The Okanagan School of Education is pleased to welcome Dr. Sumer Seiki to the faculty in the position of Associate Professor.

“I’m excited to work with new colleagues and students,” says Dr. Seiki. “I am looking forward to meeting folxs personally and working alongside teachers. BC also has such lovely gardens, I’m looking forward to integrating the classroom and garden.”

Dr. Seiki has served in education for well over twenty years. For her research contributions to teacher education and interdisciplinary research, Dr. Seiki won the 2020 American Education Research Association Early Career Award from the Narrative SIG. Prior to joining UBCO, she was the Assistant Dean and Director of Teacher Education Programs at the University of California, Riverside School of Education. In this role, she directed the teacher education credential programs and partnered with local school districts. She was also an associate professor of teacher education at the University of San Francisco exploring familial curriculum, ethic studies, community cultural wealth, and science teacher education. Dr. Seiki has a breadth of knowledge of teacher credentialing, earning her multiple subject teacher credential from the bilingual multicultural teacher education program. She is dedicated to creating more inclusive schools and classrooms.

She is currently part of a research project with the University of California, Berkely Lawrence Hall of Science that focuses on transformative curriculum. The project is working with pre and in-service teachers on how to rewrite science curriculum to make it more inclusive by accessing the curriculum through personal histories, stories and culture.

“Part of this project is looking at ways that science concepts are taught early on within our families and cultures,” she says. “For example, cooking practices may have taught them different scientific concepts such as plant cycles or the energy transfer process. We’re looking into the science behind these actions and revisiting an old gift given by loved ones.”

In addition, she has a strong record in plant biology. She earned her Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Plant Biology. She taught introductory plant biology and biology courses at a few California universities. She brings her years of plant research and teaching to our campus.

Dr. Seiki will be teaching EPSE 468: Creating Positive Learning Environments for Inclusive Education in September, 2022 and will be part of block 4 and 5 in our Bachelor of Education program starting in January, 2023.

Congratulations to Camille Rivard-Sirois, one of our two Madeline Korfman Memorial Scholarship recipients!

Here is what her nominator had to say:

“Camille is obviously passionate about teaching. Whether classes are online or in person, Camille is always engaged and inquisitive about the concepts brought forward. In field experiences, Camille has developed close relationships with her students and planned great experiences for them; she was really reflective about her practice.”

“It really touched my heart to receive this award and I feel very privileged. Going back to school to receive my Bachelor of Education has involved a lot of sacrifices for myself and my young family, and so having this incredible recognition feels like this journey and those sacrifices have been worth it. It’s such a good feeling, like a warm blanket!” says Camille with a smile. “At the end of the day, teaching is all about love. The love for the children, and teaching itself and all the time that goes into it.”

***

After graduating from university in Quebec with a degree in Biology and specialization in ecology, Camille Rivard-Sirois began her career as a biologist – and then decided to move across the country.

Despite never visiting the Okanagan before, Camille took a chance and accepted a job opportunity with the Okanagan Nation Alliance in Penticton, B.C.

“I accepted the job without really knowing anything about the Okanagan. I went on Google Earth and saw the lakes, the rock-climbing area and thought this place looks like paradise,” says Camille. “It was love at first sight with the Syilx territory.”

Camille was part of the team that worked on restoring the sockeye salmon habitat in the Okanagan, and was involved in various other ecological projects over 14 years. During that time, she met her partner and had two children. While she enjoyed her work, she found herself growing increasingly interested in the field of education.

“I had always been attracted to education. When I was younger, I enjoyed teaching swimming, sports and math to different age groups,” she says. “I also wanted an opportunity to reconnect with my francophone culture by sharing my love for the language with others.”

Now more than halfway through the program, Camille is looking forward to her internship at a francophone school in Penticton. She, along with her peers, recently reflected on what they’ve learned and experienced in the last eleven months at a Celebration of Learning.

