The Philosophy, religion and education Research Group specifically forges theoretical and empirical interconnections between the arts, humanities, philosophy and the social sciences through the common focus of education. Contributions of this research group have been made to matters such as: theories of research policy and impact; the cultural value of research in the arts and humanities; research ethics; the intersection of epistemological and ethical domains in research in schools; religion, radicalisation and counter-terrorism in schools and universities; and the creation of distinctive sub-field of study at the interface of education, security and intelligence studies.
The research group conveners are Liam Gearon and Nigel Fancourt. Both Liam and Nigel, and the co-convenor Alis Oancea have diverse research interests which all contribute to this distinctive research culture.
Liam Francis Gearon is Associate Professor in Religious Education in the Department of Education, Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford; Docent, University of Helsinki, Finland; Conjoint Professor at Newcastle University, Australia; Visiting Professor at the Irish Centre for Catholic Studies, MIC, Limerick, Ireland; Extraordinary Professor, North-West University, South Africa. Liam has multidisciplinary interests in the arts and literature, philosophy of education, and the epistemological foundations of contemporary religious education. Cognate interests at the interface of religion, security and education have enabled empirical, methodological and theoretical advances on the ethics of security and radicalisation research, notably through critical analyses of the relationships between universities and the security and intelligence agencies. The author and or editor of 30 books and one hundred articles and chapters, as Principal Investigator, Liam has led funded research projects with the Academy of Finland, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, and the Society for Educational Studies.
Professor Alis Oancea specialises in philosophy of research and in research-on-research, in particular studies of research policy and higher education governance (including work on research impact and knowledge exchange, research quality, evaluation, assessment, and rankings). She has specialist interest in the philosophy of education, including in the cultural value of research in the arts and humanities. She is Secretary of the Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.
Dr Nigel Fancourt directs the MLT programme and specialises in research on ways of learning at the intersections of different epistemological and ethical domains, particularly in relation to research and schools, for instance how and why teachers engage with research; and religions and schools. He is currently researching argumentation in science and religious education (with Professor Erduran and others), funded by the Templeton Foundation. He is co-convenor of the Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.
The group’s activity is enhanced by collaborations with the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (Oxford Branch).
Its seminars are open to all members of the University and the public.
Honorary Research Fellows
- Professor James Arthur OBE (UK)
- Dr Lorraine Foreman-Peck (UK)
- Dr John Gay (UK)
- Professor Arniika Kuusisto, University of Stockholm (Finland/ Sweden)
- Professor Terence Lovat, University of Newcastle Australia
- Distinguished Professor Linda Woodhead MBE
