Atkins Visiting Professor of Pedagogy and Philosophy
Atkins Visiting Prof of Pedagogy & Philosophy Karin Murris (University of Cape Town)

This year’s Atkins Visiting Professor was Karin Murris. Karin is Professor of Pedagogy and Philosophy at the School of Education, University of Cape Town. She is a teacher educator, philosopher of education and grounded in philosophy as an academic discipline. Her main research interests are in intra-active pedagogies such as Philosophy with Children and Reggio Emilia, school ethics and post-qualitative research methods. She is Principal Investigator of the Decolonising Early Childhood Discourses: Critical Posthumanism in Higher Education research project funded by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). Her books include: The Posthuman Child: Educational Transformation through Philosophy with Picturebooks (2016), and (with Joanna Haynes) Literacies, Literature and Learning: Reading Classrooms Differently (2018), Picturebooks, Pedagogy and Philosophy (2012). She is co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children (2017). 

Karin was generous with her time during her visit. She conducted Philosophy Masterclasses; presented at the Philosophy seminar series on ‘The Epistemic Challenge of Hearing Child’s Voice’; taught into the Philosophy Honours Program; and was guest lecturer in PHIL3002: Philosophy Today and conducted tutorials. She was also guest speaker at the inaugural joint seminar held by the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry and School of Education. Her talk was entitled: ‘Reggio Emilia inspired philosophical teacher education: the family (tree).

Karin also has an interest in environmental education, and spent many hours with me, Simone Thornton (Philosophy PhD student) and Aboriginal Philosopher Mary Graham discussing her project with Karen Malone at Western Sydney University, who invited her to present her research. We also discussed plans for a collaborative international project in 2020 on the intersection between educational philosophy, indigenous philosophy and environmental philosophy. We hope to have more details next year!

We, once again, would like to thank John Atkins for his generous donation for providing funding since 2016.

Gilbert Burgh