Ethics and Education

It’s late January, which means snowstorms (here in Wisconsin, anyway), the start of the spring semester, and grad school application deadlines. Universities will be making admission decisions over the next few months, and then applicants will decide where to go. But who really knows what they're getting into when they apply to grad school??

This is a timely piece on informed consent and the ethics of doctoral admissions, featuring Center Fellow Professor Bryan Warnick, a philosopher at the Ohio State University. It's based on his paper, "The Ethics of Doctoral Admissions" (forthcoming). We also asked four PhD students their thoughts on grad school. Thanks to Pedro Monque (CUNY Graduate Center), Garry Mitchell (Harvard University), Kathryn Joyce (University of California San Diego), and Kirsten Welch (Columbia Teacher's College) for sharing their perspectives. 

Transcript

Recorded at APA Central in Denver, February 2019. Mixed and edited by Kellen Sharp. Produced by Grace Gecewicz and Carrie Welsh. 

Grace Gecewicz and Madeline Brighouse Glueck interview Jennifer S. Hirsch (Public Health, Columbia University) and Shamus Khan (Sociology, Princeton University) about their book, Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. This conversation offers a hopeful vision for the future of sex education, preventing sexual assault, and developing an empathetic understanding of young people today.

Transcript

Study guide: The Ethics of Sexual Citizenship

Recorded in December 2020. Theme music by Podington Bear. Episode produced and edited by Carrie Welsh.

What are the ethical questions behind opting out of state testing? Professor Terri Wilson (University of Colorado Boulder) discusses a case study she co-wrote on opting out of state standardized testing. 

Recorded at the American Philosophical Association Central Conference in Denver in 2019. Produced by Carrie Welsh and Grace Gecewicz and edited by Kellen Sharp. 

Theme music by Podington Bear.

What is a charter school? Philosophy professor (and director of the Center for Ethics and Education) and UW-Madison student (and undergraduate project assistant at the Center) Grace Gecewicz host this episode about a type of school that everyone seems to have an opinion about. Find out who the "strange bedfellows" were that came up with the idea of charter schools and learn to ask the right questions about the effects of charter schools. Featuring scholars Erica Turner (Educational Policy Studies, UW-Madison) and Gina Schouten (Philosophy, Harvard University)

Recorded in 2018 and 2019. Produced by Carrie Welsh and Grace Gecewicz. Edited by Kellen Sharp.

Music by Bad Snacks and Podington Bear.

What ethical compromises do students make when they seek upward mobility through education? We talk with Professor Jennifer Morton about her new book, Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility (2019). Morton is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education.

This audio is paired with free, downloadable curricular materials to use in undergrad and graduate education classes. Visit our website for more info.

Audio Transcript

Recorded October 2019.

Produced by Carrie Welsh and Grace Gecewicz. Mixed and edited by Kellen Sharp. Theme music by Podington Bear.

We talk with Dr. Anthony Abraham Jack, an assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about his new book, The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students (2019). Jack’s work examines the often-overlooked diversity of low-income college students.

This audio is paired with free, downloadable curricular materials to use in undergrad and graduate education classes. Visit our website for more info.

Recorded in Toronto, April 2019.

Produced by Carrie Welsh. Edited by Kellen Sharp. Theme music by Podington Bear. Study guide created by Harry Brighouse, Abby Beneke, Grace Gecewicz, and Carrie Welsh, with consultation from Anthony Jack.

Kellen Sharp is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in Communication Arts. He is a McNair scholar with aspirations of attending graduate school and earning a PhD in Media and Cultural Studies. Kellen was the Undergraduate Research Scholar at the Center for Ethics and Education in 2019-20, where he co-produced and edited the podcast and helped develop curricular materials.  This is his reflection on that work.

Transcript

Written and produced by Kellen Sharp, May 2020.

Theme music by Podington Bear.

Grace Gecewicz is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a certificate in gender and women’s studies. During her time as an undergraduate, she was also an undergraduate project assistant at the Center for Ethics & Education, where she worked on the podcast and curriculum development. To read Grace's honor's thesis, "Let's Talk About the Birds, Not the Bees: Sexual Education for a Flourishing Life," you can reach out to her via email: [email protected].

Recommended Readings: 

Transcript

Written and produced by Grace Gecewicz, May 2020. Theme music by Podington Bear.

Professors Lauren Gatti (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and Paula McAvoy (North Carolina State University) talk about their book project, Just Teacher: Ethical Thinking in the Profession of Teaching.

Recorded in-person in February 2019 and over zoom in September 2020.

Produced by Carrie Welsh. Theme music by Podington Bear.

This is a short piece cut from the longer conversation with Professors Lauren Gatti (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and Paula McAvoy (North Carolina State University) about their book project, Just Teacher: Ethical Thinking in the Profession of Teaching. Here, they talk about the unique challenges the pandemic poses to teachers. 

Recorded over zoom in September 2020. 

Produced by Carrie Welsh. Theme music by Podington Bear.