Joanna has taught in primary and secondary schools, community and adult education, teacher training, continuing professional development and higher education. At a loose end having completed a BA in philosophy in 1975, she enrolled on a PGCE course and began her teaching career in Glasgow in a traditional primary school where the belt was still widely used as a means of discipline. In 1979 she moved to Bristol and worked in inner city schools, gradually shifting from primary teaching into advisory teaching, teacher training and professional development work in higher education.

Joanna became interested in philosophy for children in the early nineties when she came across the work of Professor Matthew Lipman through the BBC television broadcast Socrates for Six Year Olds. What Lipman and others were claiming about young children’s philosophical questioning struck a chord with her experience. Her PhD research was in philosophy with children. Joanna is author of Children as Philosophers (2002, 2008, Routledgefalmer), which has been translated into Spanish (Paidos Educador, 2004) and is due to be published in Greek (Metaixmio, 2010). She has published several articles and book chapters on philosophy with children and is co-author of Storywise: Thinking through Stories (2000, dialogueworks).

From 1997 Joanna combined university teaching with work in schools in different parts of the UK, introducing philosophy with children through practical workshops, demonstration lessons and conference presentations. She has just returned to full-time university work in order to pursue her research interests which currently focus on controversial subjects, dilemmas and ethical decision-making in the context of work with children. Her forthcoming book, co-written with Karin Murris, Picturebooks, Pedagogy and Child: Philosophical Perspectives, will be published by Routledge Research in Education Series in 2010.