Subtopic Deep Dive

Educational Aims
Research Guide

What is Educational Aims?

Educational Aims refers to philosophical debates on the purposes of education, emphasizing virtue ethics, human flourishing, phronesis, and critiques of utilitarian or market-driven goals often drawing on MacIntyre's framework.

Researchers examine educational aims through Aristotelian phronesis and MacIntyre's practice-based traditions, challenging evidence-based policy dominance. Key works include MacAllister (2016, 26 citations) responding to Biesta on orienting education toward the good, and Kristjánsson (2021, 23 citations) proposing 22 testable hypotheses on phronesis. Over 10 papers from 2002-2021 explore these themes, with ~120 total citations across provided lists.

Curated Papers

Key Challenges

Why It Matters

Debates on educational aims influence policy by critiquing accountability-driven models, as in Malone and Hogan (2019, 18 citations) who argue evidence-based thinking harms educational coherence. MacIntyre-inspired proposals, like Stolz (2015, 6 citations) on rival traditions, advocate narrative unity for holistic schooling. Kreber (2015, 15 citations) applies MacIntyre to theorize scholarship of teaching, shaping teacher education reforms as in Oancea and Orchard (2013, 8 citations).

Key Research Challenges

Operationalizing Phronesis Empirically

Phronesis fascinates theorists but lacks clear empirical tests in education. Kristjánsson (2021, 23 citations) outlines 22 hypotheses to structure research programs. Validating practical wisdom amid utilitarian metrics remains elusive.

Resisting Evidence-Based Dominance

Evidence-based policymaking erodes educational goods beyond measurement. Malone and Hogan (2019, 18 citations) show it harms evidence notions and practice coherence. Balancing qualms with policy demands challenges philosophers.

Reconciling Rival Traditions

MacIntyre's contested traditions fragment modern aims like efficiency versus virtue. Stolz (2015, 6 citations) critiques if education fits as essentially contested. Integrating encyclopedic and liberal views persists as tension.

Essential Papers

What should Educational Institutions be for?

James MacAllister · 2016 · British Journal of Educational Studies · 26 citations

In this article, I respond to the work of Gert Biesta regarding the question of what education should be for. He maintains education ought to be oriented towards the ‘good’ rather than measurement,...

Twenty‐two testable hypotheses about phronesis: Outlining an educational research programme

Kristján Kristjánsson · 2021 · British Educational Research Journal · 23 citations

The concept of phronesis enters educational discourse at various levels of engagement, and it continues to fascinate and frustrate educational theorists in equal measure. This article begins by cha...

Evidence and its consequences in educational research

Anthony Malone, Pádraig Hogan · 2019 · British Educational Research Journal · 18 citations

We begin by arguing that the continuing dominance of ‘evidence‐based’ thinking in educational policymaking does serious harm to the notion of evidence itself; also that it brings a loss of coherenc...

Furthering the “Theory Debate” in the Scholarship of Teaching: A Proposal Based on MacIntyre’s Account of Practices

Carolin Kreber · 2015 · Canadian Journal of Higher Education · 15 citations

Initiatives intended to support and advance the scholarship of teaching have become common in Canada as well as internationally. Nonetheless, the notion of a scholarship of teaching remains contest...

The Future of Teacher Education

Alis Oancea, Janet Orchard · 2013 · 8 citations

Conceptions of teaching quality and teacher accountability, and the values and assumptions which underpin them, are relatively under-examined by policy makers.We suggest ways in which philosophers ...

MacIntyre, rival traditions and education

Steven A. Stolz · 2015 · Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education · 6 citations

AbstractThis paper critically discusses MacIntyre's thesis that education is essentially a contested concept. In order to contextualise my discussion, I discuss both whether rival educational tradi...

Johnson, MacIntyre, and the Practice of Argumentation

Tone Kvernbekk · 2008 · Informal Logic · 4 citations

This article is a discussion of Ralph Johnson’s concept of practice of argumentation. Such practice is characterized by three properties: (1) It is teleological, (2) it is dialectical, and (3) it i...

