Abstract
Starting from Peters' characterization of philosophy of education, the article elaborates the development offered by the Blackwell Guide (i.e. a field of study that involves a variety of approaches, including philosophical analysis with problems rooted in the use of language in educational discourse, addressing the assumptions and values embedded in other disciplinary approaches in the study of education, and exploring what education might be or might become). Taking into account recent developments of educational research, it is argued that room should be made for other forms of study than empirical, be it quantitative or qualitative types of research. A critical discussion of the preoccupation with method — as well as more generally in educational research, in philosophy of education in particular — is offered. It is argued that the conditions we find ourselves in today, for example the demand for performativity in educational contexts, should be taken seriously and that this has implications for what we address in philosophy of education.
Applying Sidorkin's ontological concept of dialogue, this reply extends Smeyers' argument that explorations in philosophy of education are insufficiently related to educational issues and to non-philosopher audiences, something that needs to occur in order for philosophers of education to escape from becoming extinct in the current climate of performativity, by focusing on how philosophers of education should bring together interest and substance to inform problems of policy and practice in education in a less monological way.