“When I was in school, it was a much more traditional transceiver-receiver model of education and now I’ve been introduced to so many other ways of teaching and learning that are more inclusive, engaging and really put children at the center.”

In addition to having her perspectives of education shift, she’s found a new interest in drama and music.

“I was given a ukulele and have started to learn to play it,” says Camille with a laugh. “I never really liked drama or music in school, but now for the first time in my life I’m so drawn to it. The program has opened me up to new learning opportunities and introduced me to so many incredible people.”

For those interested in pursuing their Bachelor of Education degree, Camille encourages students to invest time in their organization system.

“We’re exposed to so many ideas, resources and materials in this program. Find a system that works for you to organize your strategies, lesson plans, resources and references because you’re only exposed to a little bit of a huge universe, and having a good system to organize yourself allows you easy access to those tools when you need them down the road.”

About the Scholarship

This scholarship has been endowed through a bequest by Madeline Betty Korfman to honour her love for teaching. Madeline Korfman taught school in southwestern Saskatchewan before relocating to the Okanagan in the mid-1900s. This scholarship is awarded to two teacher candidates who significantly demonstrate a “love for teaching” based on the recommendation of Okanagan School of Education faculty.

Congratulations to Julie Bertles, one of our two Madeline Korfman Memorial Scholarship recipients!

Here is what her nominator had to say:

“She exudes a love of teaching and learning, with a deep compassion for students and a clear understanding of the importance of building strong relationships to enhance student learning. Julie has been like a sponge, soaking up information and using feedback from her instructors, her FA, her mentor teacher and the students she works with to improve her instruction and practice.”

“This award is such an honour,” says Julie. “It’s really affirmed for me that I’m on the right track and this is the work I was really meant to do. I’m so excited to see what’s up and coming for our society, and the great passionate minds we have coming up into this world.”

***

Before entering the Bachelor of Education (BEd) program, Julie Bertles was a child and youth support worker who was feeling frustrated that she couldn’t enter school property to help her young clients.

“I was hearing from my clients, mostly adolescents, that where they needed the most support was in school,” says Julie. “That feedback is what draw me to pursuing my teaching degree.”

But the BEd program hasn’t been what she expected.

“It’s been different in the best possible way. Education isn’t anything like how it was when I was student. I had a vision of how I would love my classroom to be and I was prepared to ruffle feathers, but this program has been exactly what I envisioned for myself. It’s very social emotional focused, student centered and whole-body learning.”

Her original plan was to receive her BEd degree and go on to pursue her master’s in counselling to be a high school counsellor, but the more time she spends in the classroom, the more her mind is changing.

“I’m falling in love with teaching and the work that teachers do in the classroom,” she says. “I’m always learning something new from my students and in some ways, I think I learn more from them than they do from me.”

For Julie, one learning opportunity has come to her while she standing in front of the classroom.

“It can be nerve racking being in front of a group of students, particularly older students, for the first time,” she says. “I found the more authentic I could be with them, the more I could let them see that I also make mistakes, the more genuine the relationships I built with them were. I’m a perfectionist myself and I’ve had a hard time not always doing things perfectly, but the more I let my students see that and show them that it’s okay to fail and here is how you can fail safely has been a huge ah-ha for me.”

In addition to a shift in her career path, Julie has found herself building lifelong relationships.

“I’ve made connections with peers in the program and colleagues during my practicum in the school district that are second to none. I’ve made some lifelong friendships with passionate people and it’s been a great environment to be a part of.”

For those interested in pursuing their Bachelor of Education degree, Julie advises going into teaching with an open heart and open mind. She also encourages prospective teachers to lean into the connections they have around them.

“Spend the time to build a network of support around you, because it can be exhausting emotional work and you’ll need a sounding board, you’ll need support.”

