Winston C Thompson | The Ohio State University (original) (raw)
Papers by Winston C Thompson
Studies in philosophy and education/Studies in philosophy & education, May 31, 2024
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Nov 27, 2023
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Jul 31, 2023
Journal of Philosophy of Education
In more than half of its states, the USA has recently passed or proposed legislation to limit or ... more In more than half of its states, the USA has recently passed or proposed legislation to limit or ban public educational curricular reference to race, gender, sexuality, or other identity topics. The stated justifications for these legislative moves are myriad, but they share a foundational claim; namely, these topics are asserted to be politically and socially divisive such that they ought not to be included within state-controlled schools. In this paper, we consider the claims of divisiveness regarding these topics and explore whether, even if taken in good faith, the popular versions of these arguments and actions are epistemically defensible. We conclude that these bans are an epistemic injustice and therefore argue for their end. The article proceeds to consider the foundational claims of epistemic injustice, followed by the invocation of epistemic standards by which the arguments for these bans can be evaluated. The article then transitions to a close application of these stand...
Cambridge University Press eBooks, May 31, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Jun 27, 2022
In recent work, Joseph Fishkin has helpfully enriched understandings of equality of opportunity a... more In recent work, Joseph Fishkin has helpfully enriched understandings of equality of opportunity as a feature of distributive justice schemes. One branch of his argument focuses upon the degree to which 'merit', as a function of talent and effort, is conceptually and practically vexing for these goals. While Thompson is in general agreement with the direction of Fishkin's critiques and new offerings, in this article he extends and strengthens Fishkin's analysis of talent, specifically focusing upon its role as a defensible criterion for access to developmentally useful educational opportunities. Developing an account sympathetic to Fishkin's contributions, Thompson provides a limited defense of talent as a morally relevant criterion for access to some educational opportunities. Of course, Thompson acknowledges that this relevance is not absolute and, therefore, points towards reasons why talent enjoys only this occasionally relevant status in relation to educational opportunities and what systemic issues ought to be avoided as a result.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 9, 2023
Philosophy of Education, 2016
Francis Schrag's "Philosophy for Policy Makers?" is an important paper that asks philosophers of ... more Francis Schrag's "Philosophy for Policy Makers?" is an important paper that asks philosophers of education what role we might play in engaging political and ethical elements of policy planning and analysis. In a few brief pages, his article manages to engage with an existing stream of scholarship and communicate many fine insights regarding the expectations and limitations of normative philosophical work on educational policy. I would like to engage a small subsection of those insights, in order to highlight what I see as the foundational strength of the work, while also pressing against a few generative elements of the analysis.
Routledge eBooks, Aug 31, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Jun 27, 2022
PsyPag Quarterly
John Tillson (Liverpool Hope University) and Winston C. Thompson (The Ohio State University) are ... more John Tillson (Liverpool Hope University) and Winston C. Thompson (The Ohio State University) are the Principal Researchers on the Pedagogies of Punishment project (funded by the Centre for Ethics and Education). As a PhD student exploring alternative approaches to behaviour management in schools, I was invited to participate in the project along with other researchers in this field, some early in their careers and others already established academics. This interview with John and Winston took place following the initial project symposium and offers a fascinating insight into the aims and background of the project.
Democracy education, 2019
Traits of reasonableness are necessary characteristics of successfully engaged citizens within pl... more Traits of reasonableness are necessary characteristics of successfully engaged citizens within pluralistic liberal democratic societies. Given the evident unlikelihood of the spontaneous development of these critical characteristics, pedagogical effort ought to be exerted towards ensuring that this goal is realized. In what follows, we argue that preschool presents a unique and compelling opportunity for supporting this worthy pedagogical aim, such that, despite purported prohibitions entailed within arguments for the political neutrality of curricula, it ought to be promoted within this area. In the service of illustrating this point, we provide four examples of promising beginnings for this work. Submit a response to this article Submit online at democracyeducationjournal .org/ home Read responses to this article online http:// democracyeducationjournal .org/ home/ vol27/ iss1/ 1 On the Moral Necessity of Reasonableness Political conflicts, many of which derive from the alternate ...
