{"title":"Provincializing white racial ideology: Mills’ social ontology and philosophy of education","authors":"Sheron Fraser-Burgess","doi":"10.1177/14778785231164082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785231164082","url":null,"abstract":"Social ontology examines the nature and mechanisms in human society of concepts that pertain to various kinds of social collectivities. A pioneer in the development of this philosophical field, Mills theorised a social metaphysics of racial constructivism for modern philosophy in order to explain the enduring orthodoxies of its Anglo-centric dominance. This paper invokes the term, supervenience, to further elucidate the causal bearing of race on individual and social facts. Turning to the philosophy of education, the ontological bifurcation of asymmetrical racial worlds is a salient divide to which discourses of normative individual ethics, analytic critical thinking, and generalized social justice contribute. Given the pervasiveness of supervenience, in the unwillingness to traffic in the ontology of race, educational philosophy hamstrings the creative and critical dimensions of advancing education for a racially equitable and pluralistic democracy.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45578319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The right to higher education and the gap between ideal theory and non-ideal decisions","authors":"Harry Brighouse, Kailey Mullane","doi":"10.1177/14778785231160063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785231160063","url":null,"abstract":"Christopher Martin argues that an interest in strong autonomy supports a right to debt-free higher education and that making tuition free is the best way of enacting that right. We argue that making higher education tuition free would, in the absence of other countervailing measure, maldistribute strong autonomy, even in ideal conditions. We also argue that even if Martin is right that higher education should be tuition-free in ideal circumstances, it does not follow that in prevailing, non-ideal, conditions higher education should be tuition-free.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44834123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ethical costs of using higher education for economic mobility","authors":"Dustin Webster","doi":"10.1177/14778785221142865","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221142865","url":null,"abstract":"A great deal of recent scholarship on economically disadvantaged students and higher education works under the foundational assumption that going to college can and/or should serve the goal of economic mobility. This article considers a cost of using higher education for this purpose – specifically, the impact on the decision-making of poor students. I argue that the narrative of higher education for economic mobility places poor students in a problematically restrictive normative framework as compared with their wealthier peers in which decisions involving the pursuit of future economic goods change from matters of preference into ethical dilemmas. In turn, poor students are forced into a narrow cost–benefit, consequentialist mode of decision-making. This is especially problematic because higher education for many students is a transformative experience – a type of experience which is particularly unsuited to consequentialist reasoning. The solution involves reframing the way in which we think about decision-making in higher education, which is at least partially contingent on increasing social supports to shift the burdens of poverty off individual students.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47051117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political dissent and citizenship education during times of populism and youth activism","authors":"Sarah M. Stitzlein","doi":"10.1177/14778785221134235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221134235","url":null,"abstract":"To maintain and improve our democracy, we must better prepare students for understanding, valuing, participating in, and responding to political dissent. This is especially the case in light of recent developments in political life that have made displays of public outcry more widespread, though not always well-done. This article reflects on recent growth in populism and youth activism to make a case for improved ways of understanding and teaching for good political dissent.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42682041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Caitlin Howlett, Against Sex Education: Pedagogy, Sex Work, and State Violence","authors":"S. Robinson","doi":"10.1177/14778785221140181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221140181","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42437497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The broad and the narrow account of education – A false dichotomy? Marley-Payne’s suggestion for amelioration of the concept of education","authors":"Christian Norefalk","doi":"10.1177/14778785221143841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221143841","url":null,"abstract":"In his article ‘An Ameliorative Analysis of the Concept of Education’, Jack Marley-Payne sets out to provide an ameliorative analysis of the concept ‘education’. Marley-Payne draws an important distinction between what he labels the ‘Broad’ and the ‘Narrow’ account of education. His conclusion is that an ameliorative conceptual analysis of education favours the narrow account. The main argument is that a narrow approach, tightly connected to formal schooling, provides a better basis for pursuing an egalitarian agenda. Contrary to Marley-Payne, I will argue that an amelioration of the concept education need not favour either a wide notion or a narrow notion. I believe that there are other alternatives to choose from, that in fact leads to an amelioration of what education can and ought to mean. The problem with Marley-Payne’s conclusion is thus, not only that it builds upon a false dichotomy but also that it is not emancipatory enough. We need an amelioration that is inclusive rather than exclusive.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46519616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, Can College Level the Playing Field? Higher Education in an Unequal Society","authors":"Christopher Martin","doi":"10.1177/14778785221142981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221142981","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44977868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trauma drama: The trouble with competitive victimhood","authors":"Robert S. Taylor","doi":"10.1177/14778785221143741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221143741","url":null,"abstract":"Writing a college-application essay has become a rite of passage for high-school seniors in the United States, one whose importance has expanded over time due to an increasingly competitive admissions process. Various commentators have noted the disturbing evolution of these essays over the years, with an ever-greater emphasis placed on obstacles overcome and traumas survived. How have we gotten to the point where college-application essays are all too frequently competitive-victimhood displays? Colleges have an understandable interest in the disadvantages their applicants may have suffered, but this interest – and the awareness of it among both applicants and their advisors – has led to a ‘race to the bottom’: in order to thrive (or even survive) in a particular competitive context, participants are forced to continuously lower relevant standards in a game of one-upmanship. With college essays, the competition is among high-school seniors for admission, the one-upmanship is an ever-escalating effort to persuade admission committees of one’s greater disadvantage, and the relevant standards being lowered are honesty, privacy, and dignity – or so I shall argue. As we will see, this particular race to the bottom imposes unequal costs on certain groups and has implications stretching well beyond collegiate admissions.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41866000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"If this is indoctrination, we are all indoctrinated","authors":"L. Armstrong","doi":"10.1177/14778785221143770","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221143770","url":null,"abstract":"When thinking about moral education, a concern of liberals is that such education ought not to be indoctrinatory. There are various definitions of indoctrination, but a common theme is that indoctrination prevents us from critically assessing our own beliefs. Indoctrinatory education, then, teaches a doctrine in such a way that students will not countenance any alternative doctrines. A state which forced its citizens to endorse a doctrine in this way would not be a liberal state. However, if indoctrination consists in an inability to critically assess our own beliefs, I argue that we are all partly indoctrinated. Evidence drawn from neuroscience and psychology suggests that the basis of our beliefs lies in emotion rather than reason, and there is no independent space from which we can critically assess our own belief systems. This is not to justify an explicit form of state indoctrination, in which the state forces beliefs upon us. Instead, it is to assess problems with how we understand indoctrination within education. There is no entirely adequate solution to these problems, though education aimed at open-mindedness offers the most promise.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47541925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is it time for a new meritocracy?","authors":"Veronika Tašner, Slavko Gaber","doi":"10.1177/14778785221113619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221113619","url":null,"abstract":"Meritocracy is a rationality that has significantly shaped the lives of people in modern societies, and today we all more or less believe that those who are smart, capable and hardworking will succeed in life. This seems to be a rule that applies in more or less all areas of public life. In the Western world, evaluating and judging ourselves and others based on meritocracy has become an imperative that we rarely question and despite the problems associated with meritocracy, politicians, parents and teachers continue to promote it. In The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?, Prof. Sandel lays out the genealogy of the aforementioned prevailing rationality and, in particular, highlights the limits and problems of meritocracy that are often overlooked. However, he does not leave it at a mere critique, but also offers a reflection on ways out of the problems of meritocracy. We continue along the path taken by the professor. The first part of our article highlights the critique as reconsiderations of the concept, then continues with reflections on the future of education, merit and wage labour, and concludes with thoughts on the possibility of creating a new meritocracy.","PeriodicalId":46679,"journal":{"name":"Theory and Research in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43821685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}