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Teaching

Currere Cymru: The Future of Educational Research in Wales

Posted on 27 February 2024 by Dr Kevin Smith

How can teachers in Wales reimagine curriculum as something lived, felt and continually made? In this post, I introduce Currere Cymru—a new research collaboration exploring how curriculum theorising can support transformative educational practice across Wales.

Thinking Philosophically About Pedagogy: Teaching, Wisdom, and the More-than-Human

Posted on 17 October 2022 by Dr Kevin Smith

What does it mean to teach wisely? In this post, I share how thinking philosophically can enrich our understanding of pedagogy—helping educators make more deliberate, defensible, and compassionate decisions in the classroom.

Coddling White Ignorance: Pedagogical Grace and Racial Justice in Teacher Education

Posted on 4 February 2021 by Dr Kevin Smith

How can educators confront white ignorance without abandoning grace? In this powerful reflection, Dr Kevin Talbert considers how teacher education must move beyond comforting white innocence toward a practice of truth-telling, accountability and love that fosters genuine transformation.

Demoralisation, Best Practices, and the Moral Centre of Teaching

Posted on 23 September 2019 by Dr Kevin Smith

What’s lost when teaching is stripped of its moral core? Building on Doris Santoro’s concept of demoralisation, this post explores how the language of “best practices” can erode teachers’ ethical agency. It asks what it would take to re-centre education on the moral purposes that give teaching its soul.

Philosophy in Schools: Teachers’ Views from Wales

Posted on 19 August 2019 by Dr Kevin Smith

What role should philosophy play in the classroom? Darius Klibavicius’ research with teachers in Wales explores how philosophy is understood—as a subject, a method or a way of life. Linking Philosophy for Children with contemporary curriculum reform, this post examines why many teachers see philosophy as vital for well-being, reasoning and communication in modern education.

Purpose, Potential and Efficacy: Rethinking What Drives Teachers

Purpose, Potential and Efficacy: Rethinking What Drives Teachers

Posted on 5 August 2019 by Dr Kevin Smith

Can teachers truly “help pupils achieve their potential”—or is purpose found elsewhere? This post connects Viktor Frankl’s search for meaning with Bandura’s theory of efficacy to show how purpose in teaching emerges through action, reflection and encounter. It invites educators to think critically about what drives them, how they define success and how a coherent sense of purpose can sustain their practice.

Finding Purpose in Teaching

Finding Purpose in Teaching

Posted on 8 July 2019 by Dr Kevin Smith

Are teachers guided by aphorisms or axioms? This post looks at what teachers say their top priorities are and questions whether phrases like “help pupils achieve their potential” offer genuine meaning or empty slogans. Drawing on Nietzsche, Frankl and Welsh education research, it invites reflection on how we find—and define—purpose in teaching.