Why Teachers and Philosophers Need Each Other: philosophy and educational research

In this paper I discuss the relationship of philosophers and philosophy to teachers and schools using my ESRC funded research into social justice as an example. Drawing on, extending, playing with and finally rejecting Schon's (1983) metaphor of the relationhip of the hard, high ground of theory to the swampy lowlands of practice, I discuss ways of keeping both perspectives in touch with each other. There is a view of educational philosophy that its role is to produce maps for the benefit of those below. I argue that this is unhelpful both to teachers and to philosophers and that philosophy as educational research will only flourish if a means is found to keep communication open about both perspectives.