. As we’ve seen, he replaced his early focus on liberal education, the development of mind and theoretical knowledge, by an emphasis on practical knowledge and practices as a curriculum starting point, and for the framing of educational aims. In this paper Davis explores links between Hirst’s philosophical treatment of knowledge and some currently contested aspects of UK government education policies. He also notes some ways in which his work relates to selected present-day debates on philosophy of education. Examples of UK government policy include Ofsted’s definition of learning as a ‘change in long-term memory’, its emphasis on the ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum, and the ways in which they place ‘logical sequencing’ at the heart of teaching, learning, and curriculum. Their definition of learning treats knowledge as an individual asset, neglecting the fact that individuals are embedded in the social world of practices, a perspective more in keeping with Hirst’s later views. The critique of individualistic notions of knowledge and learning includes some exploration of how learners move into the ‘space of reasons’.

Paul Hirst had his own brushes with Ofsted and other national bodies over the years, and, Patricia, I know that you were keen to include papers in this Special Issue that reflect this wider educational service.

White : Yes, I am delighted we can recognize in this collection the huge amount of Paul Hirst’s professional life that was spent in demanding and time-consuming public service in relation to education. My reason for responding to the invitation to write ‘Work, Music, and Friendship’ ( Patricia White) for this Special Issue was to give readers the chance to hear Paul’s views about this public service, (as well as other aspects of his life and work), in his own words . In this sense, ‘Work, Music, and Friendship’ is not a memoir. It is not intended to revolve around my memories. Its extensive use of often lengthy quotations from Paul’s letters gives readers glimpses of the ‘inside story’ of his life as Paul experienced it: in this case, the demanding public service he was involved in and the consequent burdens and constraints this put on his life. References in the letters detail how Paul’s workload of the mid-1980s was hugely increased when he joined the second stage of the Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups, chaired by Lord Swann. This involved massive amounts of committee work as well as visits to teacher training institutions as chair of the teacher training panel.

As some recognition of the huge significance of public service in Paul’s life, we are very pleased to have Judith Suissa ’s paper, ‘Democratic Practice and Curriculum Objectives: Paul Hirst’s Visit to Summerhill’. This relates to Paul Hirst’s last piece of such work undertaken in 2002 at the request of the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), some 20 years after he had retired from Cambridge. Suissa’s paper draws on some reflections on Paul Hirst’s visit to Summerhill school as an independent observer, following Summerhill’s successful 2000 appeal against Ofsted in the Independent Schools Tribunal. Suissa explores the way the notion of ‘a broad and balanced curriculum’ has been used and interpreted by education policy-makers and theorists, and how it is reflected in the everyday practice of Summerhill. These reflections, in the context of Paul Hirst’s work, suggest a more nuanced approach to some of the commonly posited oppositions between ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ education.

Bridges: They do. And if I can bring things closer to the present, John White ’s contribution to the Special Issue, ‘Education since 2010: Hirstian Resonances’, throws light on Hirstian themes that run through the momentous decade of ideas and policy changes in English education from 2010 to 2020—that is, after Paul Hirst himself had stopped working in the educational field. John White focuses on three areas. The first is the National Curriculum, which the Labour government in power until 2010 had tried to reshape in a way reminiscent to some extent of Hirst’s later approach via ‘social practices’, but which has since then reverted to a traditional pattern with an emphasis on knowledge transmission within discrete subjects. Calls for more attention to social issues like climate change and ethnic diversity have Hirstian resonances, as have critical comments on the status quo from leading figures in politics and the inspectorate. The second, linked with the first, is the interest shown by policy-makers among others in the notion of ‘powerful knowledge’ as key to subject-based curriculum planning. Michael Young’s original definition of this in terms of an area of knowledge with its own systems of concepts has affinities with the early Hirst’s account of criteria for a ‘form of knowledge’. White also speculates about why both writers came up with similar ideas. The third area, taking off from recent remarks by the head of the schools inspectorate, is teacher training. Her regret that trainee teachers have a poor understanding of curriculum theory chimes in with a central concern of Hirst’s throughout his career. All these areas—and more—can benefit from the insights to be found in Hirst’s writing.

I am glad, Patricia, that your own piece draws attention to Paul’s love of the arts, even though he only rarely entered this area of philosophy in his academic writing. Happily, James MacAllister ’s paper also touches on this area.

White : Yes. We thought, didn’t we, when we were first considering this Special Issue that, as well as having critical pieces totally focussed on some particular aspect of Paul Hirst’s work, we might encourage some contributors, stimulated by an idea in Hirst’s writings, to explore new topics close to their own interests. James MacAllister took up this suggestion in ‘On the Potential in Film for Ethics Education: In Defence of Educational Ethicism’. He draws upon Hirst’s paper ‘What is Teaching?’ in order to examine a problem in Berys Gaut’s argument that artworks can teach moral knowledge. Gaut claims that artworks cannot teach immoral knowledge as you cannot be taught something false. MacAllister uses Hirst’s suggestion that the content of teaching need not be morally appropriate to contest Gaut’s claim. Gaut employs this ethics teaching argument in support of a wider case for ethicism. Ethicism is the theory that moral flaws in artworks are invariably aesthetic flaws too if expressed by aesthetic means. Conversely moral merits in artworks are invariably aesthetic merits again if communicated by aesthetic means. MacAllister defends a modified theory of educational ethicism, a theory that dispenses with the first of Gaut’s claims altogether and refines the second so that the aesthetic appraisal of art with moral themes is based on the educational potential of ethics rather than moral merits and demerits. MacAllister pulls the paper together by articulating three ways in which one specific art form, film, can have potential to teach ethics.

As well as being a fine treatment of the philosophical and educational issues, the paper is also, it seems to me, a nice reminder of Hirst’s own active academic interests in the arts as well as the personal enrichment he found in them—music, of course, especially opera—but also the visual arts and film.

Bridges : We have another contribution, don’t we, that relates to Paul Hirst’s interest in the arts? There is the paper by Kevin and Patrick Williams , ‘The Rationale for the Teaching of Literature: Soundings in Paul Hirst’s Epistemology’, which argues that Paul Hirst’s reconceptualization of his epistemology from the rather abstract forms of knowledge to concrete social practices provides a rewarding way of understanding the place of literature in the school curriculum.

White: Yes, and it is a paper richly illustrated with literary examples. Reading literature, they suggest, is a widespread social practice that features in the lives of many people as a source of satisfaction and as part of the good life. In the spirit of Hirst’s work, the focus of their paper is the nature of the ‘individual and social good’ that derives from the study of literature ( Hirst 2005a : 617). They identify five strands that form the rationale for the role of literature within the curriculum. The first strand concerns the knowledge, cultural background, or contextual information necessary to the enjoyment and full understanding of many works of literature. The second refers to the capacity of literature to give pleasure. The third refers to the role of literature in providing multiple forms of understanding and insight. This strand is most relevant to the ‘social good’ of literature. Strands four and five are directly related to the treatment of literature in the educational context. The fourth strand concerns the possibilities offered for education in language by the close study of literary texts. The fifth strand refers to the honing of the ability to propose and defend arguments in the interpretation of texts and is a conduit to the development of one aspect of what Hirst (p. 167) calls ‘practical reason’.

Bridges : Patricia, you suggested earlier in this conversation that we would need to return to the perhaps controversial nature of Paul Hirst’s own religious upbringing and its impact on his views of both religious and moral education.

White : John Tillson ’s contribution, ‘The Aims of Upbringing, Reasonable Affect, and Parental Rights: A Response to Paul Hirst’s Autobiographical Reflections’, is the paper most closely directed to Paul Hirst’s own experience. In it John Tillson appraises Hirst’s moral assessment of his upbringing within a fundamentalist Christian sect. While Hirst concludes that his parents wronged him by indoctrinating him, emotionally stunting him, and arbitrarily restricting his options as a child, he nevertheless suggests that they had a right to bring him up in this way. Tillson argues against parental rights to religiously initiate their children, provides an account of the kind of emotional development to which children plausibly have a right, and takes issue with the account of autonomy and of the good life that Hirst uses to ground his moral analysis of his upbringing.

One thing strikes me in reading Tillson’s contribution. In Paul Hirst’s attitude to his parents, he is considering their position with the empathy that characterized his attitude to people generally. Looked at from his parents’ point of view, Hirst believed they gave him what in their considered opinion was the very best upbringing they could. What better could they do? It also seems that his father, having done his best in his witness to Paul of ‘the truth’, came to judge that Paul’s choice of a way of life as a young adult was his own responsibility ( Hirst 2010 ). With the tacit mutual understanding that Paul was no longer a believer—and this may be relevant to Tillson’s argument—Paul, despite having given up his religious beliefs and observance, remained close to his family all his life. In the very busiest periods of the summer vacations, described in my contribution to this volume ‘Work, Music, and Friendship’, he always made time to fit in a holiday visit from his mother. Might not then this religious initiation which, in Tillson’s terms, permits exit, be morally permissible and, importantly, allow for family ties and family life?

In Michael Hand ’s contribution, ‘Hirst on Rational Moral Education’, the focus shifts from Paul Hirst’s own religious and moral education to his attempt to set out in 1974 the principles of a moral education for a secular society. Hand argues that in his book Moral Education in a Secular Society , Paul Hirst offers accounts of the content and justification of morality and the aims and methods of moral education. He goes on to say that his own recent book A Theory of Moral Education does the same. In his paper for our Special Issue, he explores the similarities and differences between their theories. In the first part, Hand outlines what Hirst calls the ‘sophisticated view of education’, which he wholeheartedly endorses, and highlights Hirst’s attention to the non-cognitive as well as the cognitive aspects of morality. In the second part, he explains how Hirst’s transcendental justification of morality differs from his own contractarian justification, and traces the implications of this difference for their respective accounts of moral education.

Bridges: Hirst’s later interest in social practices re-surfaces in Andrés Mejía ’s contribution to this volume In ‘Moral Education, Emotions and Social Practices’, Andrés Mejía is impressed, writing some thirty years later, by the distinctive central role that Hirst attributes to social practices in his idea of moral education. For Hirst, ethical principles and virtues should not be abstract entities theoretically derived and then applied in education so that students learn to reason from those principles or live by those virtues. Instead, his concept of moral education incorporates an initiation into social practices and then comes back to them by means of situated critical reflection from within those practices themselves. Mejía embraces Hirst’s proposed central role of social practices and spells out the key role that emotions may have in moral education so understood and their relations with social practices. As emotions embody our deeply held values as incorporated in lived experience, their cultivation or de-cultivation will not be a matter simply of deliberation, but also of practical exploration of social practices that can nurture and sustain them.