Philosophy of Education, 2021
Against a backdrop of increasingly contentious political times, it would seem that many citizens ... more Against a backdrop of increasingly contentious political times, it would seem that many citizens across the globe recognize themselves as constrained by entrenched and compounded systems of social and institutional injustices; for many attentive to these trends, it might be difficult not to reach the conclusion On the Promises of Hope in Perilous Times 32
Theory and Research in Education, 2020
In this article, we explore the interrelated phenomena of teachers’ paternalistic aims and their ... more In this article, we explore the interrelated phenomena of teachers’ paternalistic aims and their misattributions of the agency of their students within particular schooling contexts of systemic racial injustice in the United States. We argue that, because teachers in these contexts assess agency in patterned, predictable ways that stem from – and reify – preexisting unjust patterns of oppression, teachers are unreliable evaluators of the conditions necessary for just punishment. To build this argument, we explore a complex case in which authorities regularly fail to meet these conditions: the punishment of Black girls in low-income, urban, predominantly non-White primary and secondary schools in the United States. Through our analysis, we offer a new concept, excess agency misattribution, which raises serious questions about subjective justifications for punishment in contexts of entrenched injustice. By delineating how the perceptions of teachers influence both the putative justify...
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2023
In this chapter Tillson and Thompson consider what behavioural requirements schools may establish... more In this chapter Tillson and Thompson consider what behavioural requirements schools may establish for students and which (if any) they may enforce through punishment, during compulsory education. They argue that before children are autonomous, schools may establish both paternalistic, and other-regarding requirements, but not requirements imposed from within comprehensive conceptions of the good. They may punish children in order to ensure a fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of social arrangements. Schools may also punish children for paternalistic reasons, including developmental reasons, but not for reasons of general deterrence. When children become autonomous, compulsory schooling may establish only other-regarding requirements of student conduct. They may still punish to ensure a fair distribution of the burdens or benefits of social arrangements; this includes punishing for reasons of general deterrence, due to children’s responsible choices enhancing their liability, as well as for other-regarding developmental reasons.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 9, 2023
Theory and Research in Education
Building on the careful racial analyses of Charles W. Mills, this article uses the example case o... more Building on the careful racial analyses of Charles W. Mills, this article uses the example case of Black ethnics to illustrate the general plausibility of ethnic identity as a useful political analytic category, suggesting that the absence of ethnic identity in racial analyses mutes important aspects of the lived experiences of racialized persons as individuals and in aggregation. The article establishes the possibility of ethnicity as an identity modifier, providing additional specificity to racial identity narratives. Building on these positions, the article turns to educational contexts to explore the ways in which ethnicity (as introduced in the preceding sections) stands to offer additional specificity to justice-oriented analyses of educational policy and practice.
Studies in philosophy and education/Studies in philosophy & education, May 31, 2024
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Nov 27, 2023
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Jul 31, 2023
Journal of Philosophy of Education
In more than half of its states, the USA has recently passed or proposed legislation to limit or ... more In more than half of its states, the USA has recently passed or proposed legislation to limit or ban public educational curricular reference to race, gender, sexuality, or other identity topics. The stated justifications for these legislative moves are myriad, but they share a foundational claim; namely, these topics are asserted to be politically and socially divisive such that they ought not to be included within state-controlled schools. In this paper, we consider the claims of divisiveness regarding these topics and explore whether, even if taken in good faith, the popular versions of these arguments and actions are epistemically defensible. We conclude that these bans are an epistemic injustice and therefore argue for their end. The article proceeds to consider the foundational claims of epistemic injustice, followed by the invocation of epistemic standards by which the arguments for these bans can be evaluated. The article then transitions to a close application of these stand...
