Paul Heywood Hirst

Background

Hirst, Paul Heywood was born on November 10, 1927 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. Son of Herbert and Winifred (Michelbacher) Hirst.

Education

Bachelor in Mathematics, Cambridge University, 1948. Master of Arts, Cambridge University, 1951. Master of Arts, Oxford University, 1955.

DEd (honorary), Council National Academic Awards, England, 1992. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), Cheltenham and Glouchester College Higher Education, 2000. D. Little (honorary), University Huddersfield, 2002.

Career

High School teacher in Mathematics various schools, England, 1948-1955. Lecturer, tutor, Department Education Oxford University, 1955-1959. Lecturer in Philosophy of Education University London Institute Education, 1959-1965.

Professor Education University London Kings College, 1965-1971. Professor Education, fellow Wolfson College, Cambridge University, 1971-1988, emeritus professor Education, emeritus fellow, since 1988. Visiting professor University London Institute Education, since 1991, University British Columbia, 1964, 67, University Malawi, 1969, University Edmonton, Alberta, 1988, Sydney, 1988.

Member government inquiry into education of ethnic minority children, 1981-1985. Director government research project on teacher training, 1982-1986. Member, chairman Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, 1970-1988.

Achievements

• Paul Heywood Hirst has been listed as a noteworthy education educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

• book

  • Moral Education in a Secular Society (Unibooks)
  • Knowledge and the Curriculum (International Library of the Philosophy of Education Volume 12): A Collection of Philosophical Papers by Paul H. Hirst (2012-07-13)

Views

Hirst was the cofounder, with Richard Peters, of the British school of analytical philosophy °‘ education in the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his account—influenced by Oakeshott—of a liberal education based on an •nitiation into logically distinct ‘forms of knowledge', each with its own peculiar concepts and tests for truth. Hirst developed specific aspects of this view in writings about education in the arts, morality and religious knowledge. His theory has been extraordinarily influential, both within the discipline and in the world of school curriculum Planning. In the late 1980s Hirst began to go further than many of his critics in rejecting what he then saw as the over-rationalistic emphasis of his earlier theory, constructing a new account of the content °f education—influenced by neo-Aristotelian linking—based on social practices. His rethinkmg has also been reflected in his writings on educational theory, which no longer argue for educational practices derived from work in established theoretical disciplines, but stress the Pnor importance of practical theories operationally developed.

Membership

Member Royal Norwegian Society Sciences and Letters (overseas), Philosophy of Education Society (honorary vice president), Royal Institute Philosophy Council, Athenaeum.

Interests

• Avocation: music (especially opera).

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Ryle. Wittgenstein, Hare, Peters, MacIntyre and Taylor.

Connections

Father:

Herbert Hirst

Mother:

Winifred (Michelbacher) Hirst