The Future of Education Reimagining its Aims and Responsibilities

What are the aims of education? What role can education play in responding to the climate crisis, or to the mental health crisis among young people today? Are educators responsible for teaching students how to build healthy relationships? How can we understand decolonial approaches to teaching and learning, or begin to conceive of educational justice -- particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic?

The Future of Education explores these questions among others, bringing together leading international scholars in the philosophy of education to address some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary teaching and learning. In this robust and timely volume, contributors draw upon recent research across several fields -- including philosophy, education, and the social sciences -- to address and raise important inquiries concerning the aims, responsibilities, and future of education.

Drawing out the significant implications for educators and policymakers, this unprecedented collection explores character education, the role of student well-being in education and how to most effectively improve it, art's role in countering extremist narratives, and the necessity of student mentorship by university teachers as an important pathway to improving the future of education.

Jonathan Beale is a Research Affiliate at the Human Flourishing Program at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He has previously held positions as Academic Visitor at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Researcher-in-Residence at Eton College, and Fellow in Philosophy at Harvard. He has published articles on philosophy and education in leading academic journals and media outlets including the New York Times, and is co-editor of four books.

Christina Easton is Assistant Professor in Ethics of Non-Violence at the University of Birmingham, and previously was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Warwick. Her work has been published in journals including Philosophy, American Political Science Review, Theory and Research in Education, the Journal of Philosophy of Education, and the Journal of Applied Philosophy. Her monograph Teaching Values Whilst Respecting Difference will be published by Bloomsbury in 2026. She co-authored Critical Religious Education in Practice (Routledge, 2019), a book widely used by teachers of religious education. Before going into academic research, Christina taught philosophy and religious studies at secondary schools for eight years.

Editors' Introduction: The Future of Education1. The Aims of Education1. Fostering Flourishing, Catherine Z. Elgin2. Epistemic Aims of Education: Epistemic Autonomy or Epistemic Responsibility?, Emily Robertson3 Love as the Essence of Flourishing: Educational Experiments with the Subjunctive Mood, Matthew T. Lee and William G. Pearson, Jr.4. What Role Should Human Flourishing Play Among Education's Aims?, Jonathan Beale5. Education, Schooling, and the Logic of Aims, Judith Suissa6. Education's Aims, Harvey Siegel7. Against Flourishing as an Educational Aim, Michael HandPart 2. The Responsibilities of Education8. Education Against Extremism, Laura D'Olimpio9. The Mentoring Responsibilities of University Teachers, Harry Brighouse10. Education Without Cure: Responding to Mental Health in Schools, Emma Williams11. Forming an Orderly Queue: Remedying Educational Inequality in the Post-Covid World, Christina Easton12. Intimate Justice: A Liberal Case for Mandatory Relationships Education, Andrée-Anne CormierPart 3. The Future of Education13. Decolonising the School Curriculum and the Epistemic Aims of Education, Jane Gatley14. Eyes right! Global Uncertainty, Populism, and the Tussle for the Future of Education, David Johnson15. Education and the New Social Contract, Paul Standish16. Beyond Distribution: Future Considerations of Educational Justice, Winston C. Thompson17. Fostering Honesty: A Case Study in Defending and Implementing Character Education in Schools, Christian B. Miller18. Climate, Crisis, and the Future of Education, Adrian Skilbeck19. This Changes Everything: Originality, Academic Integrity, and Education in the Age of Generative AI, Lauren Bialystok