Thinking in the Midst
By Cara Furman & Derek Gottlieb
Thinking in the MidstFeb 17, 2023
45. On the Dignity and the Indignities of Teaching
Kathy Schultz and Jerusha (Rue) Beckerman join Cara and Derek to talk about what attracted them to teaching in the first place, what anchors their thinking there, and where they see dignity emerging in practice and where they see it under threat.
For Kathy's most recent book, click here.
For more on the teaching program Rue runs, click here.
Here is the transcript for the episode.
Use this form to recommend future guests and topics!
44. On Reading, Only More So
Spurred by Adam Kotsko's piece on reading habits among college students (a similar piece appeared just this week in the Chronicle of Higher Ed), Cara and I invited David Hansen and Claudia Ruitenberg -- both esteemed and thoughtful readers -- to talk to us about how they think about reading in their own lives and as part of what they teach their students.
For David's books, click here and here.
For Claudia's books, click here and here.
The transcript of the episode is here.
Recommend future guests and topics using this form!
43. On Technologies Educational, Intellectual, and Governmental
Morgan Anderson and Ken Saltman sit down with Cara and Derek to discuss ed tech's penchant for innovating new forms of much older problems, even as they are promoted as presenting solutions. Solutions for whom?
See Morgan's critique of "technophilia" here.
See Ken's recent books here, here, and here.
Click here for the transcript.
Use this form to recommend future guests and topics!
42. On the Private/Public Divide in Early Childhood Education
Jess Calarco and Mark Nagasawa sit down with Cara and Derek to talk about public institutions and programs--and especially the lack thereof--for early childhood education, and the racialized and gendered ramifications of our policy choices.
LINKS:
Order Mark's collection, Transforming Early Years Policy in the US.
Preorder Jess's new book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net.
Here is a transcript of the episode.
Use this form to recommend future guests and episodes!
41. On How to Confer (in partnership with AERA Phil of Ed SIG)
Philosophical Studies in Education SIG officers Caitlin Murphy Brust, Jamie Herman, and Ka Ya Lee join Cara and Derek to share thoughts and advice about navigating conferences generally and AERA in particular.
Two events for grad students to note at AERA:
1.) Mentoring coffee chat (Sat Apr 13th, Elixr Coffee, 3-4:30pm)
2.) Graduate student social (Sat Ap 13th, Victory Brewing, 5-6:30pm)
LINKS
For more of Caitlin's work, click here
For more of Ka Ya's work, click here, here, and here
Here is a transcript of this episode.
And please recommend future guests and topics here.
40. On Culturally Just Assessments (PES panel)
In this episode, we present a symposium on the idea of culturally just assessments proposed and led by Joy Dangora Erickson, and featuring Winston Thompson, myself, and Cara.
It was convenient to put together because neither Cara nor Winston were able to be at PES in person and so had pre-recorded their comments already.
LINKS!
The two articles that started this conversation are here and here.
Here is a transcript of the episode!
And here is the form to recommend future topics and guests!
39. On LGBTQ+ Rights and Schools
"If you really analyze it, all bullying is gender policing," says one of our guests this week.
Cris Mayo and Elizabethe Payne join Cara and Derek to talk about the various forces at work making LGBTQ+ students and their institutional allies especially vulnerable in our current climate.
LINKS:
The transcript is here.
For more of Cris's work, click here and here.
For more of Elizabethe's work, click here and here.
To recommend guests and topics, use this form.
38. On Conspiracies
Michaila Peters, Ksenia Filatov, and Yuya Takeda join Cara and Derek to talk about their work on conspiratorial thinking and media literacy. All three guests are presenting work on this topic at the 2024 PES annual meeting, and this conversation broadly covers the genesis and context of the arguments they will make next week.
LINKS!
A transcript is here!
For Ksenia's ongoing work, click here.
For Yuya's work, click here and here.
For Michaila's work, come see her session at PES! We'll update this with the link as soon as it's published.
Here is the form to recommend future guests and topics!
37. On Spirituality and Education
Virginia Dearani, Adi Burton, and Clarence Joldersma speak to Cara and Derek about the mutual implications and shared concerns, both real and possible, of these two massively complex regions of human experience.
