Friday 2 April to Sunday 4 April 2027
New College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

Registration

Registration is now OPEN for the PESGB 62^nd Annual Conference, which will run over 3 days, from Friday 2 April to Sunday 4 April 2027 at New College, Oxford.

Fees

Call for Papers

Submissions are invited for the sixty-second annual conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, to be held at New College, Oxford University in Oxford, UK on Friday 2^nd – Sunday 4^th April 2027.

All submissions should have a philosophical bearing on education and may vary from an examination of a philosophical issue in its connection with education, to a philosophical analysis of some aspect of current educational theory, research, policy or practice. The educational bearing of the paper should be rendered explicit in the text of the submission and, normally, in the title. Please note that reviewers will be asked particularly to take account of this requirement.

Three sessions at the conference will be reserved for invited plenary papers. The rest of the conference will be devoted to submissions responding to this Call.

Please click here to read our policy on use of AI before downloading the criteria for submissions, before you make your submission here.

Keynote Speakers

Our 2027 keynote speakers are:

Prof Jonathan Wolff
Emeritus Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Supernumerary Fellow, Wolfson College Oxford
President: The Royal Institute of Philosophy

Prof Alis Oancea
Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy, School of Education, University of Oxford, Kellogg College 

Prof Liz Jackson
Karen Lo Eugene Chuang Professor in Diversity and Equity, Professor and Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong

Key Dates

Registration open – October/November 2026
Submissions close – midnight 11 December 2026 GMT (no exceptions)
Notification of acceptance – week of 4 February 2027

Accommodation

Accommodation at New College is included in the residential conference fee and is charged per person.  Children are not allowed to stay at New College, other than babes in arms.

Pre-Conference Workshop – Doctoral Voice in the Age of AI

This year’s Pre-Conference takes as its theme Doctoral Voice in the Age of AI. As generative AI changes how academic texts are produced, read and judged, questions that have always been central to doctoral education become more pressing. What does it mean for a doctoral researcher to find and develop a scholarly voice? How are authorship, originality, and intellectual ownership being reconfigured? What forms of supervision, scholarly formation, and pedagogical trust does this new landscape demand? Bringing together perspectives from Toronto, London and Dublin, Lauren Bialystok, Alison Brady and Michał Wieczorek will consider the philosophical and educational stakes of AI for doctoral writing and for the formation of early-career scholars.

The speakers will be Lauren Bialystok (University of Toronto), Alison Brady (University College London), and Michał Wieczorek (University College Dublin).

It is held on Friday 2 April from 1 pm.  The preconference begins at 1pm with lunch in the Dining Hall for students and teachers, who are registered for the main conference, before continuing with a workshop from 1.45 – 3.30pm in Lecture Room 6.  There is no extra charge for this workshop.

Teacher Bursary Awards

Closing date:  Tuesday 9 February 2027

The PESGB is delighted to announce the award of up to 12 scholarships. You can apply if you are (i) a full-time school teacher – 0.8 FTE or above, (ii) teachers coming from all sectors outside schools, e.g. community, museums, home educators, (iii) current teacher educators on programmes that lead to qualified teacher status (iv) a student registered on a recognised initial teacher training programme that leads to qualified teacher status.

You must be attending the annual Oxford conference for the first time. These are offered by open competition and are worth up to £385. They cover:

a. the conference fee, including full board accommodation for two nights in Oxford (equivalent to £285)
b. a contribution to travel costs (up to £100)  

Initial orientation to the conference will be provided to successful applicants. Teachers attending an academic conference for the first time may appreciate having identified colleagues to attend some sessions with them and talk the papers through afterwards; this can be discussed with us in advance, so that we can find the appropriate support.

Interested candidates who meet the selection criteria should:

1. Email their name, contact details and a short expression of interest (300 words maximum), answering the question: How does your interest in teaching relate to philosophy of education? Please also add your reasons for wishing to attend the conference to pesgb@sasevents.co.uk on or before 4.00 pm on 9.2.2027.
2. Provide a short letter of support from a senior member of their school’s leadership team or similar e.g. headteacher/principal/Officer of a professional association/academic supervisor.  For ITE students please have your reference confirm your enrolment on the programme and confirmation on track for completion and likely completion date.

Applicants will be expected to:

1. Attend the conference in full (except when agreed in advance with the Society, for example, due to teaching commitments) and
2. After the conference write a short reflective blog piece for the PEGSB website/a social media forum used by teachers based on their experience of attending the conference or one aspect of it.

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of members of the PESGB Trustees. Members of the panel will provide brief feedback on request in cases where applications are unsuccessful but reserve the right not to engage in lengthy correspondence.

Notes:

1. Successful applicants will be expected to pay the conference fee in advance (£285), sign a written declaration confirming their status as a full-time serving teacher and to attend the conference in full, unless special arrangements have been agreed in advance with the PESGB Society. 
2. The fee will be re-imbursed and a contribution made to travel upon receipt of the blog post and travel receipts, up to a total award of £385.
3. Reimbursements are conditional on applicants meeting all the requirements of the award. 
4. The Society reserves the right to withdraw the award at any time if applicants are found to have provided the panel with false information.