Description (podcaster-provided):
How should we be thinking about ethical questions in education? Conversations and features with philosophers and education researchers. From classroom dilemmas to policy decisions, K-12 through higher ed.
We also make teaching guides to use in sociology, education, and philosophy classes. Available on our website.
Produced by the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Funding from the Spencer Foundation.
Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ ethical questions in K-12 and higher education • philosophy of teaching and learning • trust, mentoring, and classroom disclosure • equity, admissions, social mobility, and college costs • sex education and campus sexual citizenship • strikes, punishment, prisons, charters, standardized testing • case-based ethics, HBCUs, faculty social media, “divisive concepts”
This podcast explores ethical questions that arise in education, drawing on conversations with philosophers, education researchers, teachers, students, and other practitioners. Across K–12 and higher education contexts, it examines how moral concepts such as justice, trust, equality, dignity, and responsibility shape decisions made in classrooms, institutions, and public policy. A recurring focus is how educational practices affect relationships—between teachers and students, institutions and communities, and among students themselves—and how those relationships can be supported or undermined by power, politics, and social inequality.
Much of the content centers on higher education: what college is for, whether access should be treated as a right, and how admissions, mentoring, and institutional practices influence opportunity and social mobility. The show also considers the burdens college can impose, including financial and social costs, and how universities’ funding structures can reproduce racial and economic hierarchies. In parallel, it addresses professional ethics in academia, including when instructors should disclose political views, how faculty conduct online can create ethical dilemmas, and what it means for universities to be trustworthy.
Other episodes turn to contested issues in K–12 schooling and youth development, including punishment and discipline, teacher strikes, standardized testing opt-outs, and debates over charter schools. The podcast also devotes attention to sex education and campus sexual culture, treating them as ethical and educational issues involving knowledge, consent, power, and care. Alongside these topics, listeners also hear about teaching itself—how educators foster curiosity, conversation, philosophical thinking, and humane classroom norms. Teaching guides and curricular materials are a consistent companion to the audio.
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Episodes:
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Philosophy With (and for) Children | (K-12)
2026-Jan-07
32 minutes
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Political Disclosure in the Classroom | Harry Brighouse and Tony Laden (Higher Ed)
2025-Jul-29
22 minutes
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Building Trust in Higher Education | Tony Laden (Higher Ed)
2025-Jan-28
34 minutes
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Why Mentoring Matters | Harry Brighouse and Diamond Lannaman (Higher Ed)
2024-Jun-10
26 minutes
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Touchy Subject: Thinking Better About Sex Education | Lisa Andersen and Lauren Bialystok (Book Talk)
2023-Dec-12
31 minutes
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Can College Level the Playing Field? | Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson (Book Talk)
2023-Mar-07
26 minutes
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Faculty and Social Media | Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, TJ Stewart, Harry Brighouse, and Jacob Fay | (Ethics in Higher Education Book Series)
2022-Jun-28
36 minutes
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HBCUs Present and Future | John Torrey, Joyce E. King, Felecia Commodore, and Corey Reed | (Ethics in Higher Education Book Series)
2022-Jun-21
48 minutes
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"Divisive Concepts" | Sigal Ben-Porath and Laura Dinehart (Ethics in Higher Ed Book Series)
2022-Jun-14
37 minutes
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Trailer--Ethics in Higher Ed: Case-Based Conversations (Ethics in Higher Education Book Series)
2022-Jun-07
2 minutes
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The Ethics of College in Prison (Controversial Issues in Education)
2022-May-24
45 minutes
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The Plumber Episode | Harry Brighouse and Grace Gecewicz (Teaching Better)
2022-May-17
42 minutes
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The True Costs of College | Nancy Kendall, Matthew Wolfgram, and Natnael Shiferaw (Higher Ed)
2022-Feb-22
42 minutes
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The Ethics of College Admissions | Joe Boeckenstedt and Harry Brighouse (Higher Ed)
2022-Feb-08
52 minutes
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The Right to Higher Education | Christopher Martin and Harry Brighouse (Higher Ed)
2022-Jan-25
45 minutes
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What Should the Aims of Higher Education Be? (Higher Ed)
2022-Jan-18
10 minutes
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The Ethics of Teacher Strikes | Tony Laden and Eleni Schirmer (Controversial Issues in Education)
2022-Jan-11
42 minutes
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Love and Teaching | Meghan Sullivan and Maria Salazar (Teaching Better)
2022-Jan-04
53 minutes
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Educational Opportunity with Jencks's Principles of Justice | Jaime Ahlberg (Popular Papers)
2021-Nov-16
27 minutes
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The Ethics of Punishment | John Tillson and Winston C. Thompson (Controversial Issues in Education)
2021-Oct-05
26 minutes
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Learning Through Conversation | Agnes Callard (Teaching Better)
2021-Sep-08
30 minutes
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Trailer - Season 2
2021-Aug-24
3 minutes
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Humor, Movement, and Multimedia | Jen Kling (Teaching Better)
2021-Apr-27
21 minutes
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Being in Love with Knowledge | Bailey Szustak (Teaching Better)
2021-Apr-20
9 minutes
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Argument and Curiosity as Skills | W. John Koolage (Teaching Better)
2021-Apr-13
17 minutes
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Interactive Methods and Feminist Critiques | Susan Kennedy (Teaching Better)
2021-Apr-05
19 minutes
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Teaching, Indoctrination, and Trust | Tony Laden (Controversial Issues in Education)
2021-Mar-24
31 minutes
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Why Principles? | Jaime Ahlberg (Thinking Better)
2021-Mar-09
19 minutes
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The Racial Consequences of Underfunding Universities | Laura Hamilton and Kathryn Joyce (Book Talk)
2021-Feb-23
26 minutes
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Education for Liberation | Quentin Wheeler-Bell (Teaching Better)
2021-Feb-09
17 minutes
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The Ethics of Doctoral Admissions | Bryan Warnick (Controversial Issues in Education)
2021-Jan-26
17 minutes
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Sexual Citizenship | Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan (Book Talk)
2021-Jan-07
37 minutes
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The Ethics of Opting Out | Terri Wilson (Controversial Issues in Education)
2020-Dec-15
10 minutes
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The Ethics of Charter Schools | Harry Brighouse, Erica Turner, Gina Schouten (Controversial Issues in Education)
2020-Dec-08
30 minutes
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Higher Education and Social Mobility | Jennifer Morton (Book Talk)
2020-Nov-24
15 minutes
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The Case of the Privileged Poor | Anthony Jack (Book Talk)
2020-Nov-10
13 minutes
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Research Me-Search | Kellen Sharp (Student Episode)
2020-Oct-27
13 minutes
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Good Sex Education for Good Sex | Grace Gecewicz (Student Episode)
2020-Oct-20
11 minutes
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Just Teacher | Paula McAvoy and Lauren Gatti (Book Talk)
2020-Oct-13
28 minutes
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Teaching in a Pandemic | Paula McAvoy and Lauren Gatti (Book Talk Bonus)
2020-Oct-13
3 minutes
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Welcome to Ethics & Education
2020-Oct-05
1 minute
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