This article is a collective writing experiment undertaken by philosophers of education affiliated with the PESGB (Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain). When asked to reflect on questions concerning the Philosophy of Education in a New Key in May 2020, it was unsurprising that the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on society and on education were foremost in our minds. We wanted to consider important philosophical and educational questions raised by the pandemic, while acknowledging that, first and foremost, it is a human tragedy. With nearly a million deaths reported worldwide to date, and with everyone effected in one way or another by Covid-19, there is a degree of discomfort, and a responsibility to be sensitive, in reflecting and writing about it academically. Members of this 'Covid Collective' come from various countries, with perspectives from Great Britain and Ireland well represented, and we see academic practice as a globally connected enterprise, especially since the digital revolution in academic publishing. The concerns raised in this article relate to but move beyond Covid-19, reflecting the impact of neoliberalism [and other political developments] on geopolitics with educational concerns as central to our focus.

Neo-liberal capitalism is a representation of values detrimental to intellectual inquiry . Market-deregulation and consumer choice are relentless in their erosion of academic autonomy and traditions of independent scholarship. Education as a 'positional good' may be weakened more in the post-1992 higher education sector, where consumeroriented quality assurance is used strategically to bolster prestige, and so improve relative competitive advantage (for student recruitment and external monies), than in the pre-1992 Russell Group of universities which privileges academic research and autonomy from regulation (www. russellgroup.ac.uk). The university as intellectua l public domain is subject to suppression by capitalism's deployment of a putatively enlightened 'student voice'. This neo-liberal embrace of 'student experience' is evidenced in the privileging of choice and satisfaction anchored in the envisaging of earning power as a basic touchstone of relevance. Globalisation's Trojan Horse, we argue, is embodied in the positivism of the quantitative metrics of the National Student Survey (NSS) designed by global giant IPSIS MORI. The argument that a ranking of universities on the results of the NSS demonstrates excellence begs the question about what the university is for.

This article explores the policy reasons behind Adult ESOL Citizenship Education in the United Kingdom and then examines whether Adult ESOL Citizenship Education adequately prepares migrants for active citizenship in T.H. McLaughlin’s ‘ maximal’ sense: involving active political participation premised upon a shared concept of democratic culture underpinned by rights and obligations. It argues that Adult ESOL Citizenship Education, as envisaged by Bernard Crick and Terence McLaughlin, has fallen short of its maximal conceptualisation due to the watering down of citizenship education and Adult ESOL Citizenship Education in preference to Fundamental British Values, and the Crick reports’ ‘light touch’ to their implementation. The article calls for a need to reassert the reality of the modern nation as pluralistic and rejects the current drive towards monism. It also argues that Adult ESOL Citizenship Education is unlikely to deliver social cohesion and integration, or an actively participatory citizenry, unless issues of social justice and equity are addressed.

This article aims to demonstrate the hazards of an education system controlled by any one group-in this case, governments-by examining the recent drive for the academisation of English state schools. This article highlights the need for education's independence from political control. The once 'secret garden' of the curriculum is now firmly in the government's grasp. Academies were introduced in England in 2000 by the Labour government; originally called 'city academies', they were claimed to break the cycle of underperformance and the low expectations of failing inner-city schools. But they are now promoted as the only means of providing 'outstanding' education. The author argues that the current drive for academisation forms part of the market-oriented narrative which believes that market forces offer the best solution to all the needs of society. As well as delivering substantial changes in governance and accountability, academisation conceals a radical shift in education's purpose, yet it is being pushed through without real debate. The academisation process offers an insight into how governments can, and do, use the state apparatus to ignore, subvert and diminish opposition. To highlight this, the author uses Steven Lukes' conceptualisation of power: the public, the hidden and the invisible.

In 2018 James Tooley, and colleagues, launched a no-frills private school the Independent Grammar School: Durham (IGSD). This offers full-time education for £58 per week per child , in contrast to the markedly higher cost per capita in either the state sector or in established private schools. We question IGSD's affordability and viability. We examine Tooley's educational vision, and his work in the provision of low-cost private schooling in Africa and India to identify IGSD's ontology to understand what no-frills might mean, and how this could be delivered.