Reading Guide

Foundational Papers

Start with Kvernbekk (2008, 4 cites) and (2007, 2 cites) for MacIntyre-Johnson argumentation practices; Oancea and Orchard (2013, 8 cites) for teacher education values grounding policy debates.

Recent Advances

Kristjánsson (2021, 23 cites) for phronesis research program; MacAllister (2016, 26 cites) responding to Biesta; Malone and Hogan (2019, 18 cites) critiquing evidence dominance.

Core Methods

MacIntyre's rival traditions analysis (Stolz 2015), phronesis hypothesis testing (Kristjánsson 2021), practice-based theorizing (Kreber 2015), and dialectical argumentation (Kvernbekk 2008).

How PapersFlow Helps You Research Educational Aims

Discover & Search

Research Agent uses citationGraph on MacAllister (2016) to map Biesta responses and MacIntyre critiques, then findSimilarPapers for phronesis extensions. exaSearch queries 'MacIntyre educational practices virtue ethics' to uncover 20+ related works beyond lists, like rival tradition analyses.

Analyze & Verify

Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to Kristjánsson (2021) for phronesis hypotheses, then verifyResponse (CoVe) checks claims against Oancea and Orchard (2013). runPythonAnalysis parses citation networks with NetworkX for influence stats; GRADE grading scores evidence strength in virtue ethics debates.

Synthesize & Write

Synthesis Agent detects gaps in utilitarian critiques via contradiction flagging across Malone (2019) and Stolz (2015), generating exportMermaid diagrams of tradition rivalries. Writing Agent uses latexEditText for philosophy sections, latexSyncCitations for MacIntyre refs, and latexCompile for policy briefs.

Use Cases

"Analyze citation patterns in MacIntyre's influence on educational aims papers."

Research Agent → citationGraph on Stolz (2015) → runPythonAnalysis (NetworkX degree centrality) → output: centrality scores showing MacIntyre as hub (e.g., 6 inbound edges).

"Draft LaTeX review synthesizing phronesis hypotheses with teacher education policy."

Synthesis Agent → gap detection on Kristjánsson (2021) + Oancea (2013) → Writing Agent latexEditText + latexSyncCitations + latexCompile → output: 5-page LaTeX PDF with synced bibliography.

"Find code for simulating argumentation practices in education debates."

Research Agent → paperExtractUrls from Kvernbekk (2008) → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect → output: Repo with dialectical argumentation simulator in Python.

Automated Workflows

Deep Research performs systematic review: searchPapers 'educational aims MacIntyre phronesis' → 50+ papers → structured report with GRADE scores on evidence quality. Theorizer generates theory: analyzes rival traditions in Stolz (2015) + Kreber (2015) → proposes unified practice-based aims model. DeepScan applies 7-step chain: readPaperContent on MacAllister (2016) → CoVe verification → exportMermaid flowchart of good-oriented education.

Try Doxa for Educational Aims Research

Frequently Asked Questions

What defines educational aims in philosophy?

Educational aims debate purposes beyond utility, focusing virtue ethics and flourishing via MacIntyre's practices and Aristotelian phronesis (MacAllister 2016; Kristjánsson 2021).

What methods dominate this subtopic?

Philosophical analysis of practices (Kreber 2015), testable hypotheses for phronesis (Kristjánsson 2021), and critiques of evidence-based policy (Malone and Hogan 2019).

What are key papers?

MacAllister (2016, 26 cites) on education for the good; Kristjánsson (2021, 23 cites) on phronesis hypotheses; Oancea and Orchard (2013, 8 cites) on teacher education values.

What open problems exist?

Empirical testing of phronesis (Kristjánsson 2021), reconciling rival traditions (Stolz 2015), and countering market-driven aims with coherent alternatives.