From the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, philosophical inquiry was considered “essential to the craft of teaching.”
As of 2020, only 10% of teacher education programs in Canada require a philosophy of education course—we can reasonably assume a similar number for the United States.
Director of Saint Xavier University’s (SXU) Education Division and Associate Professor Anthony “Tony” DeCesare, Ph.D. is aware of this.
He received his doctorate in Philosophy of Education from Indiana University (IU), and believes this lack of attention towards the “why” of teaching is deeply harmful for not only the intellectual advancement of student teachers, but of the future students who will learn under them.
“Philosophers of education don’t often find a comfortable home in teacher ed programs.
It used to be the case that, when students went through a teacher ed program, [they] would, either at the start or the end, take a standalone philosophy of education course and a standalone history of education course, said DeCesare.
“Both of those disciplines have really shrunk, they’ve been squeezed out of teacher ed programs because of increasing state level requirements and so forth,” DeCesare continued.
DeCesare noted that he had to travel so far from his home state of Connecticut, to Bloomington, Indiana, in 2008 to find a suitable doctoral program in philosophy of education due to the lack of schools offering degrees for it.
“They were sort of dwindling,” DeCesare said, highlighting the gradual decline in schools offering philosophy of education degrees that existed even nearly two decades ago, “and there’s fewer now.”
This is arguably due to a lack of appreciation and investment in humanities programs, across education.
DeCesare believes there is another part to this lack of focus—the ivory tower divorced from reality a portion of academics, in particular philosophers, find themselves in.
“I’m really appreciative of the chance to talk about the field, because it’s not in great shape, and partly of our own doing.
Part of the tension in philosophy of education is sometimes people who shy away from applied versions of philosophy.
Philosophy is an applied discipline—we’re not meant to be off in the clouds.
It’s meant to be closer to the ground, trying to effect change.
Ideas still move the world, but we have to help them along in practice,” DeCesare stated.
Although, as he noted, it is a hurdle due to increasing state requirements for education programs, DeCesare actively tries to combat this diminishment of applied philosophy in education programs through his work here at SXU as Director of the Education Division, as well as through his work as a professor.
“I shoehorn [philosophy of education] into classes like Education 200 (The Profession of Teaching),” he said.
DeCesare teaches the works of Paulo Freire and Nel Noddings, among others, in this course, the introductory course to the Education program.
“It kind of fits better in Education 377 (Historical and Social Trends in American Education),” which DeCesare has taught in the past, only currently teaching Education 200.
“The training I have in philosophy changes how I show up in spaces,” DeCesare said of how philosophy of education manifests through his work as Director of the Education Division.
“Like, in the way we think about things, I try to get people to ask questions about things or think differently about things, so it might not be the particular content of my philosophical study, but the method of philosophy is pretty well-engrained in what I do, with the sort of questioning, probing, and pushing back on certain things, challenging people to think differently, I think that’s where it shows up the most for me.”
DeCesare also says he has thought about and would like to create a standalone philosophy of education course that is not only open to education majors, but everyone, noting how the topic could be interesting to those studying philosophy, sociology of education, or anyone else.
Over the past three years, DeCesare’s thinking surrounding philosophy and philosophy of education has shifted from the study of things like political philosophy, democratic theory, theories of social justice to philosophy of childhood, focusing on topics like children’s role in democracy, their voting rights, and their agency more broadly.
DeCesare speaks to his gradual shift in attention towards children’s issues: “To me, what was interesting in reading political philosophy, people who were writing about democratic theory, theories of justice, is how often they just ignored children, as if they weren’t human beings.
It was all about adult citizens.”
One of the first times DeCesare spoke publicly at SXU was a speech advocating for lowering the voting age to roughly six or seven years old.
This shift was largely forged through conversations between DeCesare and his now-nine-year-old daughter Eddy.
“Some of the conversations that [my daughter and I] have of a philosophical nature are really deep and intense, and it was partly those conversations that I had with her that led me to feel more comfortable saying, ‘kids are able participants in democracy and intense conversations, and we should really start thinking about their more robust inclusion in society,’” DeCesare said.
Despite the lack of placed importance on humanities, particularly Philosophy and Philosophy of Education, DeCesare believes “we are increasingly a society that is desperate for philosophical wisdom and thought,” a belief he hopes will cause a resurgence of philosophical interest and real-world application.
More specifically in terms of education, though, he believes we owe it to young people to understand why we educate them in the first place, instead of doing it merely for the sake of upholding the status quo.
“We send kids to school for twelve years, eight hours a day, something like 180 days a year—that’s a long time to force them to be in one space doing this thing called ‘school,’ so we, as a society, owe it to young people to think clearly and philosophically about why we’re doing that and what school needs to be.”
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