About the Scholarship

This scholarship has been endowed through a bequest by Madeline Betty Korfman to honour her love for teaching. Madeline Korfman taught school in southwestern Saskatchewan before relocating to the Okanagan in the mid-1900s. This scholarship is awarded to two teacher candidates who significantly demonstrate a “love for teaching” based on the recommendation of Okanagan School of Education faculty.

Congratulations to the Class of 2022! We are bursting with pride and are excited to see where your journeys take you.

We have a few special acknowledgments:

Congratulations to our Bachelor of Education, Head of Graduating Class, Anica McIntosh!

Anica McIntosh

Read her story

Congratulations to our Maxwell Cameron Award recipients, Dani Rivet and Wilson Hlina!

Dani Rivet

Read her story

Congratulations to our Sharon McCoubrey Award in Visual Arts Teaching recipient, Alex Corrie! 

 Alex Corrie

Read her story

Each year, UBC Okanagan faculties award a student with the University of BC Medal for the Head of Graduating Class. In the Bachelor of Education (BEd) program, this award is presented to the top student based on their academic performance throughout their program.

The Okanagan School of Education is pleased to announce that this year’s 2022 recipient, is Anica McIntosh!

“Anica displayed characteristics of a true scholar-practitioner. She was actively engaging in furthering her professional growth throughout the practicum. While being respectful of her mentors and intern colleagues, she was able to introduce current trends in Math education (based on the work of Dr. Peter Liljedahl) and lead the Science department in reporting student learning by tracking outcomes and curricular competencies.”

McIntosh is part of an exceptionally unique graduating class as, aside from their field experiences, they completed their BEd entirely online.

“There are so many people that I will be meeting them for the first time at graduation,” says McIntosh. “It was an unusual experience as teaching is a career path that requires connections. Being online really taught me how important engagement is.”

McIntosh had long been drawn to teaching. She has taught dance for 11 years, is a rowing coach and was previously a cross-country skiing coach.

“I found I had a passion for being a positive influence in a child’s life,” smiles McIntosh. “Whether that was helping them find confidence in themselves or being the reason they showed up that day.”

While it might seem as though pursuing her teaching degree after receiving her Bachelor of Science was a natural next step, it wasn’t a career at the top of her list.

“I worked in various science related positions after graduating, and found myself at a point where I realized I didn’t want to work for the sake of working. That’s when I decided that teaching would combine a lot of things I enjoy — science, learning and making connections.”

Still, it wasn’t until McIntosh’s first practicum that she felt confident about her decision.

“I had my first practicum experience in a grade six classroom, and I was intending on becoming a high-school science teacher so I was terrified,” laughs McIntosh. “They were so young and they so eager to tell me everything about themselves within the first minutes. It was by the end of that experience that I truly knew I made the right choice.”

This award has an extra special connection for McIntosh as her father had received the same award when he went through the program approximately ten years ago.

For future BEd students, McIntosh encourages you to have trust.

“Trust your ideas! It can be an overwhelming situation where you’re lesson planning with educators who have decades of experience, but we’ve been learning the newest techniques and theories in teaching. Trust that you have meaningful ideas to bring forward.”

Congratulations to Maxwell Cameron Award recipient and 2021/2022 Bachelor of Education graduate, Dani Rivet!

During Rivet’s time in the Bachelor of Education program, she didn’t only teach her students about leadership, kindness and social justice. She modelled it.

Driven by her passion for societal change, one initiative Rivet directed was creating Christmas hampers with her students to help those in need with basic necessities and, for some, children’s toys. She reached out to multiple grocery stores and worked with the school’s Parent Advisory Committee to receive donations. In addition, despite her practicum finishing on Dec. 3, Rivet continued to come back to the school to create the hampers with her mentor teacher and students. She also assisted in delivering the packages to families and those living rough in downtown Kelowna.

Why did you decide to enter the field of teaching?

