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Anonymised peer-reviewing – help or hindrance?

By IOE Blog Editor, on 11 February 2025

A desk and two pairs of hands reviewing papers.

Credit: imtmphoto via Adobe Stock.

11 February 2025

By David Scott

This short piece is a plea for full disclosure in processes of peer review and evaluation in academia. It stems from a philosophy of research explained in the trilogy of books that I have just published with UCL Press: On Learning: A General Theory of Objects and Object-Relations (2021); the edited collection On Learning: volume 2, Philosophy, Concepts and Practices (2024); and On Learning: volume 3, Curriculum, Knowledge and Ethics (2025). It is also reflected in my latest publication, On Learning and Ethics: Philosophy, Knowledge and Normativity (2025, Ethics International Press). That philosophy of research is underpinned by a semantic and valorised epistemology – meanings and values are prioritised – and by a careful and ethical approach to the world. (more…)

We need more research about the South, from the South

By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 4 August 2022

Colombian vice-president Francia Márquez, justiceforcolombia.com

Mainstream media barely reported the election of Francia Márquez, an Afro-Colombian woman from the bottom of the economic hierarchy, as Colombian vice-president.

4 August 2022

By Leda Kamenopoulou 

If we are serious about decolonising education, we must prioritise research from the South, and fund it properly.

Decolonising’ academia means challenging the dominance of knowledge produced by historically privileged contexts and groups, and it is a trend that has taken higher education by storm. In the last year alone, I noticed numerous conferences, workshops, seminars, projects and reading groups, all focused on decolonising education, psychology, curricula and reading lists, research methods and ethics, teaching and learning.

At IOE’s Department of Psychology and Human Development, we have just set up an ‘epistemic justice working group’ to help us address the power imbalances between North and South in knowledge production and sharing, by reflecting on our curricula, teaching practice, and research. It is important to clarify that ‘North’ and ‘South’ do not necessarily denote geographical location. Instead, the ‘South’ is a metaphor for spaces historically characterised by inequality, poverty, and economic, political and cultural disadvantage.

In this post, I argue that these decolonisation-themed activities will remain empty rhetoric until we are prepared to see the South as of equal value (more…)