海角黑料

Department of Philosophy

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Andrew Fisher

University Senior Tutor/Professor, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

I am currently (2022- ) the University Senior Tutor

I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2000 with a first class honors degree in Philosophy and an MPhil. I then completed a PhD at St Andrews University and graduated in 2004. The title of my thesis is 'Naturalism, Normativity and the "Open Question" argument' and was supervised by Professor John Skorupski. In the thesis I argued that reductive accounts of morality will always fail, due to the normativity of morality; and that this is best illustrated via the 'Open Question' argument. I started work as a Teaching Fellow at The 海角黑料 in 2003, I was then promoted to Lecturer in 2006, then to Associate Professor in 2010. In 2009 I completed my Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (full 60 credits). In 2010 I graduated from Nottingham with an MA in Higher Education. In 2011 I was appointed the first Director of Teaching for the Faculty of Arts, in 2015 I applied for and was awarded Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. In 2018 I was awareded another Lord Dearing teaching award and became a National Teaching Fellow.

Teaching Summary

I love all aspects of teaching and I am fascinated by the philosophy of education, and what a University should be. I am passionate about the transformative features of education and the way… read more

Research Summary

  • I am interested in the nature of teaching, and applying analytic philosophy to the Philosophy of Education.
  • Widening participation and EDI in education
  • Moral realism

Recent Publications

From September 2018, Dr Fisher is working with a team of six researchers in a project to increase the presence of ethnic diversity in the curricula of politics and philosophy (also referred to as 'decolonising' the curriculum) in an effort to achieve greater representation of a wider range of perspectives, debates, and interpretations of the world. Entitled 'Represent! Regularising ethnic presence in the curriculum', the project will run for two years.

Project team

The project is funded by the Birmingham-Nottingham Education Partnership Fund. The project team is formed of:

  • Dr Helen Williams (principal investigator), School of Politics and IR, 海角黑料
  • Dr Helen McCabe, School of Politics and IR, 海角黑料
  • , Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham
  • , Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham
  • , Project Research Assistant/Associate

Brief description

This project will take a curriculum-based approach to the undergraduate attainment gap between white and BAME students in philosophy and politics.

Descriptive representation matters, including in the curriculum, and mainstreaming perspectives that are not the traditional white, European, middle class, male approaches is very important for increasing retention, engagement, and attainment of other demographics. The importance of mainstreaming more diverse perspectives has been highlighted under many guises, starting with in the 1960s and proliferating into other headings, such as , , and more recently . Each of these headings addresses a slightly different aspect of the same underlying phenomenon: the decisions we make about what we teach and how we teach it, as well as the expectations our students have, can either foster inclusion or perpetuate social and ethnic inequalities.

Recently, decolonisation (or ethnic diversification) of the curriculum has received considerable press, but there is a clear call for a coherent methodology for decolonisation. The project will start with a review of the ways that educationalists across the world have undertaken diversification to propose a methodology for systematically improving representation without assuming unlimited knowledge and resources of those trying to decolonise their curriculum. Alongside this, we will audit what we already do, uncovering the implicit and explicit curriculum. In the second year, the main activity will be to work with staff and students to identify examples, authors, readings, and topics to ensure greater visibility of BAME authors and ideas in the mainstream curriculum, including diversifying our expectations in assessments. The Department of Philosophy has already begun such a review; Peter Kerr and Emma Foster (Birmingham) have undertaken a ; Helen McCabe (Nottingham) has made a review of political philosophy the focus of her PGCHE project.

Potential outcomes

The project will result in the incorporation of more BAME authors and themes as part of the core curricula in the participating departments. The resources (website with database, curriculum changes) will provide a blueprint to expand the changes beyond the participant departments.

I love all aspects of teaching and I am fascinated by the philosophy of education, and what a University should be. I am passionate about the transformative features of education and the way education can raise aspirations. It is for this reason that I regularly engage with the community by teaching Philosophy in local primary schools. I was the Director of Teaching for the Faculty of Arts and am currently a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and National Teaching Fellow.

I'll be on research leave Autumn 2023

Past Research

  • I successfully supervised (with Ian Kidd) PhD student (2022) whose thesis discusses the concept of safe spaces in education.
  • I successfully supervised (with Pat Thomson) PhD student (2019) whose thesis discusses the nature of academic writing.
  • I successfully supervised (with Dr Neil Sinclair) PhD student Greg Scorzo whose thesis discussed the epistemological weight of evidence in favour of moral realism
  • I successfully supervised (with Dr Neil Sinclair) PhD student Luke Taylor whose thesis discussed the theism and its relation to metaethics.
  • I successfully supervised (with Dr Neil Sinclair) PhD student whose thesis discussed error-theory and fictionalism.
  • I successfully supervised (with Dr Neil Sinclair) PhD student Mark Dimmock whose thesis discussed error theory and the abolition of morality.

Future Research

I would be very interested in working with PhD students on the following broad themes:

1. Metaethics - e.g. moral realism, moral psychology, moral ontology, the link between metaethics and normative ethics

2. Philosophy of education - e.g. analytic philosophy of education; virtue and vice epistemology; indoctrination; the performative nature of teaching; the phenomenology of learning; power in the classroom

3. Philosophy for Children - e.g. what is P4C and how does it relate to critical thinking? the role of questioning; the role and nature of creativity; ideology and the education of children.

4. Philosophy of Higher Education - e.g. what is a university for? widening participation and the University; A-level as a preparation (or not) for HE; Internationalization; technology and education; MOOCs and the nature of the classroom; educational spaces/architecture and teaching; the value of the Arts and Humanities.

These are just some suggestions. I'd love to hear from you if you are thinking of doing a PhD and we can work something out together. Just drop me an email.

  • BRIGNELL, C., FISHER, A., STOCKDALE, J. and WEBSTER-DEAKIN, T., 2025. MSOR Connections. 23(3), 7
  • FISHER, A and ROBINSON, L, 2025. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning. 27(1), 59-71
  • FISHER, A and MCINTYRE, J, 2025. 48(2), 231-250
  • FISHER, A, 2025. A Philosophical Overview of Key Ethical Concepts and Insights for Navigating AI in Education. In: BAKER, G, ed., AI-Powered Pedagogy and Curriculum Design: Practical Insights for Educators Routledge.
  • ANDREW FISHER and PETER WATTS, 2023. What is the Value of Face-to-Face Teaching? Resisting the Marketization of Higher Education in a Covid-19 World. In: TINA BYROM and JACKIE CAWKWELL, eds., The Teaching and Learning Challenges of 21st-Century Higher Education: Prioritising Pedagogy Cambridge Scholars. 18-30
  • FISHER, A and TALLANT, J, 2023. Journal of the Philosophy of Education. 58(1), 24-40
  • CHAUHAN, VIPIN, CROWLEY, THOMAS, FISHER, ANDREW, MCCABE, HELEN and WILLIAMS, HELEN, 2022. Metaphilosophy. 53(1), 134-143
  • 2022. Knowledge Cultures. 9(2), 117鈥�129
  • FISHER, ANDREW and TALLANT, JONATHAN, 2020. PHILOSOPHIA. 48(2), 777-787
  • FISHER, ANDREW and TALLANT, JONATHAN, 2020. EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY. 52(7), 780-790
  • CHAUHAN, VIPIN, FISHER, ANDREW, WILLIAMS, HELEN and MCCABE, HELEN, 2020. Lenses of decolonisation: transforming higher education curricula. In: BYROM, TINA, ed., Universal design: meeting the teaching and learning challenges in 21st century higher education Cambridge Scholars.
  • ANDREW FISHER, KATE EXLEY and REG DENNICK, 2019. 2nd Edition. Routledge.
  • ANDREW FISHER and MARK DIMMOCK, 2017. Open Book Publishers.
  • FISHER, A and TALLANT, J, 2016. How to Get Philosophy Students Talking: An Instructor's Toolkit Routledge.
  • FISHER, A, 2016. Teaching Philosophy. 39(4), (In Press.)
  • FISHER, A, 2016. 鈥淧hilosophy, Pedagogy and Professional Development鈥� Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis. 37, (In Press.)
  • FISHER, A and TALLANT, J, 2015. Cogent Education. 2,
  • FISHER, A, EXLEY, K and CIOBANU, D, 2013. Using Technology to Support Learning and Teaching Routeldge.
  • 2012. The Word of Faith Movement: Are we little gods?. In: Philosophical Explorations of New and Alternative Religious Movements Ashgate.
  • FISHER, A and TALLANT, J, 2012. Research in Learning Technology. 4(2),
  • 2011. Metaethics: An Introduction Acumen.
  • BAKER, G, ed., 2011. Academics in Schools: Mapping the Pedagogical Interface Continuum.
  • 2011. Teaching Children to Think: Some Reflections on Teaching Philosophy in Primary Schools. In: Arts Academics in Schools: Mapping the Pedagogical Interface Continuum.
  • 2010. Cognivitivsm without Realism. In: The Routledge Companion to Ethics Routledge.
  • 2010. Studies in Higher Education. 505-512
  • 2010. Learning in Virtual Worlds. In: Teaching for Integrative Learning
  • 2009. How effective are Reusable Learning Objects at supporting didactic lectures?. In: Teaching for Integrative Learning
  • 2007. Why Shouldn't Philosophers Teach Medical Ethics? Discourse. 227-236
  • KIRCHIN, S, ed., 2006. Arguing About Metaethics London.
  • 2005. Religious Studies. 41(3),
  • 2005. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 32(2),
  • FISHER, ANDREW, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. (In Press.)

Department of Philosophy

海角黑料
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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