Professor Richard Pring, PhL (Gregorian, Rome), BA (UCL), PhD (London). Honours: Bene Merente Medal (Pope Pius XII, 1959), Hon. D.Litt (University of Kent, 1984), Aga Khan Award of Distinction, 2008), Hon.D.Litt, (University of London: Inst. of Education, 2015).
Retired after 14 years as Director of the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford University in May 2003. Since 2003, he was Lead Director of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training. This was a £1,000,000 six year project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
Research
Since retiring Professor Pring has completed the following research projects in addition to the Nuffield Review: the evaluation of the Oxford Bursary Scheme with John Fox, a £125,000 project funded from Atlantic Philanthropies, and an evaluation of quality assurance in 11 Arab Universities, with a grant funding of £12,000 from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).
Research interests
- Philosophy of Education
- Review of Education and Training 14-19 (Nuffield Foundation funded)
- Faith based schools (arising from the Leverhulme Fellowship, 2003/4, and from work with the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations)
Publications
Books (authored)
Since retirement in 2003
2020 Challenges for Religious Education: is there a disconnect between faith and reason?, Routledge, March 2020.
2019 Philosophy of Education: Collected papers of Richard Pring London: Bloomsbury
2018 The Future of Publicly Funded Faith Schools: a critical perspective, London: Routledge.
2018 Moral Education in the United Arab Emirates, Oxford Review of Education.
2018 Thinking Philosophically about Education, Routledge
2015 Philosophy of Educational Research, (3nd edition) London: Bloomsbury
2013 The Life and Death of Secondary Education for All, London: Routledge
2012 Life and Death of Secondary Education for All, London: Routledge
2009 (with Hayward, G. et al) Education for All: the Future of Education and Training for 14-19 Year Olds, London: Routledge.
2007 John Dewey: Philosopher of Education for the 21st Century, London: Continuum
2004 Philosophy of Education: Aims, Theory, Common Sense and Research, London: Continuum (15 published papers 1972-2004 with introd)
2004 Philosophy of Educational Research, (2nd edition) London: Continuu Whilst Director of Department of Educational Studies
2000 Philosophy of Educational Research, London: Continuum.
1995 (with Crombie-White and Brockington) 14-19: Education and Training – Implementing a Unified Curriculum, London: RSA, pp. 64.
1995 Closing the Gap: Liberal Education and Vocational Preparation, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Prior to appointment at Oxford DES
1989 The New Curriculum, London: Cassell.
1984 Personal and Social Education in the Curriculum, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
1976 Knowledge and Schooling, Shepton Mallet: Open Books, pp 12
Books in honour of Richard Pring
2016 Education, Ethics and Experience, edited by Michael Hand and Richard Davies, London: Routledge.
2008 Common School and the Comprehensive Ideal: a defence by Richard Pring with Complementary Essays, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Books (edited)
2016 (with Martin Roberts) A Generation of Radical Educational Change: stories from the field, London: Routledge.
2012 (with Arther, J. and Davison, J) Education Matters: sixty years of the British Journal of Educational Studies, London Routledge
2008 (with Carr, D. and Halstead, M.) Liberalism, Education and Schooling,Essays, by T.H.McLoughlin, Exeter: Imprint Academic.
2007 (with Marin Roberts) A Generation of Radical Educational Change: Stories from the field, London: Routledge.
2004 (with Gary Thomas) Evidence based Practice in Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press
2004 (with Hewlett, M. and Tulloch, M.) Comprehensive Education: Evolution, Achievement and New Directions, University of Northampton Press.
1997 (with G. Walford) Affirming the Comprehensive Ideal, Falmer Press.
1987 (with Thacker, J. and Evans, D.) Personal and Social and Moral Education in a Changing World, Windsor: NFER-Nelson
1975 (with John Elliott) Social Education and Social Understanding, London: University of London Press
Suggested possible titles for collection, edited by Richard Smith, put into specific themes
Research
2000 ‘The ‘false dualisms’ of educational research’, JoPE 34(2)
2001 ‘The virtues and vices of an educational researcher’, JoPE Special Issue The Ethics of Educational Research. Reprinted in McNamee, M. and Bridges, D. (eds) The Ethics of Educational Research, Oxford: Blackwells, and in Sikes, P., Nixon, J., Carr, W. (eds) The Moral Foundations of Educational Research, Maidenhead: Open University Press).
2007 ‘Reclaiming philosophy for educational research’, Educational Review
Concept of education
2001 ‘Education as a moral practice’, Journal of Moral Education, Annual Lawrence Kohlberg Lecture, 30 (2) pp101-112
2012 ‘Putting persons back into education’, Oxford Review of Education, 38(6), Special Issue on John Macmurray
Educational organisation / Faith schools
2007 ‘The common school’, Journal of Philosophy and Education, 41 (4) (A defence by Richard Pring with complementary essays)
Educational thinkers
2013 ‘John Dewey: Saviour of American Education or Worse than Hitler?’, in Brooke and Frazer, L. (eds) ?????, refereed (by Alan Ryan, no less) for Oxford Review of Education, Special Issue on ‘educational thinkers’, but put together in a book instead