Cambridge University Press eBooks, May 31, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Jun 27, 2022
In recent work, Joseph Fishkin has helpfully enriched understandings of equality of opportunity a... more In recent work, Joseph Fishkin has helpfully enriched understandings of equality of opportunity as a feature of distributive justice schemes. One branch of his argument focuses upon the degree to which 'merit', as a function of talent and effort, is conceptually and practically vexing for these goals. While Thompson is in general agreement with the direction of Fishkin's critiques and new offerings, in this article he extends and strengthens Fishkin's analysis of talent, specifically focusing upon its role as a defensible criterion for access to developmentally useful educational opportunities. Developing an account sympathetic to Fishkin's contributions, Thompson provides a limited defense of talent as a morally relevant criterion for access to some educational opportunities. Of course, Thompson acknowledges that this relevance is not absolute and, therefore, points towards reasons why talent enjoys only this occasionally relevant status in relation to educational opportunities and what systemic issues ought to be avoided as a result.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 9, 2023
Philosophy of Education, 2016
Francis Schrag's "Philosophy for Policy Makers?" is an important paper that asks philosophers of ... more Francis Schrag's "Philosophy for Policy Makers?" is an important paper that asks philosophers of education what role we might play in engaging political and ethical elements of policy planning and analysis. In a few brief pages, his article manages to engage with an existing stream of scholarship and communicate many fine insights regarding the expectations and limitations of normative philosophical work on educational policy. I would like to engage a small subsection of those insights, in order to highlight what I see as the foundational strength of the work, while also pressing against a few generative elements of the analysis.
Routledge eBooks, Aug 31, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Jun 27, 2022
PsyPag Quarterly
John Tillson (Liverpool Hope University) and Winston C. Thompson (The Ohio State University) are ... more John Tillson (Liverpool Hope University) and Winston C. Thompson (The Ohio State University) are the Principal Researchers on the Pedagogies of Punishment project (funded by the Centre for Ethics and Education). As a PhD student exploring alternative approaches to behaviour management in schools, I was invited to participate in the project along with other researchers in this field, some early in their careers and others already established academics. This interview with John and Winston took place following the initial project symposium and offers a fascinating insight into the aims and background of the project.
Democracy education, 2019
Traits of reasonableness are necessary characteristics of successfully engaged citizens within pl... more Traits of reasonableness are necessary characteristics of successfully engaged citizens within pluralistic liberal democratic societies. Given the evident unlikelihood of the spontaneous development of these critical characteristics, pedagogical effort ought to be exerted towards ensuring that this goal is realized. In what follows, we argue that preschool presents a unique and compelling opportunity for supporting this worthy pedagogical aim, such that, despite purported prohibitions entailed within arguments for the political neutrality of curricula, it ought to be promoted within this area. In the service of illustrating this point, we provide four examples of promising beginnings for this work. Submit a response to this article Submit online at democracyeducationjournal .org/ home Read responses to this article online http:// democracyeducationjournal .org/ home/ vol27/ iss1/ 1 On the Moral Necessity of Reasonableness Political conflicts, many of which derive from the alternate ...
Philosophy of Education, 2021
Against a backdrop of increasingly contentious political times, it would seem that many citizens ... more Against a backdrop of increasingly contentious political times, it would seem that many citizens across the globe recognize themselves as constrained by entrenched and compounded systems of social and institutional injustices; for many attentive to these trends, it might be difficult not to reach the conclusion On the Promises of Hope in Perilous Times 32
Theory and Research in Education, 2020
In this article, we explore the interrelated phenomena of teachers’ paternalistic aims and their ... more In this article, we explore the interrelated phenomena of teachers’ paternalistic aims and their misattributions of the agency of their students within particular schooling contexts of systemic racial injustice in the United States. We argue that, because teachers in these contexts assess agency in patterned, predictable ways that stem from – and reify – preexisting unjust patterns of oppression, teachers are unreliable evaluators of the conditions necessary for just punishment. To build this argument, we explore a complex case in which authorities regularly fail to meet these conditions: the punishment of Black girls in low-income, urban, predominantly non-White primary and secondary schools in the United States. Through our analysis, we offer a new concept, excess agency misattribution, which raises serious questions about subjective justifications for punishment in contexts of entrenched injustice. By delineating how the perceptions of teachers influence both the putative justify...
