Michael A. Peters
was educated at Johnsonville Primary School and Onslow College before attending Victoria University of Wellington on a government studentship to become a teacher, completing a Batchelor degree majoring in Geography and English and an Honour degree in Geography. He attended Christchurch Teachers’ College in 1972, graduating with a Teachers’ Diploma and Certificate with Distinction. He taught senior Geography and English for five years at Linwood High School before taking a position as head of Geography and Liberal Studies at Long Bay College. While at Linwood, Michael completed a BSc in Philosophy of Science. In 1979, he enrolled at Auckland University in an MA in the Philosophy Department, gaining a First Class Honours degree and winning a PhD Scholarship. He completed his PhD in Philosophy of Education in 1984, focusing on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. In the seven years following, Michael worked as a research consultant for a range of government departments while also holding positions as a tutor at Auckland University and Auckland Polytechnic, and as part-time lecturer at the Auckland College of Education. In 1990, he was appointed Lecturer in Education at the University of Canterbury, returning to Auckland University in 1992 as Senior Lecturer. Soon after, he was appointed as an Associated Professor. Michael was awarded a Personal Chair in 2000 and held this position concurrent with a position as Research Professor at the Faculty of Education in the University of Glasgow for five years. In 2005, he was appointed as an Excellence Hire Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and made Emeritus Professor after leaving to take up a position of Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato in 2011. Michael has been the executive editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory, and founding editor of five international journals, including The Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy (Springer), and Open Review of Educational Research (T&F). His research and teaching interests are in the philosophy of education, where he has developed the notion of philosophy-as-pedagogy and pedagogical philosophy, and the political economy of education. Michael has been a teacher for some fifty years and supervised and examined over 50 PhD students. He has written and edited some eighty books, including most recently: Companion to Wittgenstein and Education: Pedagogical Investigations, (ed. 2017) with Jeff Stickney, Companion to Research in Teacher Education (ed. 2017) with Bronwen Cowen and Ian Mentor, Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy (ed. 2015) with Tina Besley. His books have been translated into ten languages. He has acted as an educational advisor to governments and UNESCO in the USA (NSF), Scotland, New Zealand (NZ), South Africa and the EU. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ in 2010 and awarded honorary doctorates by State University of New York (SUNY) in 2012 and University of Aalborg in 2015.
Richard Heraud
has worked, since completing a PhD at Waikato University in 2017, as an independent researcher, focused mainly on questions related to forest experience (anthropology and reforestation), marine studies (interspecies relations and NbS), and defence and security (conscription and the courage to defend). Prior to graduating from Waikato University and afterwards, he worked as an editor, co-editor, research assistant and contract researcher on a number of publishing projects, across a range of formats including encyclopedias, academic books, academic journals, and non-academic publications. Richard was the recipient of a Taiwan Fellowship in 2023 and was a non-resident research fellow for the Institute of National Defense and Security Research, Taiwan 2023 to 2025. In the early 2000s, he was responsible for rejuvenating the kauri planting programme for Kauri2000 Trust on the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand, where he linked Mercury Bay Area School’s study of deforestation and reforestation to a native tree planting programme. This project resulted in the planting of more than 50,000 kauri trees. More recently, Richard and a Taiwanese colleague have established an exchange-programme between National Penghu Marine & Fishery Vocational High School (Penghu, Taiwan) and Whakatane High School (Whakatane, New Zealand). The purpose of this project is to support high school students in the design and establishment of new marine reserves both around New Zealand and Taiwan. This is a long-term educational project that aims to support the formation of innovative political subjects who will fight to privilege the importance of the marine environment. Richard currently works remotely as a consultant for individuals, businesses and institutions in Taiwan and New Zealand. He lives in Malaysia with his partner, Mellisa Chin Lee Lee.
