Educational philosophy and 'new French Thought'

One could argue that the greatest challenge for the philosophy of education today is to stake its claim amidst the increasing prominence and competitive nature of evidence-based and profit-motivated theories of education. On one side of this point of contention are philosophies of education that owe their heritage to the analytical and empiricist mindset, on the other are those that may be derived from what can be broadly termed continental philosophy and the specific endeavour to develop theory. In the contemporary, globalised situation, where the philosophy of education needs to be appropriate for non-European and non-'developed' milieux, the demand to find alternative modes of enquiry is more palpable than ever. It is to 'New French Thought' that the editors of this special edition have turned in the hope that some of the tensions, dilemmas and complexities of the current sociopolitical situation may be understood, and a new philosophy of education may be fashioned from an array of contemporary French thinkers. It is anticipated that the new thought that one may derive from France will not allay the clamour for evidence-based claims in education, but it could open up novel avenues for thought, whereby the impasse to non-thought and the obsequy of the philosophy of education may be mitigated.