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Ben Kotzee

MA, PhD

Lecturer
Programme Director and Year 4 tutor, BSc Social Sciences

Contact details

email: b.kotzee@bbk.ac.uk
tel: 020 3073 8393

Current research

Ben is currently working on new conceptions of ‘expertise’ in professional education.

More about Ben Kotzee

Research interests

  • Ben researches topics in higher and professional education and philosophy of education. He also maintains research interests in epistemology and general philosophy.

Areas of research supervision

  • Educational philosophy and theory; professional education; theories of expertise and tacit knowledge.
  • If you are considering applying for MPhil/PhD research in any of these areas, you are advised to contact Ben about your research plan before making an application.

Employment history

  • Ben Kotzee joined Birkbeck in September 2008 from Queen Mary, University of London.
  • Previously, he was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town.

Teaching

  • BSc Social Science Dissertation (Spring – Summer 2011)
  • Researching Education (Spring – Summer 2011)
  • Research Methods and Practices (Spring 2011)

Published papers

  • "Education and ‘Thick’ Epistemology", Educational Theory, 2011, vol. 61 (5), pp.549-64
  • "Private Practice: Schön and the missing social dimension", Studies in Continuing Education, 2012, vol. 34 (1), pp. 5 - 16
  • "Reconciling Graduateness and Work-Based Learning" (with A. Walsh) Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 2011, vol. 4 (1), pp. 36 - 50
  • " ‘Can’t String a Sentence Together’? UK employers’ views of graduates’ writing skills", Industry and Higher Education, 2011, vol. 25 (1), pp. 45 – 52
  • "Seven Posers in the Constructivist Classroom", London Review of Education, 2010, vol. 8 (2), pp. 177 – 87
  • "Poisoning the Well and Epistemic Privilege", Argumentation, 2010, vol. 24 (3), pp. 265 - 81
  • "Why hobbits cannot exist", Think, 2009, vol. 8, pp. 29 - 36 (With J.P. Smit)
  • "A Thicker Epistemology?", Philosophical Papers, 2008, vol. 37 (3), pp. 337 – 43 (with J. Wanderer)
  • "Our Vision and Our Mission: Bullshit, Assertion and Belief", South African Journal of Philosophy, 2007, vol. 26 (2), pp. 163 – 75
  • "Why Metaphors Have No Meaning", South African Journal of Philosophy, 2001, vol. 20 (3-4), pp. 290-307

Conference presentations

  • 'Private Practice: Schön and the missing social dimension', Critical Perspectives on Professional Learning Conference, University of Leeds, 2010
  • 'Expertise and Tacit Knowledge: Critical Perspectives from Philosophy and Sociology', Alternative Educational Futures for a Knowledge Society, University of Cape Town, 2010.
  • 'New Conceptions of "Expertise" in Professional Education', Annual Conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education, 2009.
  • 'Education and "Thick" Epistemology' at the Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Oxford, 1-3 April, 2009
  • 'Who May Participate in Debates about Educational Justice?' at the Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Oxford, 28-30 March, 2008.
  • 'The Theoretical Dominance of Constructivism', at the 5th Learning Development in Higher Education Symposium, Bradford, 17-18 March 2008.
  • "Private Practice: Schön and the missing social dimension" (forthcoming in Studies in Continuing Education
  • "Reconciling Graduateness and Work-Based Learning" (with A. Walsh) (forthcoming in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education)
  • " ‘Can’t String a Sentence Together’? UK employers’ views of graduates’ writing skills", Industry and Higher Education, 2011, vol. 25 (1), pp. 45 – 52
  • "Seven Posers in the Constructivist Classroom", London Review of Education, 2010, vol. 8 (2), pp. 177 – 87
  • "Poisoning the Well and Epistemic Privilege", Argumentation, 2010, vol. 24 (3), pp. 265 - 81
  • "Why hobbits cannot exist", Think, 2009, vol. 8, pp. 29 - 36 (With J.P. Smit)
  • "A Thicker Epistemology?", Philosophical Papers, 2008, vol. 37 (3), pp. 337 – 43 (with J. Wanderer)
  • "Our Vision and Our Mission: Bullshit, Assertion and Belief", South African Journal of Philosophy, 2007, vol. 26 (2), pp. 163 – 75
  • "Why Metaphors Have No Meaning", South African Journal of Philosophy, 2001, vol. 20 (3-4), pp. 290-307

Book Reviews

  • "Book Review: Improving Working as Learning, by Alan Felstead, Alison Fuller, Nick Jewson and Lorna Unwin’, Journal of Education and Work, 2009, vol. 22 (4), pp. 337 – 9.
  • "Book Review: Beyond Reflective Practice: new approaches to professional lifelong learning, by Helen Bradbury, Nick Frost, Sue Kilminster and Miriam Zukas", Vocations and Learning, 2010, vol. 3 (2), pp. 181 - 3
  • "Book Review: Personal Epistemology in the Classroom, by Lisa Bendixen and Florian Feucht", Teachers College Record, http://www.tcrecord.org, 16217

Other Publications

  • "But can they string a simple sentence together?" (2008) BMAF Magazine 5

Work in Progress

  • Education and Social Epistemology: a special edition of Journal of Philosophy of Education, forthcoming 2013
  • “Educational Justice, Epistemic Justice and the Value of Education” (Draft)
  • “Expertise, Fluency and Social Realism about Professional Knowledge” (Draft)
  • “Affirmative Action in South African Universities: the state of the debate” (Draft)
  • “Who Should Go to University? Justice in university admissions” (with Christopher Martin) (Draft)
Ben Kotzee

Ben Kotzee

 
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