White : Let’s turn now to religious education. In his intriguingly titled paper ‘Paul Hirst and Religious Education’s Curriculum Question; or, How Hirst Never Thought Religion Was a Form of Knowledge At All’, David Aldridge notes that Hirst consistently listed religion as a form of knowledge. He also points out that Hirst had numerous chances to revise this position, but didn’t. However, whenever Hirst actually considered religion and the curriculum in specific detail, he did so either without reference to the curriculum principles of liberal education, or implicitly or explicitly rejected his own claim that religion was a form of knowledge.

In this paper Aldridge shows how attempts to understand Hirst’s thinking on religious education against the background of forms of knowledge both add to confusion about what Hirst intended the forms of knowledge to be and hinder an understanding of what his explicitly stated curriculum position on religion actually was. Aldridge speculates that Hirst included religion as a form of knowledge only as an ‘agnostic placeholder’ acknowledging the possibility that religion might turn out to be a form of knowledge. Aldridge then offers a brief assessment of this revised interpretation of Hirst’s position from the perspective of contemporary scholarship on the philosophy of religious education.

Bridges : I’m sure we’d both agree that James Conroy provides a fitting conclusion to this section of the Special Issue—standing back and locating Paul and his work in the wider context of social and educational change in the second half of the twentieth century.

In ‘Paul Hirst as a Liminal Figure and Modernizing Moralist’, Conroy suggests that it is difficult to think back to being a student teacher in 1970s Britain without immediately conjuring up a few key figures: figures who had shaped a post-war approach to education where moral imperatives appeared to be the lodestar for the enterprise in its entirety—figures such as Peters and Hirst but also Stenhouse, Wilson, McPhail, Taylor, White, amongst many others. It is perhaps unsurprising that someone who received their teacher education at that moment would be aware of the import and shaping influence on education of the concerns of the Second World War along with its ‘long withdrawing roar’. In this paper Conroy seeks to illuminate the seminal contribution of Paul Hirst to understanding two interdependent features of education in the 1970s, which continue to resonate in the 2020s. The first is the importance of moral education as the ground of the post-war democratic settlement, and the second is the complicated role that religion plays in underscoring that. More than this, he suggests that Paul Hirst’s concerns are pivotal in the shift from the post-war politics of solidarity to those of individualism and identity. Here it is necessary to understand the policy discourse that emerges towards the end of the Second World War (a policy discourse that, interestingly, has strong parallels in the USA). To see Hirst’s enduring importance to British education is to see him as a liminal figure trying to wean the educational establishment off an increasingly unsustainable attachment to Christian piety as the motive force underpinning (moral) educational provision while simultaneously attempting to hold on to the virtues that had secured much social progress in the war period.

White and Bridges : The contributions assembled in this Special Issue are an impressive tribute to the man whom many of the contributors knew as a mentor, colleague, and friend and to the continuing fertility of his contributions to philosophy of education. We are very conscious, though, that readers may discern perspectives on Paul Hirst’s work not picked up here that they would want to develop or claims made here that they would want to contest. We would like to welcome readers to offer those perspectives and, in future issues, to join in the discussions started here. There could be no more fitting tribute to a man who was always prepared to follow the argument wherever it led.

We are most grateful to all who have contributed and to the editors of the Journal of Philosophy of Education for making this Special Issue possible. We are grateful, too, to our blind reviewers for their helpful suggestions. We are also indebted to John White for help with proofreading but take responsibility for any errors that remain.

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Bridges , D. ( 2019 ) ‘ “Rigour”, “Discipline” and the “Systematic” in Educational Research—and Why They Matter’, in D. Bridges (ed.) Special Issue of European Educational Research Journal , vol. 18 , pp. 499 – 512 .

Bridges , D. , Smeyers , P. , and Smith , R. D. (eds) ( 2008 ) Evidence Based Educational Policy: What Evidence? What Basis? What Policy? Oxford : Wiley .

Department for Education and Science ( 1972 ) James Committee Report. Teacher Education and Training . London : HMSO .

Department of Education and Science (DFES) ( 1978 ) Making INSET Work . London : Department of Education and Science .

Elliott , J . ( 1994 ) ‘ Research on Teachers’ Knowledge and Action Research ’, Educational Action Research , 2 : 133 – 7 .

Hare , R. M . ( 1952 ) The Language of Morals . Oxford : Oxford University Press .

Hirst P. H . (2005a) ‘ A Response to Wilfred Carr's “Philosophy and Education”: Philosophy and Education: A Symposium ’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 39 : 615 – 32 . https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2005.00459.x .

Hirst , P. H . ( 1966 ) ‘Educational Theory’, in J. W. Tibble (ed.) The Study of Education , pp. 29–58. London : Routledge & Kegan Paul .

Hirst , P. H . ( 1993 ) ‘Education, Knowledge and Practices’, in R. Barrow and P. White (eds) Beyond Liberal Education: Essays in Honour of Paul H. Hirst , pp. 184 – 99 . London : Routledge .

Hirst , P. H . ( 1999a ) ‘The Nature of Educational Aims’, in R. Marples (ed.) The Aims of Education , pp. 124 – 32 . London : Routledge .

Hirst , P. H . ( 1999b ) ‘The Demands of Moral Education: Reasons, Virtues and Practices’, in M. Halstead and T. H. McLaughlin (eds) Education in Morality , pp. 115 – 27 . London : Routledge .

Hirst , P. H. ( 2008 ) ‘In Pursuit of Reason’, in L. Waks (ed.) Leaders in Philosophy of Education: Intellectual Self Portraits , pp. 113 – 24 . New York : Sense .

