Taking the ‘human’ in conceptions of human flourishing in education seriously

Thursday 28 April 2022, 17:30
A live webinar streamed via MS Teams

Eri is Senior lecturer in education policy at the School of Education, Bath Spa University. Eri’s concern with how we often conceptualize and operationalize concepts such as 'well-being' and 'happiness' led him to his recently completed PhD Human flourishing: a conceptual analysis, with Edge Hill University, which has been characterized by his supervisory team as an ‘outstanding scholarly work’.

"Notions of well-being and flourishing have influenced educational practices where children are measured against matrices of ‘flourishing behaviours’ (Stephens, 2014). Kristjánsson has advanced a conception of 'objective well-being' as the overarching aim of education. But these concepts become technicalized, woolly, and detached from everyday linguistic practices. I pay attention to the conceptual and methodological issues related to flourishing and tendencies towards reductionism. I address three central problems: 1) with definition, 2) with measurement, and 3) with placing flourishing centrally amongst educational ‘aims’. If there is any central aim, it must flow from respect for student agency and nurturing conceptual mastery."

For further information, please contact alexis.gibbs@winchester.ac.uk or Adrian.skilbeck@winchester.ac.uk 

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