Ethics and Education

What makes a good friend? Should you be afraid of slides? Would you offer someone broccoli if they liked it? Today, we’re talking about what it’s like to do philosophy with–and for–children. We'll hear from experts in the field, from people who facilitate philosophical discussions with kids, and from a specialist in child development. And we’ll think about questions like: What do we owe kids,...

Should professors share their political views with their students? What happens to students when they do? Today's show is about how decisions around disclosure affect teaching, learning, and trust. Featuring Harry Brighouse and Tony Laden with Daisy Jagoditsh, Max Patterson, and Avra Reddy. Produced by Jennifer McCord and Carrie Welsh. Written by Jennifer McCord.

In this special collaborative episode with the L&S Exchange Podcast , we explore how college changes what we trust and what higher ed can do to become more trustworthy. With special guest philosopher Tony Laden, author of Networks of Trust: The Social Costs of Higher Education and What We Can Do About Them (2024). Aftershow featuring the L&S Instructional Design Collaborative and UW–Madiso...

College students need good mentorship. Here's why those mentors should be university teachers. With Harry Brighouse and Diamond Lannaman. Based on a paper by Harry Brighouse, "The Mentoring Responsibilities of University Teachers" (unpublished), 2023. Produced by Carrie Welsh and Jennifer McCord. Special thanks to Diamond Lannaman.

Why all the whispering? What should kids know about sex? And how can we think better about sex ed – so we can do better – by kids, by ourselves, and by each other?  With Lisa Andersen and Lauren Bialystok. Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education Produced by Carrie Welsh, Anna Nelson, Teresa Nelson, and Jennifer McCord. Ethics & Education Teaching Guides

Harry Brighouse and Hannah Bounds interview Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson about their book, Can College Level the Playing Field?: Higher Education in an Unequal Society (2022). Links: Book: Can College Level the Playing Field?: Higher Education in an Unequal Society Episodes mentioned: The Plumber Episode , The Right to Higher Education , and The True Costs of College Produced by Harry Brighous...

This is the third episode in a miniseries co-produced by Rebecca M. Taylor and Ashley Floyd Kuntz . Rebecca and Ashley are the editors of Ethics in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Inclusion Through Case-Based Inquiry . This episode is about faculty using social media, hosted by Jacob Fay (Open Mind) and featuring the voices of Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (University of New Hampshire), TJ Stewa...

This is the second episode in a miniseries co-produced by Rebecca M. Taylor and Ashley Floyd Kuntz . Rebecca and Ashley are the editors of Ethics in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Inclusion Through Case-Based Inquiry . This episode is about the ethical dilemmas that HBCUs face, featuring the voices of host John Torrey (Buffalo State) and guests Joyce E. King (Georgia State University), Fel...

This is the first episode in a miniseries co-produced by Rebecca M. Taylor and Ashley Floyd Kuntz . Rebecca and Ashley are the editors of Ethics in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Inclusion Through Case-Based Inquiry . This episode is about "divisive concepts" and features Sigal Ben-Porath (University of Pennsylvania) and Laura Dinehart (Florida International University). Links: Teaching Gu...

Introducing a miniseries about ethical issues in higher ed. Co-produced by Rebecca M. Taylor (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Ashley Floyd Kuntz (Florida International University), this series is based on their new book, Ethics in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Inclusion Through Case-Based Inquiry . In this series, we cover "divisive concepts," HBCUs, and faculty use of soc...

Where is the contrast between the aims of American prisons and the aims of college in prison programs? This piece is about those ethical dilemmas. Featuring the voices of: philosophers John Fantuzzo, Jennifer Lackey , and Daniel Wodak ; and brothers Freedom and Lee Horton.  Links: PBS segment about Lee and Freedom: Brotherhood & Clemency Part 1: The Power of a Pardon, Ep. 4. John's paper:...

Imagine you call a plumber. This episode is about becoming a better college teacher (if you're lucky), featuring UW-Madison philosophy professor Harry Brighouse and Oakland middle school teacher Grace Gecewicz. Links: The plumber essay ("Becoming a Better College Teacher (If You're Lucky)" by Harry Brighouse, Fall 2019, Daedalus ) Produced by Carrie Welsh, with editorial help from Anna Nelson, Han...

