Thinking in the Midst

Rachel Wahl and Tony Laden come on the show to speak with Cara and Derek about their work on the dynamics of conversation and its role in the grand project of being with others. For more of Rachel's work, click here, here, and here. For more of Tony's work, click here, here, and here. For the transcript of the episode, click here. And to suggest authors or topics, please use this form here.

Tyson Lewis and Silas Krabbe sit down with Cara and Derek to discuss the rise and the nature of fascism, as well as what an antifascist education might look like, might involve, and might require. For more of Tyson's work on the subject, click here. For Silas's book, click here For a transcript of the episode, click here. To suggest future guests and topics, click here.

Jessica Heybach and Mike Gunzenhauser join Cara and Derek to talk about the moral lives and daily burdens of school and system leaders, and the kinds of training and formation work required to develop good and thoughtful leaders. For more of Mike's work on the subject, see here, here, and here. For Jessica's work in this area, see here and here. For the transcript of this episode, click here. To suggest a guest or a topic, use this form.

Kal Alston and Nick Burbules join Cara and Derek to talk about where the field of philosophy of education has been and where it is going, particularly in a US-American context. And fear not: We cover everyone's favorite question -- how do we know who a philosopher of education is, especially as the number of academic appointments with those words in the job title continues to dwindle? For Dr. Burbules's recent work on phronesis, click here. For Dr. Alston's 2021 PES Presidential Address, click here. For a transcript of this episode, click here. Suggest a topic or guest by using this form here!

Jia Lee and Jason Wozniak sit down with Cara and Derek to talk about educational and organizing practices under various iterations of neoliberal policies directing school reform. For more information on the organizations mentioned here, see The Debt Collective and the Alliance for Quality Education. For a transcript of this episode, click here. To suggest guests/topics for the show, click here.

This week, Larry Blum and Sarah Blum-Smith join the show to talk about the legislation passed in several states (though we focus on Florida and New Hampshire) seeking to regulate what educators can teach with respect to race. For more of Larry's work on this issue, see his books here, here, and here. And you can find all of his other publications on his website, too! For the transcript for this episode, click here. And as always, please use this form if you would like to suggest future topics or guests (including yourself) for us to include!

In this episode, we talk to the University of North Carolina's Ethan Hutt and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell's Jack Schneider about the functions, the histories, and the techniques associated with grades, tests, and transcripts. The two of them cover the topic at length in their forthcoming book, which will be available for pre-order shortly. For more of their coauthored work, see here and here. To listen to the education podcast on which Jack is a co-host, check out Have You Heard? For a transcript of this episode, click here. And if you'd like to recommend a topic or a guest (including yourself!) for future episodes, please use this form!

In this episode, we hear from Barb Stengel, Jessica Lussier, and Joel Westheimer, as they reflect, in the context of a PES 2023 panel, on Noddings's legacy; and Cara sits down with Noddings's former student and longtime friend, Lynda Stone, to think about what it means for a philosopher's work to live on. For a transcript of this episode, click here. To suggest future guests and topics for the show, use this form!

This unusually long episode is the first of two that we recorded at the 2023 PES meeting in Chicago.  It includes an interview about the 2023 Presidential Address and the invited response with the authors of those pieces, PES president Michele Moses and her chosen respondent, Winston Thompson. And with that interview in the background, this episode moves on to the Presidential Address and the response itself. To make it easy for listeners to segment the episode, if they wish, we've included some timestamps below. The interview with Michele and Winston comes first. Terri Wilson's introduction of the Presidential Address begins at 38:40 Michele's talk begins at 43:40 Winston's response begins at 1:40:40 For a transcript of this episode, click here. To suggest guests or topics for future episodes, use this form!

Surprise! Cara and Derek interrupt the regularly-scheduled flow of episodes to talk with one another about the themes or through-lines that are emerging across the conversations that have been hosted on the podcast so far, think through some of the questions we got from our friends and colleagues at the PES conference, and reflect on the field of philosophy of education as a whole. Also, Derek says some potentially mean things about educational research sometimes being conducted "thoughtlessly."  As luck would have it, this NBER working paper on the cumulative effects of teacher evaluation policies 2010-2023 just dropped. What was the impact of these massive reforms on the outcomes of interest? "No effect." Why not? Among other reasons, the authors say, reformers forgot to enlist the support of key stakeholders -- I.e. researchers' models left out a really crucial piece of the puzzle as their findings predicted big gains. If that's not thoughtless, it's certainly not thoughtful, is all I'm saying. For the transcript of this episode, click here.