LINKS!
A transcript of the episode is here.
The form to recommend future guests/topics!
The Masha Gessen piece we briefly discussed is here.
Adi's dissertation is available here
For more on Virginia, see here.
36. On the Question(s) of Conferences
Natasha Levinson and Chris Higgins join Cara and Derek to talk about the structures and practices of academic conferences--especially PES; registration remains open!--as well as the role of questioning in general and what makes for a good question in the context of PES, especially.
LINKS:
Transcript of the episode!
Chris's forthcoming book is here; see other good things here and here.
35. On Philosophy and Curriculum Theorizing
Bill Pinar and Sam Rocha sit down with Cara and Derek to talk about the role that philosophical thinking and curriculum studies has played, so far, in their intellectual lives and their academic careers.
LINKS!
Here is the transcript.
For more of Sam's work, see here, here, and here
For more of Bill's work, see here, here and here.
To recommend guests and topics for future shows, use this form!
34. On Aesthetics and Education
Laura D'Olimipio and René Arcilla sit down with Derek and Cara to talk about the aesthetic dimensions of educational experience and how to defend or articulate the value of the arts in schools.
LINKS:
Here is a transcript of the episode.
You can find more of Laura's work here, here, here, and here.
René's work is available here, here, and here.
And here is the form you can use to recommend future topics or guests for the podcast!
33. On Math Education and Democracy
Elham Kazemi and Kurt Stemhagen join Cara and Derek to talk about the democratic affordances of mathematics classrooms.
LINKS:
Find more of Elham's work here, here, and here.
Find more of Kurt's work here, here, and here.
Here is the transcript of the episode,
and you can recommend future guests and topics with this form.
32. On Books Worth Reading
Addyson Frattura and Kierstin Giunco speak with Cara and Derek about the best things they've read in recent years -- including things they discovered through assigned coursework, independent research, and for pleasure.
LINKS!
The list of books we recommended and discussed
The transcript of the episode (with plenty of proper-name misspellings)
The form to recommend guests and topics for future episodes
31. On Public Revenue for Public Education
Historians Matthew Kelly and Andrew Kahrl join Cara and Derek to talk about racialized land values, the definition of "property" for the purposes of taxation, the history and power of local tax administration, and inequities in the funding of public services, including schools.
For Matthew's forthcoming book -- preorders available now -- click here.
For Andrew's forthcoming book, also available for preorder, click here.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
And please use this form to suggest topics and guests for future episodes!
30. On Grading
Continuing a conversation that took place at OVPES 2023, Gabe Keehn, Kenneth Driggers, and Deron Boyles join Cara and Derek to discuss novel (as well as hackneyed) concerns around grading -- how worried should we be about grade inflation, and what does ChatGPT mean for us as teachers and learners?
We've solved our transcription issue! Here is a transcript of the ep.
For more of Deron's work, click here, here, and here.
For more of Kenneth's work, click here, here, and here.
To suggest future topics and guests, use this form.
On Gratitude (bonus episode #2)
So as to avoid dropping a regular episode during the US's thanksgiving holiday, Cara and I sit for an interview by one of the podcast's listeners--all about how doing the podcast influences our scholarship, how we hope that it is received, and where we hope it goes in the future.
29. On Women in Philosophy
Cristina Cammarano, Shapel LaBorde, and Ariana Gonzalez-Stokas join Cara and Derek to reflect on the theme of the 2023 North Eastern Philosophy of Education Society (NEPES), which was held on October 7th.
Relatedly, the Southeast Philosophy of Education Society will meet in February 2024; their call is here, submission deadline Nov. 15.
For Ariana's recent book, click here.
And for some of Cristina's recent work, click here and here.
28. On the Concept of Equity
Meira Levinson and Harry Brighouse join Cara and Derek to talk about their work in clarifying "equity" as it appears in policy documents and popular discourse -- the conversation ranges across the role of analytic philosophy in educational discussions, the nature and purpose of normative case studies, and whether we should just go ahead and drop the "practical implications" question we routinely ask our guests.
To read the paper at the center of our discussion, click here.
For more of Meira's work on normative case studies, click here and here.
For more of Harry's work on the responsibilities of philosophy and education, click here and here.
