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Philosophy and Public Life

The Point And Perils Of Public Engagement

Michael Hand considers the pros and cons of courting media attention.

As a philosopher of education, I do philosophy with a view to changing educational policy and practice for the better. I ask questions about what and how children should be taught in schools. I do this partly because the questions are philosophically interesting, but primarily because I think there is room for improvement on the answers currently institutionalised in national education systems. Insofar as I can offer, and justify, better answers than the institutionalised ones, I take it to be part of my job to communicate these to the people who can help put them into practice. Who are these people? Most immediately, they are educational policy-makers and practitioners.

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