Locating moral education in the broader field of philosophy of education, I offer a series of provocations for the future. Building on Tesar’s (2021:1235) claim that the foundations of philosophy of education ‘are no longer valued by managers and educational leaders’ unless ‘serving ‘managerial purposes and desired outcomes’, I explore what a ‘new key’ (Tesar et al, 2021) might entail. That new key pertains not only to philosophers of education in HE in Scotland, but for all educational researchers attending this ECER conference with its theme of ‘The Value of Diversity in Education and Educational Research’. My argument rests on the claim that while ‘we need to draw on the rich and diverse research traditions that make up our educational community’ with a ‘commitment of educational researchers and educational research to address and include diversity in all aspects of what we do’ (ECER, 2023[i]), the philosophy of education is simultaneously thriving and under threat. Thriving is suggested in the 2021 UK REF report[ii] in which, ‘Educational research drawing on philosophy and history was mainly of very high quality, and the sub-panel noted its clear contribution to contemporary debates about core epistemic questions in educational practice, especially around its purposes and responsibilities’. However, concerns about the relative paucity of philosophy in teacher education at all levels are paralleled by a common dismissal of philosophy of education as research or, perhaps more obviously, by a dismissal of philosophers of education as researchers. These concerns are not new, but I suggest that philosophers of education need now to participate more volubly in the ‘ongoing dialogue about what it means to “do” educational research in the 21st century’ (ECER, 2023i). I shall suggest possible futures for philosophy that might stem the tide of our demise. Firstly, we can and should talk about our methods without slipping into methodolatry (see Ruitenberg, 2010). Secondly, we have a key role as both users of and contributors to empirical research (see de Ruyter, 2019). Thirdly, we should teach and so include philosophy of education in all teacher education programmes, including research methods courses and, finally, we should work together in and beyond Scotland to articulate our contributions to educational research. That this colloquium is part of a special interest group for philosophers of education likely not to attract many ECER participants outwith our field is, itself, a challenge we will also discuss.

Heyting, Frieda, Lenzen, Dieter & White, John (2001) Methods in Philosophy of Education, Routledge. Oancea, Alis & Bridges, David.. (2009) Philosophy of education in the UK: The historical and contemporary tradition, Oxford Review of Education, 35(5), 553-568. Ruyter, Doret de (2019) Does a Theory of Moral Education Need the Input of Empirical Research?,Journal of Philosophy of Education, 53, (4):642-648. Ruitenberg, Claudia (ed.) (2010) What Do Philosophers of Education Do?: And How Do They Do It?, Wiley-Blackwell. Tesar, Marek, Hytten, Kathy; Hoskins, Te Kawehau; Rosiek, Jerry; Jackson, Alecia Y; Hand, Michael; Roberts, Peter; Opiniano, Gina A; Matapo, Jacoba; St. Pierre, Elizabeth Adams; Azada-Palacios, Rowena; Kuby, Candace R; Jones, Alison; Mazzei, Lisa A; Maruyama, Yasushi; O'Donnell, Aislinn; Dixon-Román, Ezekiel; Chengbing, Wang; Huang, Zhongjing; Chen, Lei; Peters, Michael A; Jackson, Liz (2022) Philosophy of education in a new key: Future of philosophy of education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54(8), 1234-1255.