Measuring Up in Education (Educational Philosophy and Theory)

Cultures of measurement are often considered to dominate educational practices, to the degree that, as Biesta (2010) has identified in Good Education in an Age of Measurement we no longer measure what we value, but rather we have become conditioned to value what is measured. A clear example of this occurs when institutions and staff "teach to the test" by emphasising narrow conceptions of learning and of knowledge, simply because the consequences of high-stakes assessments have important implications regarding funding, resources, and even tenure.

This collection explores, via various philosophical means, how valuable educational practices can occur within and beyond cultures of measurement. What seems to be required is for practitioners in education to regain their relationship to the overall purposes of education, such as the furthering of justice and democracy for both individual students and societies as a whole. Such a reconnection has the potential to re-humanise curricular experiences for students, which may have become dehumanised through particular cultures of measurement. It is argued that certain legitimate measures can advance justice and democracy, and so careful attention must be assigned to their validity and value.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Steven A. Stolz, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, Australia. He has a diverse array of research interests, which ranges from: critical theory, epistemology, phenomenology, embodied cognition, narrative inquiry, and learning theories in psychology. At the moment, his primary area of scholarship is concerned with the relationship between theory and practice, particularly how theory informs practice, and/or how practice informs theory. Recent publications of note include: Theory and Philosophy in Education Research: Methodological Dialogues (Routledge), and MacIntyre, Rationality and Education: Against Education of Our Age (Springer).

R. Scott Webster is an Associate Professor, and the coordinator of the Curriculum, Pedagogy and Professional Learning group within the School of Education at Deakin University, Australia. His areas of research include philosophy and theories of education, teacher education, curriculum theory, existentialism, and spirituality. His authored and edited books include the following: Educating for Meaningful Lives (2009); Understanding Curriculum: The Australian Context (2019, 2nd ed., with A. Ryan); Rethinking Reflection and Ethics for Teachers (2019, with J. Whelan); and Theory and Philosophy in Education Research: Methodological Dialogues (2018).