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Forward Thinking Learning and Teaching Philosophy in Australia

The principal aim of the project was to record the state of tertiary teaching of philosophy in Australia and to provide benchmarking data on philosophy at the following levels: the teaching academics, the structure and composition of the philosophy major, and the teaching of philosophy from first year or "service" units/subjects, through the Honours year and into postgraduate study. A further aim of the project was to continue to build networks of those philosophers interested in strategies for enhancing the curriculum and in enhancing their teaching practice.

Project deliverables include:
  • A series of reports including the Final Report and Summary Reports
  • These reports are supported by a series of datasets
  • A series of case studies on innovative practices, including summaries of issues raised at Round Tale Discussions and ALTC citation winners in philosophy.

Project Team

Project Leader: Ian Ravenscroft (Flinders University)

Project Manager: Eliza Goddard (Australasian Association of Philosophy).

Project Team:
Ros Diprose (University of New South Wales)
Susan Dodds (University of Tasmania)
Jenny Duke-Yonge (Macquarie University) 
Simon Lumsden (University of New South Wales)
Catriona Mackenzie (Macquarie University)
Peter Menzies (Macquarie University) 
Mitch Parsell (Macquarie University)

Download Reports

Final Report 

Summary Reports

The Significance of the Discipline 

Philosophy in Australian Universities 

Undergraduate Profile and issues 

Honours Profile and Issues 

Postgraduate Profile and Issues 

Staff Profile and issues 


Download Case Studies

Commentaries on Issues including the following:

  • Evaluation
  • Encouraging attendance at tutorials
  • Encouraging tutorial preparation
  • Teaching philosophy to non philosophy majors/first year students
  • Teaching Ethics to non philosophy majors
  • Teaching philosophy outside the BA/to non philosophy majors

Forward Thinking: Learning and Teaching Philosophy in Australian Universities was funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) via a Discipline-Based Initiative Grant. The project was also supported by the Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP).