Dr Ian Normile

Ian has taken a circuitous route into higher education. He has taught at all levels, from kindergarten to university, and has experience in educational leadership. He was the Director of Studies for one of the largest TESOL schools in Vietnam and the Deputy Head of an international School in China. These experiences helped spark his interest in international and cross-cultural education.

Ian has a wide range of teaching and research interests but is particularly fascinated by the philosophy of education and questions about the purposes (actual and ideal) of education. He draws on a range of ideas to explore and understand educational possibilities. He finds great value in learning how to be wrong – contending there are few experiences more educative than realising something always known to be true simply is not the case. He is also interested in how different kinds of experiences, like play, wonder, and skilled practices can contribute toward education.

• Philosophy of education
• Critical thinking and being
• The aims of higher education
• Philosophical foundations of education research
• Academic freedom
• Critical dialogue as a conduit for social justice
• Mystical experiences
• Teacher education
• Democratic education & education for democracy
• Cross-cultural learning
• Aligning education theory, policy, and practice
• Educational leadership

• Philosophy of education
• Literature review
• Discourse analysis
• Various forms of qualitative research

Ian currently teaches on the following modules:

• Educational Theory and Philosophy (ETP)
• Developing Educational Research (DER)
• Key Issues in Education and Themes in Education (KITE)
• The Reflective Practitioner (PGCE)
• Professional Evidence-Based Enquiry (PGCE)

• PhD, University of Edinburgh
• MSc Education, University of Edinburgh
• CELTA, University of Cambridge
• BA Humanities and Social Sciences, Western Washington University

Normile, I.H., MacAllister, J., Macleod, G. (2026) 'The Focus on the Full-Time Whistle: Football, Death, and Care in Life' in Artful Education and the Downward Journey: Facing Finitude and Death. MacAllister, J., Anne P., Affifi, R. (eds). Bloomsbury Academic.

Normile, I.H. (2025) A Model for Understanding and Expanding the Scope of Critical Thinking. Studies in Philosophy and Education. doi.org/10.1007/s11217-024-09976-x.

Normile, I.H. (2024) Expanding Critical Thinking into Critical Being through Wonder and Wu-wei, Educational Theory. doi.org/10.1111/edth.12619.

Normile, I.H. (2022) Exploring Criticality in Chinese Philosophy: Refuting Generalisations and Supporting Critical Thinking. Studies in Philosophy and Education. doi.org/10.1007/s11217-022-09855-3.

Normile, I.H. (2026) MacAllister on MacIntyre: Exemplars in the Philosophy of Education. Presented at: International Society for MacIntyrean Studies Conference, Edinburgh UK.

Normile I.H. (2025) Criticality Confined: How Universalist Assumptions Unintentionally Narrow the Scope of Critical Thinking. Presented at: European Conference on Educational Research, Belgrade Serbia.

Normile I.H. (2025) A Model for Understanding and Expanding the Scope of Critical Thinking. Presented at: European Conference on Educational Research, Belgrade Serbia.

Normile, I.H. (2025) The Mystical Dimension of Critical Thinking. Presented at: Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference, Dublin Ireland.