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2023
In this chapter Tillson and Thompson consider what behavioural requirements schools may establish... more In this chapter Tillson and Thompson consider what behavioural requirements schools may establish for students and which (if any) they may enforce through punishment, during compulsory education. They argue that before children are autonomous, schools may establish both paternalistic, and other-regarding requirements, but not requirements imposed from within comprehensive conceptions of the good. They may punish children in order to ensure a fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of social arrangements. Schools may also punish children for paternalistic reasons, including developmental reasons, but not for reasons of general deterrence. When children become autonomous, compulsory schooling may establish only other-regarding requirements of student conduct. They may still punish to ensure a fair distribution of the burdens or benefits of social arrangements; this includes punishing for reasons of general deterrence, due to children’s responsible choices enhancing their liability, as well as for other-regarding developmental reasons.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 9, 2023
Theory and Research in Education
Building on the careful racial analyses of Charles W. Mills, this article uses the example case o... more Building on the careful racial analyses of Charles W. Mills, this article uses the example case of Black ethnics to illustrate the general plausibility of ethnic identity as a useful political analytic category, suggesting that the absence of ethnic identity in racial analyses mutes important aspects of the lived experiences of racialized persons as individuals and in aggregation. The article establishes the possibility of ethnicity as an identity modifier, providing additional specificity to racial identity narratives. Building on these positions, the article turns to educational contexts to explore the ways in which ethnicity (as introduced in the preceding sections) stands to offer additional specificity to justice-oriented analyses of educational policy and practice.
In K. K. Hewitt & A. Amrein-Beardsley (Eds.), Student growth measures: Where policy meets practice. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan., 2016
Evans, Caines and Thompson examine issues within current teacher evaluation reform using ethics a... more Evans, Caines and Thompson examine issues within current teacher evaluation reform using ethics as a disciplinary lens. The chapter begins with a call for educational decision-makers to attend to the moral dimensions of teacher evaluation, especially when considering the potential intended and unintended consequences of the use of student growth measures. Using a hypothetical example, the authors provide a practical framework for educational decision-makers that may illuminate overlooked ethical concerns. This chapter offers steps for administrators to contextualize, analyze, and more thoughtfully navigate ethical quandaries that arise in the design and implementation of teacher evaluation systems. The authors argue that this framework provides a useful, additive approach for evaluating the impact of student growth measures, shedding light on possible considerations for high-stakes educational decision-making.
Theory and Research in Education, 2020
It is widely accepted that school decision makers can abuse their power to punish children or fin... more It is widely accepted that school decision makers can abuse their power to punish children or find themselves in circumstances that otherwise fall short of procedural and substantive justice. This is a source of apprehension for educators and, when punishment goes wrong, it can be a source of resentment for children and parents. While injustices are to be avoided, agreement on what treatment counts as unjust (and why that evaluation is deserved) is harder to find. Normative inquiries into such punishment require careful examination of the rights and responsibilities of teachers and the children in their charge-to say nothing of the necessity for close study of the aims of, and constraints upon, adults' potential influence over children in response to their behaviors. These issues are made even harder to resolve due to the complexities involved in, inter alia, balancing individual differences with organizational efficiency, accounting for children's evolving capacities, and serving an educational mission within non-ideal circumstances. Odd, then, that so little contemporary philosophical work in education addresses this important topic of punishment.
Pedagogies of Punishment The Ethics of Discipline in Education, 2023
In this chapter Tillson and Thompson consider what behavioural requirements schools may establis... more In this chapter Tillson and Thompson consider what behavioural requirements schools may establish for students and which (if any) they may enforce through punishment, during compulsory education. They argue that before children are autonomous, schools may establish both paternalistic, and other-regarding requirements, but not requirements imposed from within comprehensive conceptions of the good. They may punish children in order to ensure a fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of social arrangements. Schools may also punish children for paternalistic reasons, including developmental reasons, but not for reasons of general deterrence. When children become autonomous, compulsory schooling may establish only other-regarding requirements of student conduct. They may still punish to ensure a fair distribution of the burdens or benefits of social arrangements; this includes punishing for reasons of general deterrence, due to children’s responsible choices enhancing their liability, as well as for other-regarding developmental reasons.
Pedagogies of Punishment The Ethics of Discipline in Education, 2023
Thompson and Tillson introduce their co-edited volume, Pedagogies of Punishment placing it in the... more Thompson and Tillson introduce their co-edited volume, Pedagogies of Punishment placing it in the wider context of the Pedagogies of Punishment project, summarising the contributions and suggesting directions for future research.