The true costs of college go way beyond simple frugality. The costs are serious, and they are often overlooked by universities.  Hosted by UW-Madison grad Natnael Shiferaw, this episode features a conversation with ethnographers Nancy Kendall and Matthew Wolfgram , two of the authors of the 2020 book, " The True Costs of College ." This is part of our series on higher education. Transcript We...

Jon Boeckenstedt is the Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Oregon State University. He has thoughts about how we do--and should do--admissions. Here he is in conversation with philosopher of education Harry Brighouse.  What is "enrollment management"? Is the admissions office more like Space Mountain or Studio 54? What information does an admissions officer actually get from an ACT/SAT...

Do we have a right to higher education? A conversation between philosophers of education Harry Brighouse and Christopher Martin .  What is the point of higher education? Why is there a right to higher education? Should education be compulsory after 18? Should tuition be free? Plus: civic education, elite institutions, selection theatrics, and armchair sociology  This is part of our serie...

What should the aims of higher education be? We asked undergrads, grad students, and philosophy professors what they think. This is the first episode in our series on the ethics of higher education. Special thanks to UW-Madison philosophy majors Ria Dhingra and Anna Nelson, who collected responses from the 2021 NAAPE Conference (North American Association for Philosophy & Education) and with a...

At the Center for Ethics & Education, we (obviously) think a lot about the ethical dimensions of teaching. But what about the ethical dimensions of *not* teaching?  We invited labor scholar Eleni Schirmer into conversation with philosopher Tony Laden to talk about what makes successful teacher strikes successful, strikes as direct action, what the bargaining process does to trust, and a g...

Why is it weird to talk about loving your students? A great conversation about love and teaching. Featuring philosopher Meghan Sullivan in conversation with Maria Salazar about what it means to bring love into the classroom and why more philosophers should study love. Transcript The Good Life Method book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624476/the-good-life-method-by-meghan-sullivan-and-p...

Navigating educational equal opportunity is hard. Christopher Jencks's five principles for equal education opportunity make navigating equal education a little bit easier - once we understand the principles, of course. In this episode, Avra Reddy interviews Jaime Ahlberg (University of Florida) about how we can use moral principles to understand theories of justice in Jencks's paper. They explore...

How and why should we punish schoolchildren--if at all? That's the guiding question of the Pedagogies of Punishment project. This episode features the project's PIs, John Tillson (Liverpool Hope University) and Winston C. Thompson (The Ohio State University).  Pedagogies of Punishment: https://www.pedagogiesofpunishment.com/ This project was a grantee of the Center for Ethics & Education!...

What can we learn from conversation that we can't learn on our own? Agnes Callard (Philosophy, University of Chicago) talks about the paradox of learning through conversation, the secret to asking a good question, chatting with the ghost of Aristotle, and that time her lecture notes were stolen and it ended up being a good thing for her teaching.  Mentioned in the episode: Boat thinking (Kant...

Welcome to a new season of the Ethics & Education podcast! Here are some snippets of episodes we'll share this fall, featuring the voices of Agnes Callard, Lindsey Schwartz, Winston Thompson, John Tillson, Jaime Ahlberg, and Quentin Wheeler-Bell.  Stay tuned for more episodes starting in September. In the meantime, we’ll keep making study guides for you to use in your classes to teach phi...

At CEE, we think a lot about good teaching. This is the fourth episode in our 2021 Teaching Series. And it's the last episode of our first season! Jen Kling is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and the director of the Center for Legal Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She's also the Executive Director of Concerned Philosophers for Peace , the largest, most active group of...

At CEE, we think a lot about good teaching. This is the third episode in our 2021 Teaching Series. Bailey Szustak is a PhD student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In this episode, Bailey talks about teaching new philosophy students in a way that helps them feel at ease with and compelled by philosophy. After all, that's what the word 'philosophy' means--a love of knowledge.  Bailey...

At CEE, we think a lot about philosophical skills and good teaching. This is the first episode in our 2021 Teaching Series. W. John Koolage is a philosophy professor and the Director of General Education at Eastern Michigan University. John is a philosopher of education who thinks a lot about teaching and learning. In this piece, he talks about how to engage undergrad students in philosophy classe...