Profile
Academic Interests
My recent writing and scholarly activity revolves around two main areas of academic interest: contemporary philosophy (critical theory, poststructuralism, hermeneutics, and analytic philosophy) with a particular interest in philosophy of education, and; the politics of education and social policy, with an accent on the reform of welfare policy. The two areas of interest inform each other.In the first category I want to develop a distinctive poststructuralist approach in philosophy and education. The deepest influences upon my thinking and writing include Friedrich Nietzsche, the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the French poststructuralist philosopher, Jean-François Lyotard. These philosophers teach us how to think or philosophize in the postmodern condition, in an age when the grand récits or metanarratives have lost their legitimating power. They provide a positive philosophical response to nihilism and to the fragmentation and dissolution of culture. For these thinkers also the question of the style of philosophy is paramount and it is productive to approach their philosophies as a kind of writing. Both Nietzsche and Wittgenstein adopt many different literary forms, sometimes within the same work. Beyond Good and Evil ends with the aftersong "From High Mountains" and it includes epigrams and interludes; the Philosophical Investigations is at once dialogical, confessional, and aphoristic.
My publications reflect the influence of these writers. Education and the Postmodern Condition and Poststructuralism, Politics and Education, among other things, examine the work of Lyotard, while Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Postmodernism and Pedagogy, a co-authored book (with James Marshall) attempts to bridge the continental/analytic divide by interpreting the work of Anglo-American Wittgensteinians (eg., Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Stephen Toulmin) alongside that of prominent ‘poststructuralist' thinkers (eg., Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida).
My motivation to write is strongly shaped by contemporary political considerations and by what it means to be 'an intellectual'. As an academic writer I am a circuit for the confluence of events, forces and intellectual fashion. In this regard I am interested in sketching a philosophical (poststructuralist) critique of neo-liberalism against the transformed environment advanced liberal socieites referred to as the ‘information economy' and within the context of the modernity/postmodernity debate. This direction has characterized a number of my recent books and contributions to books (for instance, my contributions to Counternarratives which examines cultural studies and critical pedagogies in postmodern spaces).
In the second category I look to the development of a distinctive approach to the politics of education and social policy. To this end Individualism and Community: Education and Social Policy in the Postmodern Condition, a co-authored work (with James Marshall) interprets the changes in political philosophy that have occurred in western capitalist states since the early 1980s and focuses upon the New Zealand ‘experiment'.
The writing process is for me very much part of the routine of everyday university life. It is a cultural habit configured by the institutional demands of the university that favours certain forms or genres of writing (the essay, the thesis, the journal article, the dissertation) and pedagogy (the lecture, the seminar, the examination), while excluding others. In this sense the various formats for academic writing is largely determined by traditions of the academic community and while creative thinking might be encouraged in this environment, one engages in 'creative' academic writing at some risk.
Key Professional Appointments
- Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005--
- Adjunct Professor, Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology, 2000--
- Professor, Educational Studies, University of Glasgow, 2004-2005
- Adjunct Professor, School of Education, University of Auckland, 2003-2005
- Research Professor, Educational Studies, University of Glasgow, 2000-2003
- Professor, School of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 2000-2003
Activities & Honors
- Distinguished Senior Scholar, College of Education, 2008-2009
- consulting editor, Canadian Journal of Education, 2006- present
- Editorial Board Member, Sozialwissenschaftliche Literatur Rundschau, 2006- present
- member of international advisory board, Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development, 2006- present
- Editorial Board Member, Fast Capitalism, 2006- present
- Publications series editor, Key Critical Thinkers in Educational Thought, 2006- present
- Publications series editor, Research and Knowledge Futures, 2006- present
- Publication series editor, Studies in Education, Philosophy and Culture Series, 2006- present
- Editorial Board Member, Globalization and Health, 2005- present
- Editorial Board Member, Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 2005- present
- Publication series editor, Educational Philosophy and Theory Special Issues Book Series, 2005- present
- Publication series editor, Interventions: Education, Philosophy and Culture, 2005- present
- Publications series editor, Educational Politics and Policy, 2005- present
- Publications series editor, Educational Futures - Rethinking Theory and Practice, 2005- present
- Publications series editor, Contexts of Education - A Series of Handbooks, 2005- present
- Fellow and member of advisory committee, Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), 2004- present
- Co-Editor, Symposium Publications, E-Learning, 2004- present
- Editorial Board Member, Ideas and Dialogue, 2004- present
- Consulting editor, Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny, 2004- present
- Editorial Board Member, Fast Capitalism, 2004- present
- Editorial Board Member, Contemporary Pragmatism, 2004- present
- Publications series editor, New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies, 2004- present
- Editor, Policy Futures in Education, 2003- present
- consulting editor, Access, 2001- present
- Editorial Board Member, Geschaftsstelle des Jahrbuch für Bildungs- und Erziehungsphilosophie, 2001- present
- Editorial Board Member, Série Fontes, 2001- present
- Macmillan Brown Lecture series, University of Canterbury, 2001
- Editor, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1998- present
- Member of Executive, PESA, 1998- present
Selected Publications
- Peters, M. A., Burbules, N. & Smeyers, P. (2008). Saying, showing and doing: Wittgenstein as pedagogical philosopher, Boulder, Paradigm Press.
- Peters, M.A., Maurer, S., Weber, S., Olssen, M. & Besley, A.C. (Eds.) (2008) Governmentality and Beyond: Education and the Rise of Neoliberalism, Rotterdam, Sense Publishers.
- Peters, M., Blee, H. & Britton, A. (Eds.) (2008). Global citizenship education: Philosophy, theory and pedagogy, Rotterdam: Sense.
- Peters, M. A., & Besley, T. (Eds.) (2007). Why foucault? New directions in educational research. New York: Peter Lang.
- Peters, M. A., & Besley, A.C. (2008). Subjectivity and Truth: Foucault, education and the culture of the self. New York: Peter Lang.
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