My desire to become an educator was sparked after spending three years working with those experiencing homelessness and individuals with developmental delays. My work involved teaching life skills, addressing mental health and/or substance use, providing basic needs, and helping clients to move forward in their lives. It was not until I began to reflect on who my clients are, where they came from, and who they could have been that I realized how much of a role I could play in mitigating the systematic barriers placed on families today.

I decided I wanted to become an educator when I realized the part I could play in supporting children before the systematic burdens have the chance to take their toll on them. Because of these experiences, one of my main goals is to become a leader for my students, and someone who excites them to become motivated, lifelong learners. Moreover, as I am aware of the diversity of backgrounds existing within our schools, I aim to create an environment where every student can feel safe and comfortable every day. Finally, I hope to continue to have the opportunity to integrate lessons of social justice and empathy into my future practice.

What was your experience at the Okanagan School of Education (OSE) like?

My experiences at OSE were pivotal in the development of my identity as a teacher. The experiences I had throughout the program helped me to blend my existing values and perspectives with those that I discovered along the way. The multifaceted nature of the program opened my eyes to the notion that we are all lifelong learners, which has taught me to embrace everything that I can from every opportunity.

My favourite memories from my time at the OSE are embedded in my practicum experiences. During these experiences, I made countless friendships with mentors, advisors, and colleagues that I will cherish forever. Additionally, I always laugh when I think back to my first practicum and how nervous I was to teach my lessons. By the end, I was able to see how valuable each and every teaching opportunity was as I felt comfortable and confident to begin my career as an independent, yet connected educator.

What does receiving the award mean to you?

Receiving this award is very meaningful to me, as it directly aligns with my beliefs surrounding the importance of raising awareness about social justice and the difficulties people living in poverty face. In my short career as a teacher, I have found that students have at times been unaware of the challenges that people and families living in poverty encounter, and it has been exciting to foster learning around these important societal issues. It has always been important to me to address and inform people of the severe issues of poverty existing in our local community.

I am honoured to be recognized for my efforts around teaching students the impact of selfless acts of kindness, along with understanding that there are ways that we can help those who face challenges in their lives. It was evident to me that the students learned a great deal during our kindness inquiry, and approached each lesson in an empathic, heartwarming way.

What advice do you have for future Bachelor of Education students?

My first piece of advice is to have fun with it, as the program goes by faster than you can imagine. My second piece of advice would be to make connections with colleagues, mentors, and anyone else in your educational circles   all connections will help you in the long run! My third piece of advice would be to enter every experience with an open mind because you never know what experiences will alter and mesh with your pedagogical stance.

About the Maxwell Cameron Award

The Maxwell A. Cameron Award is given annually by the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) to students completing the final year of the Bachelor of Education degree in elementary and secondary school teaching. The recipients of the award are those students who are considered to be outstanding students in the graduating class who have initiated, worked, or participated in a project that created positive change globally or in their local community, and or, been actively involved in issues related to poverty, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, antiracism, peace, global or environmental issues.

The award is named after Maxwell Cameron who headed the Department of Education at UBC in the mid-1940s. Prior to that, he was on staff as an associate professor and director of UBC’s summer school.

Congratulations to our Sharon McCoubrey Award in Visual Arts recipient and 2020/2021 Bachelor of Education graduate, Alex Corrie!

This is what her nominator had to say:

“Alex has integrated the arts into her instruction from day one of her Internship. One example. During the unit on Seasons with her grade one class for her culminating assessment she created an activity using multiple small art supplies and had the students select from them and create an image of their favorite season. She then had students describe their work as she ‘interviewed’ them using an iPad and using thoughtful prompts to illicit deeper understandings. The activity was taken up by all students with many achieving what appeared to be a true creative ‘flow’ state.”

Why did you decide to enter the field of teaching?

I decided to enter the field of teaching because I’m passionate about forming connections with people; specifically with children. To nurture and support them to build their self-esteem and their confidence, it’s incredibly gratifying.

