POISED Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education

POISED is a research group for Political Philosophies and Sociologies of Education.

Educational institutions today stand at the forefront of answering ’big questions’ of future societies and reacting to megatrends in global politics and the economy. This demands educational researchers and educational policy makers to acknowledge the cultural, political, and philosophical complexities underpinning educational practices.

The group insists that educational questions from early childhood to adult education are inherently those of political order, involving convictions about how societies function, what guarantees their continuity and to what ends. POISED takes up topical issues in education that are of national and global importance, such as democratic education, educational reforms, and environmental risks, and approaches them from philosophical and sociological points of view.  

Researchers in POISED see that political questions of education are also undergirded by inherently historical forms of thought that make education thinkable and governable, delimiting how certain issues are brought up, presented as important and demanding attention, and what kinds of practical means are necessary. 

The group approaches these questions through novel and challenging theoretical angles that problematize taken-for-granted assumptions about education. Our research does not seek to make questions of simple, quite the opposite, to pay respect to the complexities therein. 

POISED research themes:

• Environmental Philosophy
• Power and Knowledge
• Democracy and Being