27. On Ecological Education
Annie Schultz and LeAnn Holland join us to discuss education in its ecological valence, which includes conversations about anthropocentrism and animality, aesthetics, the weather, and the crucial issue of whether Timothy Morton's work counts as "accessible" philosophy.
For more of LeAnn's work, click here and here.
For more of Annie's work, click here and here.
Here is the form to recommend future guests and topics!
26. On Information, Misinformation, and Disinformation
Jen Logue and Sarah Stitzlein join Cara and Derek to talk about the theme of the 2024 PES conference, to be held in Salt Lake City, March 7th-11th. See the conference website and submit a session or paper here. Submission deadline is November 1st, 2023.
Meanwhile, for more of Sarah's work, see her website.
And Jen's work is similarly findable on her website, as well.
To recommend guests or topics for future episodes, please use this form!
25. On School Violence
Samantha Deane and Bryan Warnick sit down with Cara and Derek to discuss the manifold overlap between schools, violence, and guns, which opens up onto the manifold ways that education reflects, reinforces, and potentially alters the way that we live with objects and with one another.
For more of Sam's work, click here and here.
For more of Bryan's work, click here, here, and here.
As always, please use this form to suggest future episodes and guests (including yourself!)
24. On Freedom and Belonging
Thea Abu El-Haj and Carla Shalaby sit down with Cara and Derek to discuss, in broad terms, what models of community-building might look like that do not strive to identify and accommodate exceptions to some presumed norm, but are rather oriented toward the various needs of all; and what efforts to imagine and practice such community building might teach us about our concepts of freedom and belonging; and--most importantly, perhaps--what we might learn from children in these regards.
For more of Thea's work, please click here, here, and here.
For more of Carla's work, please click here, here, and here.
As always, please use this form to suggest guests or topics for future shows!
We are getting our transcription issues solved and will have this and back episodes up soon!
23. On Philosophizing with Teachers
Sarah Campbell and Doris Santoro join us to talk about philosophy's place in the lives of working teachers, the kinds and origins of pressures that make thoughtful practice and reflection difficult, and the importance of creating and maintaining the space necessary to stop and think.
For more of Sarah's work, click here.
For Doris's book, click here.
22. On Games
Dave Waddington and Gideon Dishon speak with Cara about the educational uses and various misuses of games and gaming. What is the value, from a learning perspective, of structured play -- whether of sports, or cooperative tabletop games, or video games?
For more of Dave's work, click here and here and here.
For more of Gideon's work, click here and here and here.
To suggest future topics or guests for the show, please use this form.
We continue to face difficulties with our transcription tool; we will post transcripts as soon as it is resolved -- apologies for the delay!
21. On Early Childhood and Posthumanism
Marek Tesar and Karin Murris join Cara and Derek to discuss the nature of childhood, the nature of philosophy, and what it might mean to allow children's views of the world to instruct us rather than the other way around.
For more of Marek's recent work, please click here and here and here.
For more of Karin's work, please click here and here and here.
To recommend future topics and/or guests for us to cover, please use this form.
We are having some temporary trouble with our transcription software, so we will append a full transcript for this episode as soon as that problem is resolved!
20. On Cancellation
Sigal Ben-Porath and Mordechai Gordon join Cara and Derek to talk about the issue of "cancel culture" on campus. Both guests have recently published books on the topic, so the conversation is fascinating.
Find Sigal's book here, and Mordechai's here.
Please use this form to recommend future guests and topics.
And you can download a transcript of this episode here, as well.
19. On Patriarchy
Liz Jackson and Lauren Bialystok sit down with Cara and Derek to talk about navigating academic institutions and organizations, as well the world in general, while gendered in particular ways.
For Liz's paper we discuss, "The Smiling Professor," click here.
For Lauren's latest book we discuss, Touchy Subject, click here.
For a transcript of the episode, click here.
And as always, to suggest a topic or a guest for the show, please use this form!
18. On Language and Languaging
Cecilia Espinosa and Jonathan Rosa join Cara to talk about the way that languages show up in schools and how educational institutions and personnel encounter them and their speakers.
For Jonathan's work on these issues, click here and here and here.
For Cecilia's work, click here and here and here.