Hirst , P. H. ( 2010 ) ‘From Revelation and Faith to Reason and Agnosticism’, in P. S. Caws and S. Jones (eds) Religious Upbringing and the Costs of Freedom: Personal and Philosophical Essays , pp. 155 – 75 . Pennsylvania : Pennsylvania State University Press .

Hirst , P. H. and Carr , W. ( 2005 ) ‘ Philosophy and Education: A Symposium ’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 39 : 615 – 32 .

Mackenzie J . (1998) ‘ Forms of Knowledge and Forms of Discussion ’, Educational Philosophy and Theory , 30 : 27 – 49 .

McIntyre , D . ( 1995 ) ‘ Initial Teacher Education as Practical Theorising: A Response to Paul Hirst ’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 43 : 365 – 83 .

Ryle , G . ( 1949 ) The Concept of Mind . London : Hutchinson’s University Library .

White , P . ( 1994 ) ‘Interview with Professor Paul H. Hirst’, in Institute of Education Society Newsletter (Spring), pp. 8 – 11 . London.

Wittgenstein , L. ( 1953 ) Philosophical Investigations . Oxford : Basil Blackwell .

Bibliography of works by and about Paul H. Hirst

Ashraf, S. A., and Hirst, P. H. (eds) (undated) Religion and Education: Islamic and Christian Approaches . Cambridge: Islamic Academy of Cambridge.

Hirst, P. H., and Peters, R. S. (1970) The Logic of Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Dearden, R. F., Hirst, P. H., and Peters, R. S. (eds) (1972) Education and the Development of Reason . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Hirst, P. H. (1974) Knowledge and the Curriculum . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Hirst, P. H. (1974) Moral Education in a Secular Society . London: University of London Press.

Hirst, P. H. (ed.) (1983) Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Pocklington, K., Hirst, P. H., and Furlong, V. J. (1988) Initial Teacher Training and the Role of the School . Buckingham: Open University Press.

Hirst, P. H., and White, P. A. (eds) (1998) Philosophy of Education: Major Themes in the Analytic Tradition . London: Routledge.

Articles by P. H. Hirst

All single authored by P. H. Hirst unless indicated otherwise. Many have been reissued in various collections, but we here list only the first publication. In some cases we have been unable to trace the publication and thus establish the page references. We have nevertheless included these publications in the interests of being as inclusive as possible.

(1963) ‘Philosophy and Educational Theory’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 12: 51–64.

(1963) ‘Talking about God’, Learning for Living , 3: 9–12. London: Student Christian Movement.

(1965) ‘Christian and Secular Education’, Hibbert Journal , 63: 53–6.

(1965) ‘Morals, Science and the Two Cultures’, Education for Teaching . Reissued in Hirst, P. H. (1974) Knowledge and the Curriculum , pp. 165–74. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1965) ‘Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge’, in R. D. Archambault (ed.) Philosophical Analysis and Education , pp. 113–40. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1965) ‘Educational Theory’, in J. W. Tibble (ed.) The Study of Education , pp. 29–58. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1965) ‘Morals, Religion and the Maintained School’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 14: 5–18.

(1966) ‘Language and Thought’, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (Journal of Philosophy of Education) , 1: 63–75.

(1967) ‘The Logical and Psychological Aspects of Teaching a Subject’, in R. S. Peters (ed.) The Concept of Education , pp. 44–60. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1967) ‘Public and Private Values and Religious Educational Content’, in T. R. Sizer (ed.) Religion and Public Education , ch. 17. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

(1967) ‘The Curriculum: Educational Implications of Social and Economic Change’, in Schools Council Working Paper No. 12. London: HMSO.

(1968) ‘Reply to George S. Maccia’, Studies in Philosophy and Education , 6: 62.

(1968) ‘The Contribution of Philosophy to the Study of the Curriculum’, in J. F. Kerr (ed.) Changing the Curriculum , pp. 39–62. London: University of London Press.

(1969) ‘The Logic of the Curriculum’, Journal of Curriculum Studies , 1: 142–58.

(1969) ‘The Curriculum’, Western European Education , 1: 30–48.

(1969) ‘The Foundations of Morality’, Spectrum , 1.

(1969) ‘Morals, Religion and the Maintained School’, in C. Macy (ed.) Let’s Teach Them Right , pp. 123–9. London: Pemberton Books.

(1970) ‘Philosophy and Religious Education: A Reply to D. Z. Phillips’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 18: 213–15.

(1971) ‘What Is Teaching?’ Journal of Curriculum Studies , 3, 5–18.

(1971) ‘Liberal Education’, Encyclopaedia of Education . London: Macmillan.

(1971) ‘Literature, Criticism and the Forms of Knowledge’, Educational Philosophy and Theory , 3: 11–18.

(1971) ‘ “Christian Education”—A Contradiction in Terms’, Faith and Thought , 11: 6–11.

(1972) ‘The Nature of Educational Theory: Reply to D. J. O’Connor’, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain ( Journal of Philosophy of Education ), 6: 110–18.

(1972) ‘Reflections on the James Report’, Froebel Journal , 24 (Autumn): 9–15.

(1973) ‘Religion: A Form of Knowledge? A Reply’, Learning for Living , 12: 8–10.

(1973) ‘Forms of Knowledge: A Reply to Elizabeth Hindess’, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society ( Journal of Philosophy of Education ), 7: 260–71.

(1973) ‘Towards a Logic of Curriculum Development’, in P. H. Taylor and J. Walton (eds) The Curriculum: Research, Innovation and Change , pp. 9–26. East Grinstead: Ward Lock Educational.