I am an artist as well as an educator. I look forward to integrating visual arts into my teaching practice, and having it be cross-curricular; such as using art to teach social studies or science. It’s meaningful to me to help others express themselves through art. For some people, when they were a child, art may not have been a fun or pleasant experience. Now as an adult they’re worried about what other people will think of their art — and I want to help change that. I hope to use art as a tool to build self-esteem and offer someone another way to express themselves.  I want to encourage my students to keep that same enthusiasm for art that you have when you’re five years old. I hope any students I teach will be instilled with a sense of positivity and optimism about what they can do in art and in life.

What was your experience at the Okanagan School of Education (OSE) like?

Even though our courses were online, we still had lots of opportunities to go out in the field and to gain experience. One of my favourite experiences was our Community Field Experience, where we partnered with community organizations. I was paired with the Vernon Art Gallery and that opened me to ways of thinking about education, and how visual arts education can be used to help broaden knowledge. That was quite a transformative moment for me.  In both my practicums, I had amazing mentor teachers and field advisors. I enjoyed building connections with people and especially enjoyed the hands-on learning. As much as you learn in a lecture about pedagogies, it’s a really interesting experience to be out in the field and experiencing those methods and practices first hand.

What does receiving the award mean to you?

I feel very honoured to have received this award. It’s amazing simply that someone noticed my passion for teaching and visual arts, and put in the time and effort to nominate me. Just to be nominated is incredibly impactful.  It’s hard to express how grateful you are when you receive an award, as it’s not only the recognition, but also the freedom you feel from some of the financial stressors. It allows you to focus more on your education and passions, and that’s really valuable.

What advice do you have for future Bachelor of Education students?

You never know where opportunities are going to lead you. If you can embrace them and go with the flow, and are open and receptive to constructive critiques, some may lead you to a future career, friendships, mentor relationships or you never know where else.

About the Sharon McCoubrey Award in Visual Arts Teaching

Associate Professor Emeritus Sharon McCoubrey created the award to be presented to a Bachelor of Education student who has demonstrated leadership and passion for creativity with a commitment to advancing the teaching of visual arts in elementary schools.

After working in journalism for more than two decades, Alma Betancourth, MEd ’22, stumbled upon a new career path.

“I worked in television and freelanced for different publications, in addition to running my own bilingual (English/Spanish) online publication for eight years and I loved it, but roughly six years ago I became very passionate about a new line of work,” says Betancourth. “I started working in the employment sector; specifically with non-profit agencies working with job seekers.”

Betancourth is currently a Manager of Employment Initiatives, a position that sees her working with both sides: job seekers from local communities, and employers who are looking for good candidates. She guides the process for both sides, providing them with resources, information, training, and even one-on-one coaching, to give job seekers a better chance at succeeding and staying on their job.

“When I switched to the employment sector, I felt I was ill-prepared and didn’t have many tools that would be necessary to ensure my clients’ success. I felt that I needed to further my education and get more tools to be better in doing my work.”

Betancourth researched University options for her master’s across Canada, including Ontario where she lived, and she found she kept coming back to the Master of Education offered by the Okanagan School of Education.

“The program had the three elements I felt would be best applied to my work: a focus on diversity issues, digital learning — which was important to me coming from broadcast and online journalism — and leadership,” says Betancourth. “I felt those three elements would be the best formula to further the work I wanted to do as an Employment Counsellor and Trainer/Facilitator, and also design better programs and curriculum for our job seekers.”

For her capstone project, Pathway to Employment for Internationally-Trained Professional Women, Betancourth designed a hybrid program to guide internationally trained professional women, who arrive in Canada as new immigrants, to best strategize their job search for suitable employment. The program includes a practicum component with an employer in their field to assist with creating connections and enhancing their learning.

“I had wanted to work on something that I could eventually implement in a more practical way,” says Betancourth. “It really helped that I was clear on what the project would be from the get-go, because that made my research very focused and intentional.”

