15315-wolbert

Chapter 1 13 A question of professional ethics Evaluating theory by means of a criterion of practical relevance as I describe it here can be understood as a methodological or meta-theoretical reflection in the sense that one evaluates which method of theorising provides the best possibility to think about ‘real’ educational practices. But such an evaluation can also be seen as part of a reflection on professional ethics for philosophers of education. By this I mean that the question in what way educational theory should think about/be related to educational practice can be discussed as part of the question of what the moral demands are of the vocation of an educational philosopher. 47 Political philosopher Michael Frazer states that if the community of academic political theorists and philosophers cannot help us navigate the problems we face in actual political life, they have not lived up to the moral demands of their vocation. 48 In my opinion, this applies, or should apply, to educational theorists and philosophers too. Compared to other professionals in the educational domain theorists and philosophers have great freedom to address the problems faced in educational practices and how to ‘navigate’ these. Yet, arguably we are given time and resources to do exactly that, not to do something that is completely disengaged from education in the real world. By this I mean that it is never self-justifying for educational theorists (because they are theorists) to theorise about some abstract, educational utopia, without a concern for the problems of actual educational practices. 49 There might be good reasons to ‘disengage’ sometimes, for example in order to imagine a wholly different world and education to create an ‘out of the box’ perspective on ours. But such an exercise needs to be well- argued for. I am not claiming that this dissertation will provide a definitive standard of the ‘appropriate bearing on educational practice’, but I do see the search for such a standard as part of ‘the moral demands’ of my vocation. A second question of professional ethics is reflected in the question frequently asked of philosophers: what is the use of philosophy, or theoretical research (in general)? During the review process of the article that is published here as chapter 3, one of the anonymous reviewers remarked that all theorists who write about flourishing know that there are many children who are ill-fed or travel to school through unsafe areas, in other words that there are many problems in the real world. They also know that policy-makers should be working out ways to reduce those evils. In 47 Frazer 2016. 48 Ibid., p. 177. 49 Ibid., p. 175.