(1973) ‘Literature and the Fine Arts as a Unique Form of Knowledge’, Cambridge Journal of Education , 3: 118–32.

(1973) ‘The Nature and Scope of Educational Theory (2)’, in G. Langford and D. J. O’Connor (eds) New Essays in the Philosophy of Education , pp. 50–8. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1974) ‘Statements, Language and Art: A Comment in Reply to Mr. Peter Scrimshaw’, Cambridge Journal of Education , 4: 44–6.

(1974) ‘Professional Preparation: The P.G.C.E.’, Times Educational Supplement , 22 March.

(1974) ‘Training Professional Teachers’, Times Higher Education Supplement , 26 April.

(1975) ‘Education and Human Being: Chairman’s Remarks’, in S. C. Brown (ed.) Philosophers Discuss Education , pp. 85–98. London: Macmillan.

(1975) ‘The Curriculum and its Objectives: A Defence of Piecemeal Rational Planning’. Doris Lee Memorial Lecture. University of London Institute of Education.

(1975) ‘The P.G.C.E. Course: Its Objectives and their Nature’, British Journal of Teacher Education , 2: 7–21.

(1975) (joint author with R. S. Peters). ‘Reply to Clive Beck’, Studies in Philosophy and Education , 9: 4–20.

(1976) ‘Towards a Theology of Education’, Learning for Living , 15: 155–7.

(1976) ‘Religious Beliefs and Educational Principles’, Learning for Living , 15: 155–64.

(1977) ‘Rational Curriculum Planning: Its Logic and Objectives’, Melbourne Studies in Education , 19: 26–44.

(1979) ‘A Review of A. Brent, Philosophical Foundations for the Curriculum ’, Journal of Further and Higher Education , 3: 103–6.

(1979) ‘Response to Review of Knowledge and the Curriculum by Jonas F. Soltis’, Teachers College Record , 80: 785–9.

(1979) ‘Human Movement, Knowledge and Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 13: 101–8.

(1979) ‘Professional Studies in Initial Teacher Education: Some Conceptual Issues’, in R. Alexander and E. Wormald (eds) Professional Studies for Teaching , pp. 15–29. Guildford, UK: Teacher Education Study Group of Society for Research into Higher Education.

(1979) ‘Faculty Survey: 4 The Study of Education’, in Cambridge , The Magazine of the Cambridge Society , 5.

(1979) ‘Education, the School and the Church’, 1978 Wiseman Lecture. The Oscotian , Vlth Series 1978–9.

(1980) ‘The PGCE Course and the Training of Specialist Teachers for Secondary Schools’, British Journal of Teacher Education , 6: 3–20.

(1980) ‘The Logic of Curriculum Development’, in M. Galton (ed.) Curriculum Change , pp. 9–20. Leicester: Leicester University Press.

(1981) ‘Education, Catechesis and the Church School’ (edited version of Wiseman Lecture 1978), British Journal of Religious Education , 3: 85–93.

(1981) ‘Symposium Paper: Philosophy of Education: Review of NSSE 80th Year Book’, Harvard Educational Review , 51: 415–9.

(1982) ‘Philosophy of Education: The Significance of the “Sixties” ’, in R. Barrow (ed.) Educational Analysis , 4: 5–10.

(1982) ‘Professional Authority: Its Foundations and Limits’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 30: 172–82.

(1983) ‘Educational Theory’, in P. H. Hirst (ed.) Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines , pp. 3–29. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1984) ‘Philosophy of Education’, in J. M. Sutcliffe (ed.) A Dictionary of Religious Education , pp. 259–61. London: SCM Press.

(1984) ‘Education and Diversity of Belief’, in M. C. Felderhof (ed.) Religious Education in a Pluralistic Society , pp. 5–18. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

(1985) ‘Richard S. Peters’, in Dicionario de Ciencias de la Educacion, Historia de la Educacion II . Madrid: Anaya.

(1985) ‘Educational Studies and the PGCE Course’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 33: 211–21.

(1986) ‘Richard Peters’ Contribution to the Philosophy of Education’, in D. E. Cooper (ed.) Education, Values and Mind , pp. 8–14. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

(1987) ‘Pedagogisk filosofi—utviklingslinjer og status i Storbrittania’, in O. Evenshang, T. Harbo, and U. E. Stalsett (eds) Pedagogikk og lårerutdanning: aktuelle idbrytninger , pp. 94–110. Oslo: Tano.

(1987) ‘Foreword’, in G. Haydon (ed.) Education and Values: The Richard Peters Lectures . London: University of London Institute of Education.

(1988) ‘Review of Lionel Elvin, Encounters with Education ’, Cambridge Review , 109(2303).

(1989) ‘Ethical Consideration of Streaming’, Education (University of Malta): 3.

(1989) ‘The Department of Education: Inside or Outside the Social Science Faculty’, in Forsknings Symposiet 17–18, November 1988: 25th Anniversary Symposium of the Social Sciences Faculty . Oslo: University of Oslo.

(1989) ‘The Concepts of Physical Education and Dance Education’, in Collected Conference Papers in Dance , vol. 4. London: National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

(1989) ‘Implications of Government Funding Policies for Research in Teaching and Teacher Education: England and Wales’, Teaching and Teacher Education , 5: 267–73.

(1990) ‘Internship: A View from Outside’, in P. Benton (ed.) The Oxford Internship Scheme: Integration and Partnership in Initial Teacher Training , pp. 147–59. London: C. Gulbenkian Foundation.