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
And to suggest topics and guests for future episodes, please use this form.
17. On Why Philosophy Needs Education and Vice Versa
Barb Stengel and Philip Kitcher talk with us and each other about the internal relation between philosophy and education, about pragmatism and its enduring relevance, and about the place of education within human life generally and contemporary political-economy arrangements in particular.
For Philip's book that we discuss throughout, click here. For other recent and relevant work of his, click here and here.
For some of Barb's recent and relevant work, click here and here.
For a transcript of the episode, click here.
We want your suggestions! If you've got topics you want to hear discussed, or folks you want to hear from, please use this form to tell us!
16. On Attention
Cecilia Traugh and Kevin Gary speak with Cara and Derek about descriptive inquiry, the structures of schooling, the nature of boredom, and the cultivation in oneself and one's students of a capacity to attend.
For a transcript of the episode, click here.
For more of Kevin's work, click here.
For more on Ceclia's projects, click here and here.
To suggest guests or topics, use the form here.
15. On Conversations, Difficult and Otherwise
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.
14. On Fascism
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.
13. On School Leadership
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.
12. On the State of the Field
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!
11. On Organizing and Resistance
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.
10. On Anti-Critical Race Theory Legislation
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!
9. On School Accountability
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!
8. On Nel Noddings
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!
7. On Democracy, Extremism, and the Crisis of Truth in Higher Education
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!
On Thinking in the Midst (bonus #1)
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.
6. On Trauma and Loss
Elizabeth Dutro and Jeff Frank join us to talk about the schools in their -- in schools' -- complicated relations to trauma (as both cause and ameliorator) and to loss, particularly in the conditions of an ongoing pandemic. "Learning loss" is, after all, not the only kind of loss that matters.
For more of Elizabeth's work, see her book.
For more of Jeff's work, see his book, as well.
For the episode transcript, click here.
5. On Parents and Schooling
Kathleen Knight Abowitz and Amy Shuffelton join us in this episode to talk about the sharing of authority in education, the recourse to rights language and discourses of expertise in the context of our political moment, and the gendered division of labor with respect to schooling.
For more of Kathleen's work, see this piece. And also her book.
For more of Amy's work, see these three pieces.
For the transcript of this episode, click here.
4. On Inclusion and Belonging
What interferes with people's full participation in various institutional structures, how are those interferences to be mitigated, and how might mitigation strategies unintentionally reproduce elements of the original interference? In other words, how do concepts like diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging promise certain kinds of benevolent attention to heretofore overlooked matters, and how are those nevertheless involved in misdirecting or deflecting proper attention to those same matters?
Lana Parker and Ashley Taylor join us to talk about these formidable issues.
For more of Lana's work, see these three pieces.
For more of Ashley's work, see these two pieces.
To read the episode transcript, click here.
3. On Race
Ariana Gonzalez Stokas and Dave Stovall join Cara and Derek to talk about the affordances of critical race theory for contesting destructive simplifications (as Gonzalez Stokas sees in "diversity" discourses in the university) and, as Stovall says, offering reparative alternatives by "telling a layered story."
For more of Dave's work, see his book.
And for more of Ariana's work, preorder her forthcoming book!
For the episode transcript, click here.
2. On Reading
Stephanie Burdick-Shepherd and Joy Dangora Erickson join Cara and Derek to talk about reading and how to teach it, and about why taking sides in a pitched methodological battle is unlikely to produce the kind of results that kids and parents and teachers would want to see.
For more of Joy's work, and especially her new book, Reading Motivation, check out her website.
And for more of Stephanie's work, see her thinking on reading and childhood.
Music credit: "Sparks of Genius," by PantheonMusic
Here is the episode transcript.
1. On Punishment in Schools
We are joined by Campbell F. Scribner and Winston C. Thompson, who talk through the many overlapping and sensitive issues involved in imposing punishments in an educational context.
For more from both of them, please see:
2.) Campbell Scribner's and Bryan Warnick's Spare the Rod: Punishment and Moral Community of Schools
Music credit: "Sparks of Genius," by PantheonMusic
Here is the transcript of the episode
0. Introductions
Cara and Derek introduce themselves and the podcast in general.
Here is the transcript.