Her research was inspired by her career and the women she interacted with. Working in the employment sector exposed Betancourth to the needs of internationally-trained professional women and the challenges they were facing in finding employment after immigrating to Canada.

“It pained me to see how qualified and experienced these women were, and even if they were the ones who had better qualifications compared to their spouse — if they were immigrating as a couple — there were little or no opportunities for them,” says Betancourth.

Now with her master’s degree completed, Betancourth is on to a new masters challenge.

“I’m on a quest to master the art of dancing Bachata,” says Betancourth with a smile. “As a Latina, I’ve always danced, but just knowing the basics. I started taking lessons in Toronto a couple of years back, but when I moved to Kelowna, I found an amazing group at the Rotary Centre and took lessons with them. They introduced me to Kizomba and now I’m back in Toronto ready to continue to learn both.”

She can also now enjoy a little more time hiking with her dog, Nacho, and cooking for her sons, Fabo and Jalen (when they’re home!).

For those interested in pursuing their Master of Education, Betancourth shared a few wise words of wisdom.

“Take your time in taking the courses. It is very difficult to work full time, have a family, and take courses in the very little free time most of us got to have. Time management is crucial, and other fun things will have to be sacrificed for a little while in order to do this. My most important nugget of wisdom, read the fine print when you fill out those financial forms the first weeks when you start the program: I had to pay four installments all at once two weeks before graduating because I didn’t read the fine print.”

Please join us in congratulating Chris England for receiving a Canadian Philosophy of Education Society (CPSE) MA thesis competition Honourable Mention!

The 2021 competition had combined entries from 2020 and 2021 as the 2020 awards were postponed, making this year’s competition especially strong. The competition judges noted that Chris’s work was well-argued and made “an important contribution to the philosophy of education.”

Chris’s thesis explored the efforts made to use education as a tool to reduce individual disadvantages. In his thesis, disadvantage is a position where people have fewer opportunities, less access to developing certain skills and less independence compared to others.

“When we try to make our society better for everyone (also known as social justice), these pursuits can lead to disagreements and conflicts. Some people propose that we could resolve the problems of disadvantage if people were simply more equal. I strongly disagree. After careful consideration, I argue that it is a mistake to think of education as promoting social equality. I argue that equality is only valuable because it sometimes improves individual freedom. I argue that in societies like ours, to pursue social justice ethically, we should abandon ideas of improving social equality. Instead, I argue that people in our society deserve opportunities to live autonomous lives.”

In 2020, Chris received the Okanagan School of Education’s MA Outstanding Thesis Award.

Should a person’s right to education end after high school? Dr. Christopher Martin’s recent book, The Right to Higher Education sets out a novel account of the point and purpose of higher education, something that has been a controversial debate both in public settings and in policy. The book has received positive reviews with critics calling it “a touchstone text in higher education research,” (Jennifer Morton, University of Pennsylvania) and a “remarkable book” that “shapes a compelling vision of what universities and colleges should be doing” (Harry Brighouse, University of Wisconsin-Madison).

Special thank you to the UK band Sea Power for the permission to use their lyrics in the book’s preface.

What is your book about?

 The book asks what post-compulsory/higher education in a free and open society ought to look like.

The answer is that access to education should be a basic entitlement of any and all adult citizens over their entire lifespan.

This means that our post-compulsory institutions, including our universities, should be structured in a way that reflects this right. For example, we have this widespread assumption that university places are something people should compete for, or qualify for, much like a job. One of the major conclusions in the book is that even if people should be well prepared before they access some types of educational programming, this should not be a legitimate reason to deny citizens access to a university education across the board. The university (and other educational institutions, I should add) ought to make space for those that would not “merit” access under the terms of the current system.

Who might be interested in reading your book?

The way we choose to structure our basic social institutions, including educational institutions, have a profound impact on individual citizens and society in general. Everyone has a stake in the argument. If you’ve ever wondered about what an education is for, or had thoughts about what you think it should be for, there’s something in the book for you.