(1990) ‘The Theory-Practice Relationship in Teacher Training’, in M. Wilkin, V. J. Furlong, and M. Booth (eds) Partnership in Initial Teacher Training: The Way Forward , pp. 74–86. London: Cassell.

(1991) ‘Theory, Practice and Teacher Education’, in P. Kansanen (ed.) Discussions on Some Educational Issues III , Research Reprint 94. Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki.

(1991) ‘Educational Aims: Their Nature and Content’, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society (USA) : 40–53.

(1991) ‘Professional Preparation and the Study of Educational Situations’, in R. G. Sultana (ed.) Themes in Education: A Maltese Reader . Malta: Minerva.

(1991) ‘Certain Basic Issues in Curriculum Development’, in V. Firsov (ed.) British and Soviet Perspectives on the Curriculum , pp. 39–46. Moscow: Perspectiva.

(1992) ‘Aesthetic Education’, in D. E. Cooper (ed.) A Companion to Aesthetics , pp. 127–30. Oxford: Blackwell.

(1992) ‘Education and Training’, in Toward a National Dance Culture. Collected Conference Papers in Dance , vol. 6. London: NATFHE.

(1993) ‘The Foundations of the National Curriculum: Why Subjects?’, in P. O’Hear and J. White (eds) Assessing the National Curriculum , pp. 31–7. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

(1993) ‘Education, Knowledge and Practices’, in R. Barrow and P. White (eds) Beyond Liberal Education: Essays in Honour of Paul Hirst , pp. 184–99. London: Routledge.

(1996) ‘The Demands of Professional Practice and Preparation for Teaching’, in J. Furlong and R. Smith (eds) The Role of Higher Education in Initial Teacher Training , pp. 166–78. London: Kogan Page.

(1998) ‘Philosophy of Education: The Evolution of a Discipline', in G. Haydon (ed.) 50 Years of Philosophy of Education: Progress and Prospects , pp. 1–22. London: London Institute of Education.

(1999) ‘The Nature of Educational Aims’, in R. Marples (ed.) The Aims of Education , pp. 124–32. London: Routledge.

(1999) ‘The Demands of Moral Education: Reasons, Virtues and Practices’, in M. Halstead and T. H. McLaughlin (eds) Education in Morality , pp. 115–27. London: Routledge.

(2005) with Carr, W. ‘Philosophy and Education: A Symposium’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 39: 615–32.

(2008) ‘In Pursuit of Reason’, in L. Waks (ed.) Leaders in Philosophy of Education: Intellectual Self-Portraits , pp. 113–24. New York: Sense.

(2010) ‘From Revelation and Faith to Reason and Agnosticism’, in P. S. Caws and S. Jones (eds) Religious Upbringing and the Costs of Freedom: Personal and Philosophical Essays , pp. 155–75. University Park, PA: Penn State Press.

Select bibliography of writings making critical reference to the work of P. H. Hirst

Note: This bibliography is far from a complete tabulation of all such writings.

Alexander, H. A. (1989) ‘Liberal Education and the Open Society: Absolutism and Relativism in Curriculum Theory’, Curriculum Inquiry , 19: 11–32.

Allen, R. T. (1989) ‘Metaphysics in Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 23: 159–69.

Apple, M. W. (1985) ‘Review of Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines , edited by P. H. Hirst’, Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews , 14: 206–7.

Arnold, P. J. (1988) ‘Education, Movement, and the Rationality of Practical Knowledge’, Quest , 40: 115–25.

Arnold, P. J. (1989) ‘On the Relationship between Education, Work and Leisure: Past, Present and Future’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 37: 136–46.

Arnold, P. J. (1991) ‘The Pre-eminence of Skill as an Educational Value in the Movement Curriculum’, Quest , 43: 66–77.

Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education (1973) A.T.C.D.E. Philosophy Section, Report of Conference on ‘Philosophy and the Teaching of the Arts’, at Madeley College of Education, July 1973.

Bailey, C. H. (1984) Beyond the Present and the Particular: A Theory of Liberal Education . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Barnett, R. A. (1987) ‘Teacher Education: A Changing Model of Professional Preparation’, Educational Studies , 13: 57–74.

Barrett, R. A. (1979) ‘Recent Philosophical Books on the Curriculum’, Journal of Educational Thought , 13: 78–86.

Barrow, R. (1976) Common Sense and the Curriculum . London: Allen & Unwin.

Barrow, R. (1986) The Philosophy of Schooling . Brighton: Wheatsheaf.

Barrow, R., and Woods, R. G. (1988) An Introduction to Philosophy of Education , 3rd edn. London: Routledge.

Best, D. (1985) ‘Primary and Secondary Qualities: Waiting for an Educational Godot’, Oxford Review of Education , 11: 73–84.

Birch, W. (1986) ‘Towards a Model of Problem-based Learning’, Studies in Higher Education , 11: 73–82.

Bonnett, M. (1994) Children’s Thinking: Promoting Understanding in the Primary School . London: Cassell.

Brennan, A. (1985) ‘Primary Education in the Eighties’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 33: 278–98.

Brennan, A. (1986) ‘Analysis, Development and Education’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 34, 249–67.

Brennan, A., and Dumbleton, P. (1989) ‘Learning Difficulties and the Concept of a Person’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 37: 147–68.

Brent, A. (1978) Philosophical Foundations of the Curriculum . London: Allen & Unwin.

Brent, A. (1982) ‘Transcendental Arguments for the Forms of Knowledge’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 16: 265–74.

