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Doing a PhD in philosophy of education?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm interested in doing a PhD in philosophy of education. The programs I find just based on internet searching are in education departments. These programs aren't out of the question for me, but I'm wondering if there are philosophy departments that welcome that area of research, as I don't see it much when I look on departments' research pages or faculty interests.

And if there are philosophy departments that do accept that area of research, which programs should I look into?

I'm not sure–does anyone know? I guess I would think the best thing to do is to see which PhD programs philosophers work at who do philosophy of education. But one thing I guess I would want the OP to be aware of is that there seem to be few, if any, jobs in academic philosophy for people who focus primarily in this area. So, if one did focus primarily on philosophy of education during one's PhD, one might be in hard place in terms of getting an academic job.

I realize this isn't terribly helpful though, so do any other readers have any other helpful tips or insights?

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10 responses to “Doing a PhD in philosophy of education?”

  1. Michel

    I can’t think of anywhere either. But looking up where the people you’re reading work is a good idea. If you do the degree in an education department, however, do be sure that’s the credential you want. It will be rough going returning to a philosophy department, and it might function differently in education than the philosophy PhD does for us (e.g., is it a practitioner’s ticket to a promotion, or a researcher’s qualification?).
    Another possibility is to reverse-engineer from the more typical area of philosophy that your interest in the philosophy of education picks up on. So, e.g., if you’re mostly interested in what historical figures (e.g. Dewey, Russell) have had to say, find a program with strengths pertaining to that historical period and those figures. If you’re interested in the public policy dimension, find a program whose strengths are in social and political philosophy, especially public policy. And so on.

    Reply
  2. Chris Stephens

    Two people/places that comes to mind right away.
    1. Harry Brighouse at U of Wisconsin-Madison. Harry works in philosophy of education and political philosophy.
    2. Jennifer Morton at Penn. She works in philosophy of education and moral and political philosophy.
    You should look to see what kind of projects their students have done, or reach out to them and see if they’d be willing to supervise the kind of project you want to do.
    Both are strong overall programs in philosophy. I’m sure there are others.
    As Marcus notes, there aren’t a lot of jobs (any?) advertising in philosophy of education. There are two philosophers of education (Philosophy PhDs) at my institution (UBC), but both are in the education department. And I don’t know how common it is for education departments to hire philosophers.
    A better way to go, as Michel notes, is to find some other more central area of philosophy (Dewey, Plato, political philosophy, applied ethics etc) and link it to your interests in philosophy of education.
    Good luck!

    Reply
  3. harry brighouse

    I’m not aware of departments that hire specifically in philosophy of education. Most of us who do that either fell into it kind of accidentally (me, Jen Morton, Tony Laden, Matt Ferkany), or do it as an additional area of expertise (Gina Schouten, David O’Brien).
    However, you can sensibly write a dissertation that is in, or partly in, philosophy of education. And, of course, you can have it as an additional AOS. Any good dissertation in philosophy of education is also a dissertation in political philosophy, or ethics, or epistemology, or philosophy of science, or philosophy of social science, or whatever. So whatever field I’ve just named is your AOS that matches AOS in the job advertisement. And you also have an AOS in philosophy of education
    Also, though, many people write dissertations that have nothing to do with education and also publish in philosophy of education. That’s tended to be what UW-Madison students who’ve worked with me have done.
    In my experience, having an AOS in philosophy of education is entirely welcome in a job candidate (many of my advisees have it and their experience has been that hiring committees have found it appealing, and they have been successful in the job market).
    There are a few departments you’d be particularly well advised to consider if this is your interest, because of faculty who have particularly expertise in philosophy of education and/or the campus has excellent people in the school of education. In the US: UW-Madison (me); Harvard (Schouten, plus Levinson & Elgin in HGSE); Michigan (Anderson); OSU (two excellent philosophers of ed in the school of ed, Warnick and Thompson); Rochester (Curren); Stanford (Satz); Columbia (Kitcher); UIC (Laden); MSU (Ferkany); Northwestern (Ebels-Duggan); Penn (Morton, plus Ben-Porath in the GSE); Tulane (O’Brien).
    If you want to do philosophy of education as a career you are generally much better advised to try Philosophy than Education. Here’s why. There are very few jobs specifically for philosophers of education in either discipline. SO you have to do something else as well. In a philosophy department, this involves learning another field. In a School of Education it involves learning a whole other discipline and becoming so expert that you can get a job in that discipline. And, frankly, many schools of education harbor significant numbers of faculty who are intolerant of careful analytic philosophical thinking, so whereas an AOS in phil of ed might enhance your job prospects in Philosophy, and won’t harm them, in Education it probably won’t enhance your job prospects and might harm them.

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  4. Edward U. Kation III

    What sort of philosophy of education?
    For example, if you’re more into e.g. the relationship between democracy and education, then a Dewey scholar is a natural person to look for as a mentor. On the other hand, if you’re more interested in methodology in education research, then look for an expert in relevant issues in the philosophy of science, like RCTs vs. case studies, causal inference in complex contexts, or error statistics vs. Bayesianism. Some examples of philosophers working on these issues and – I assume – taking on new PhD students are Julian Reiss, Sharon Crasnow, and Jon Williamson.
    I can’t think of a particular department which stands out: the LSE had a lot going on that was directly or indirectly relevant to education policy 15 years, when Nancy Cartwright was there, but not any more AFAIK. Durham University was a good place for philosophy of education 10 years ago when Nancy Cartwright arrived, and the education department there is methodologically sophisticated, but they seem to be focusing on philosophy of medicine these days and they lost many of their best philosophers of science in recent years.
    In short, I would think carefully about specifically what you want to do, and then look on Philpapers to look for suitable supervisors with relevant expertise, even if they aren’t explicitly “philosophers of education”.

    Reply
  5. Tenured SLAC

    I would second Harry’s suggestions.
    I did a PhD in philosophy of education at a school of education but I knew the best-case scenario for me would be to teach maybe one philosophy of education course a semester in a school of education or at a liberal arts college. For this reason, I studied educational policy and teacher education. I started in a small teacher education program where I never taught philosophy of education and am now at a small liberal arts college where I get to teach philosophers of education regularly but in things like first-year program courses.
    So, I would be extremely cautious to do a PhD in philosophy of education unless you really wanted to learn a great deal about education and spend your career in a school of education or in an education department. That said, there are philosophers of education at schools of education doing great work, so doing a PhD in philosophy at a school with excellent philosophers of education may be the best way to go.

    Reply
  6. Maja Sidzinska

    Look at University of Pennsylvania (Karen Detlefsen, Jennifer Morton).

    Reply
  7. Grad student

    The comments so far seem right to me. I think the majority of people you find working on philosophy of education have some sort of dual AOS (another example is phil of education and ancient phil). An additional route: look into the societies for philosophy of education and past conference programs to see what people are working on, who those people are/what universities and departments they’re in. I can’t speak for PES, but NAAPE often has grad student presenters as well as K-12 educators and independent scholars on the program, and is a very open and collegial environment for grad students and early career people.

    Reply
  8. Beaver

    In Canada, philosophy of education is more likely to be pursued in a place like OISE – Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. But if you pursue that sort of route, then it will be next to impossible to get a job in a PHILOSOPHY Department. Rather, one would seek employment in an Ed School. That is a very different career path and life.

    Reply
  9. Shen

    Columbia’s Teacher’s college has a program that offered phd in philosophy and education, that may interest you.

    Reply
  10. Nicole Thibault

    SFU has a Phd in Philosophy of Education. I was in it from 2007-09. Great instructors and courses.

    Reply

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