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The project will address the explicit and implicit understandings of the place of knowledge in contemporary society. It aims to explore the reasons behind and the implications of the change away from the value of "knowledge for its own sake" within the context of education, and seeks to assess the values that currently underwrite the structures and practices of education - including the social and cultural factors that underlie these values.

The project will critically engage with a number of core themes:

• Has there been a change in the philosophy of education and the valuing of knowledge - or is what we now have merely an attrition of these? Is educational leadership unduly pragmatic? What is the role of expediency at the coal face of learning?
• What are the different meanings of the slogan "Life-Long Learning"? What moral, practical and educational principles underlie this idea?
• Is knowledge a commodity? What, if anything, is the difference between knowledge and information? Is teaching (still) a vocation?
• As the result of the plethora of information offered by the various search-engines, do we know more and understand less? Does information retrieval via the Internet affect differentially knowledge and understanding in different fields? Does the Internet implicitly emphasise output rather than input?
• Are we developing ideals and values that are more meaningful to most people living in the contemporary, increasingly global, world?
• what is the nature and purpose of higher education?

Related themes will also be identified for development and exploration. Out of our deliberations it is anticipated that a series of related cross context research projects will develop.