Bridges, D., and Oancea, A. (2009) ‘The Disciplines of Educational Research: Philosophy of Education’, Oxford Review of Education , 35: 553–68.

Bridges, D. (2017) ‘The Discipline and Disciplines of Educational Research’, in Philosophy in Educational Research: Epistemology, Ethics, Politics and Quality , pp. 12–32. Springer: Dordrecht.

Bridges, D. (2017) ‘Educational Research and Practice’, in Philosophy in Educational Research: Epistemology, Ethics, Politics and Quality , pp. 93–113. Springer: Dordrecht.

Bridges, D. (2018) ‘Philosophical Issues in the Construction of the Curriculum’, in P. Smeyers (ed.) International Handbook of Philosophy of Education , pp. 1027–43. Dordrecht: Springer.

Bridges, D. (2019) ‘ “Rigour”, “Discipline” and the “Systematic” in Educational Research—and Why They Matter’, European Educational Research Journal , 18: 499–512.

Brown, C. (1988) ‘Curriculum Responses to Ethnic-Minority Groups: A Framework for Analysis’, Educational Review , 40: 51–8.

Brown, L. M. (1972) ‘Metaphors, Concepts and a Liberal Education’, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australia , 1: 24–42.

Burton, R. (1981) A Critical Comparison of P. H. Hirst’s Theory of Moral Education with that of J. Wilson . M.Ed. thesis, University of Liverpool.

Callan, E. (1984) ‘Liberal Education and the Curriculum’, Educational Studies , 10: 65–76.

Carr, W. (1985) ‘Review of Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines , edited by P. H. Hirst’, Journal of Curriculum Studies , 17: 116–18.

Carr, W. (2004) ‘Philosophy and Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 38: 55–73.

Carr, W. (2006) ‘Education without Theory’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 54: 136–59.

Cato, D. (1986) ‘The Philosophic Pretence of Linguistic Analysis: A Polanyian Perspective on Joe Green’s Drawing Out of Paul Hirst’s Concept of Reason’, Journal of Educational Thought , 20: 134–42.

Clark, C. (1988) ‘The Necessity of Curricular Objectives’, Journal of Curriculum Studies , 20: 339–49.

Clark, C. (2011) ‘Education(al) Research, Educational Policy-making and Practice’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 45: 37–57.

Cohen, B. (1980) Means and Ends in Education . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Cooper, D. E. (1980) Illusions of Equality . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Corson, D. (1983) ‘Social Dialect, the Semantic Barrier, and Access to Curricular Knowledge’, Language in Society , 12: 213–22.

Cowell, B. (1983) ‘The Role of Christians in Religious and Moral Education’, Journal of Moral Education , 12: 161–5.

Dearden, R. F. (1968) The Philosophy of Primary Education . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Dearden, R. F. (1984) Theory and Practice in Education . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Degenhardt, M. A. B. (1982) Education and the Value of Knowledge . London: Allen & Unwin.

Degenhardt, M. A. B. (1984) ‘Educational Research as a Source of Educational Harm’, Universities Quarterly: Culture, Education and Society , 38: 232–52.

Deng, Z. (2018) ‘Bringing Knowledge Back in Perspective from Liberal Education’, Cambridge Journal of Education , 48: 335–51.

Diorio, J. A. (1977) ‘Knowledge, Truth and Power in the Curriculum’, Educational Theory , 27: 103–10.

Donald, J. G. (1986) ‘Knowledge and the University Curriculum’, Higher Education , 15: 95–106.

Downey, M., and Kelly, A. V. (1978) Moral Education: Theory and Practice . London: Harper & Row.

Dunlop, F. (1984) The Education of Feeling and Emotion . London: Allen & Unwin.

Egan, K. (1983) ‘Children’s Path to Reality from Fantasy: Contrary Thoughts about Curriculum Foundations’, Oxford Review of Education , 15: 357–71.

Elliot, M. (1985) ‘Can Primary Teachers still Be Subject Generalists?’ Teaching and Teacher Education , 1: 279–87.

Elliott, J. (1987) ‘Educational Theory, Practical Philosophy and Action Research’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 35: 149–69.

Elliott, R. K. (1975) ‘Education and Human Being’, in S. C. Brown (ed.) Philosophers Discuss Education , pp. 45–72. London: Macmillan.

Elliott, R. K. (1975) ‘Postscript to Part II: Education and the Development of Understanding’, in S. C. Brown (ed.) Philosophers Discuss Education , pp. 99–110. London: Macmillan.

Elliott, R. K. (1982) ‘Objectivity and Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 16: 49–62.

Enslin, P. A. (1979) The Nature of Educational Theory: A Critical Study of the Views of D. J. O’Connor, P. H. Hirst and J. B. Wilson . M. Litt. thesis, Cambridge University.

Enslin, P. A. (1985) ‘Are Hirst and Peters Liberal Philosophers of Education?’ Journal of Philosophy of Education , 19: 211–22.

Evers, C. W. (1979) ‘Analytic Philosophy of Education: From a Logical Point of View’, Educational Philosophy and Theory , 11: 1–15.

Evers, C. W. (1987) ‘Epistemology and the Structure of Educational Theory: Some Reflections on the O’Connor-Hirst Debate’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 21: 3–13.

Evers, C. W., and Walker, J. C. (1983) ‘Knowledge, Partitioned Sets and Extension­ality: A Refutation of the Forms of Knowledge Thesis’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 17: 155–70.

