Ethics and Education

Ethics and Education

By Carrie Welsh, Center for Ethics and EducationEducation
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Ethics and Education episodes

  • The Ethics of College in Prison (Controversial Issues in Education)

    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: Recognizing human dignity behind bars: A moral justification for college-in-prison programs
    • Produced by John Fantuzzo, Téa Luckenbill, and Carrie Welsh.

      Music is "Built From Nothing" by Ketsa, used under a creative commons license.

      Interviews recorded remotely in 2022.

      46 min
    • The Plumber Episode | Harry Brighouse and Grace Gecewicz (Teaching Better)

      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, Hannah Bounds, Trinity Giese, and Harry Brighouse. 

        Recorded in June 2021. 

        43 min
      • The True Costs of College | Nancy Kendall, Matthew Wolfgram, and Natnael Shiferaw (Higher Ed)

        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

        Website

        Conversation recorded remotely June 2021.

        Music is "Wind It Up" by Ketsa from the Free Music Archive. Used under a creative commons license.

        43 min
      • The Ethics of College Admissions | Joe Boeckenstedt and Harry Brighouse (Higher Ed)

        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 score?
        • What difference might going test-optional make?
        • What will enrollment patterns look like in five years?
        • What's so annoying about the US News rankings?
        • What should more faculty knew about students?
        • and more.

          To learn more about Jon's work:

          • Jon Boeckenstedt's Admissions Weblog
          • Higher Ed Data Stories
          • This is part of our series on higher education.

            Transcript

            Website

            Conversation recorded remotely July 2021.

            Music is "Aced It" by Ketsa from the Free Music Archive. Used under a creative commons license. 

            53 min
          • The Right to Higher Education | Christopher Martin and Harry Brighouse (Higher Ed)

            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 series on the ethics of higher education.

              Further reading:

              • The Right to Higher Education: A Political Theory by Christopher Martin
              • Reflections on the Transition from Elite to Mass to Universal Access: Forms and Phases of Higher Education in Modern Societies since WWII by Martin Trow
              • Transcript

                Website

                Recorded remotely in July 2021.

                Music is "We Know" by Ketsa from the Free Music Archive, used under a creative commons license. 

                46 min
              • What Should the Aims of Higher Education Be? (Higher Ed)

                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 few of their friends. And gratitude to everyone they talked to who shared their thoughts.

                Transcript

                Website

                Music is "Dream Teachers" by Ketsa, used under a creative commons license.

                Recorded in October 2022.

                11 min
              • The Ethics of Teacher Strikes | Tony Laden and Eleni Schirmer (Controversial Issues in Education)

                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 great chicken analogy. 

                Transcript

                Recorded remotely September 2021. Music is Wavy Glass by Ketsa, used under a creative commons license.

                43 min
              • Love and Teaching | Meghan Sullivan and Maria Salazar (Teaching Better)

                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-paul-blaschko/


                Conversation recorded remotely on December 15, 2021.

                Music is Hip Hop Instrumental 2 by Ketsa from the Free Music Archive. Used under a creative commons license.



                54 min
              • Educational Opportunity with Jencks's Principles of Justice | Jaime Ahlberg (Popular Papers)

                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 questions like: why do principles matter? What is the difference between weak and strong humane justice? How do we pick the best principle? Plus an analogy to help you better understand how principles can help us navigate our lives.

                Are you teaching Jencks in your education or philosophy class? There's a study guide for this episode!

                Study guide

                Transcript

                Web link

                Article discussed in this episode: Jencks, Christopher. “Whom Must We Treat Equally for Educational Opportunity to Be Equal?” Ethics, vol. 98, no. 3, University of Chicago Press, 1988, pp. 518–33, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2380965.

                Produced by Avra Reddy and Carrie Welsh. Interview recorded in September 2021. Music is "Frieden" by Ketsa, from the Free Music Archive.

                28 min
              • The Ethics of Punishment | John Tillson and Winston C. Thompson (Controversial Issues in Education)

                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! We're proud.

                Transcript

                Recorded July 2021.

                Producer: Carrie Welsh. Music is "Wavy Glass" by Podington Bear and "Stay With Me" by Ketsa, used under a creative commons license.

                27 min

              About Ethics and Education

              From the publisher's feed

              How should we be thinking about ethical questions in education? Conversations and features with philosophers and education researchers. From classroom dilemmas to policy decisions, K-12 through higher ed.