More specifically, the book draws on concepts and ideas in moral and political philosophy, the philosophy of education, and social policy. People with interests in these fields may want to check out the book. In addition, because the book makes an argument about the justice and fairness of higher education, people interested in addressing social inequality and working for institutional reform are likely to find the book provocative. I’d also include anyone with an interest in higher education policy and practice. Finally, I think undergraduate student might benefit from it as well, if only because they should have opportunities to reflect on, and debate, what a higher education is about.

What impact do you hope your book will have?

 I had one main goal when writing the book, and that’s to generate some much-needed public and scholarly discussion about the core values and aims of education beyond a basic level in liberal democratic societies. I think this question is often neglected or, when it gets attention, is too narrowly framed. Let me offer one example. On the one hand, some of the public debate on higher education focuses on the university and the educational ideals that it represents, such as the pursuit of truth for its own sake. These ideals are undoubtedly worth articulating and defending. I certainly care deeply about them. On the other hand, we also have a robust and timely debate about the socioeconomic effects of mass university education and the role of elite selection on civic inequality. The role of a stratified system of education surely plays a role in economic and political inequality. There are certainly ways we can make the competition for university places fairer. I, like many, also care about socioeconomic fairness and equality of opportunity.

However, these debates tend to take the higher education system as it is currently structured for granted. What’s missing is an analysis of the value of education qua education in everyday people’s lives, generally speaking. I think starting with this larger backdrop, and working out the different contributions that a higher education can offer to people in addition to scholarly knowledge and upward social mobility, leads to a better understanding of how educational institutions can serve the interests of all citizens.

For example, at a basic level the right to higher education isn’t about making the competition for university places more ‘level’ or fair. Rather, it requires educational institutions to find innovative ways of opening educational spaces to people that want an education, full stop. If you really want to learn, there should be a place for you. And this includes people who have interest or goals quite apart from employment credentials, as important as this may be. And we can build in the various other elements, like where we think competitive selection is really warranted or needed, downstream from this rights-based foundation.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was a student at the University of London, and working as a sessional instructor, during the Great Recession. There was a lot of talk about cuts to higher education, and the problem of student debt was very much on the forefront of people’s minds. There was this growing frustration with the growing private costs of higher education and amount of educational debt that came with that growth. This was especially the case in the UK with the increase of the tuition cap to 9,000 GBP in 2009.

If you are a student it might make sense to think ‘well, of course we shouldn’t have to pay or borrow a lot. If you want to go to university the state should help, and make these private costs more manageable.’ In fact, you might even take this idea further and claim that it should be fully funded by the state. But it’s not that simple. The problem is that the people most likely to go to university already come from a fairly advantaged background. They’re already likely to be in the middle class. If post-secondary education was free, what you would actually be doing is subsidizing the education for an already well-off group of people. That’s the worry, at least. In fact, you see this debate continuing today with some of the controversy over the Biden Administration possibly forgiving student debt for some US graduates.

It’s conflicts like this where philosophy has an important role to play. The moral intuitions that drive the debate on each side are totally understandable. On the one hand, the story we tell to young people is that a further education is really important and a good thing to pursue for oneself and for society, and then we charge them a great deal of money to get it. This seems unfair, or is at least inconsistent with the message. On the other hand, taking public money that could be put to things like health care or public schooling in order to lower the costs of higher education for people who are already doing well in life (and will do even better, once they have a degree) also seems unjust.

So it’s the moral conflict that captured my interest. My thinking was: okay, so what is it that we might be missing about how we reason about the value of higher education? How do we get out of this trap? What unexamined assumptions are we making that drive this moral conflict? The book’s argument is, in some ways, an attempt to reconcile these conflicting intuitions.

Interested in learning more?

Listen to the Centre for Ethics & Education podcast episode, “The Right to Higher Education” with Dr. Martin.