Evers, C. W., and Walker, J. C. (1987) ‘Pyrotechnics Defended: A Reply to Jim Mackenzie’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 21: 139–42.

Flew, A. (1976) Sociology, Equality and Education . London: Macmillan.

Floden, R. E., Buchmann, M., and Schwille, J. R. (1987) ‘Breaking with Everyday Experience’, Teachers College Record , 88: 485–506.

Forquin, J. C. (1985) ‘Sociology of Curriculum in Great Britain’, Revue Française de Sociologie , 25: 211–32.

Francis, L. J. (1983) ‘The Logic of Education: Theology, and the Church School’, Oxford Review of Education , 9: 147–62.

Francis, L. (1990) ‘Theology of Education’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 38: 349–64.

Gingell, J. (1985) ‘Art and Knowledge’, Educational Philosophy and Theory , 17: 10–21.

Goldstein, L. (1988) ‘The Shaping of the Curriculum’, Oxford Review of Education , 14: 215–25.

González de Léon, C. (1987) ‘Classificatory Schemes and the Justification of Educational Content: A Re-interpretation of the Hirstian Approach’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 21: 103–12.

Goodrich, R. A. (1984) ‘A Revival of the Propositional Theory of Art?’, British Journal of Aesthetics , 24: 314–24.

Green, J. (1985) ‘The Concept of Reason in Hirst’s Forms of Knowledge’, Journal of Educational Thought , 19: 109–16.

Greene, M. (1984) ‘Philosophy, Reason and Literacy’, Review of Educational Research , 554: 547–59.

Greene, M. (1989) ‘The Question of Standards’, Teachers College Record , 91: 9–14.

Greer, J. E. (1983) ‘Religious and Moral Education: An Exploration of Some Relevant Issues’, Journal of Moral Education , 12: 92–9.

Gribble, J. (1969) Introduction to Philosophy of Education . Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Gribble, J. (1974) ‘The Critical Fallacy in Education’, Educational Philosophy and Theory , 6: 1–21.

Gribble, J. (1983) Literary Education: A Revaluation . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Griffiths, M. (1986) ‘Hirst’s Forms of Knowledge and Koerner’s Categorical Frameworks’, Oxford Review of Education , 12: 17–30.

Halstead, R. (1979) ‘The Relevance of Psychology to Educational Epistemology’, Philosophy of Education: Proceedings , 35: 65–76.

Hare, W. (1979) Open-mindedness and Education . Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Harris, J. E. (1988) ‘Discussion in Practice: Theorizing Structure and Subjectivity in Teaching and Learning’, British Journal of Sociology of Education , 9: 205–21.

Harris, K. (1979) Education and Knowledge . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Hart, W. A. (1976) ‘Is Teaching what the Philosopher Understands by It?’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 24: 155–70.

Hendley, B. P. (1984) ‘The Philosophy of Education since Dewey’, Eidos , 3: 191–215.

Heslep, R. D., (1987) ‘The Moral Import of the Concept of Education’, Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society , 32: 1–22.

Hewson, P. W., and Hewson, M. G. A. (1988) ‘An Appropriate Conception of Teaching Science: A View from Studies of Science Learning’, Science Education , 72: 597–614.

Hindess, E. (1972) ‘Forms of Knowledge’, Proceedings of the Philosophy of Education Society , Supplementary vol. 2.

Hobson, P. (1983) ‘Paternalism and the Justification of Compulsory Education’, Australian Journal of Education , 27: 137–50.

Howe, A. (1985) ‘Education or Training: Is there any Difference?’, Programmed Learning and Educational Technology , 22: 78–80.

Huckle, J. (1978) ‘Geography and Values in Higher Education’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education , 2: 57–67.

Huff, T. E. (1977) ‘An Impossible Epistemology’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences , 7: 95–102.

Hughes-Warrington, M. (1997) ‘Collingwood and the Early Paul Hirst on the Forms of Experience, Knowledge and Education’, British Journal of Educational Studies , 45: 156–73.

Hull, J. M. (1976) ‘Christian Theology and Educational Theory: Can there Be Connections?’ British Journal of Educational Studies , 24: 127–43.

Hurst, B. C. (1984) ‘Means, Ends, Content and Objectives in Hirst and Sockett’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 18: 17–30.

Hyland, J. T. (1986) ‘Rationality, and Learning to Be Moral’, Journal of Moral Education , 15: 127–38.

Jae-Bong, Yoo (2001) ‘Hirst’s Social Practices View of Education: A Radical Change from his Liberal Education?’, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 35: 615–26.

Kasprisin, L. (1985) ‘Literature as a Way of Knowing: An Epistemological Justification for Literary Studies’, Proceedings of Philosophy of Education , 41: 379–89.

Kelly, A., and Weinreich-Haste, H. (1977) ‘Science Is for Girls’, Women Studies International Quarterly , 2: 127–39.

Kilbourn, B. (1982) ‘Thoughts on Conceptual Analyses of Teaching’, Journal of Educational Thought , 16: 64–72.

Kleinig, J. (1982) Philosophical Issues in Education . London: Croom Helm.

Langford, G. (1985) Education, Persons and Society . London: Macmillan.

Lawson, K. H. (1985) ‘The Problem of Defining Adult Education as an Area of Research’, Adult Education Quarterly , 36: 39–43.

Lauglo, J. (1983) ‘Concepts of General Education and Vocational Education Curricula for Post-Compulsory Schooling in Western Industrialized Countries: When the Twain Shall Meet’, Comparative Education , 19: 285–304.

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