Meira Levinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 4371153 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meira Levinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meira |
| FAMILY NAME | Levinson |
| SIGNATURE | LEVINSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Graduate School of Education Harvard University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Reprint
In this article, Meira Levinson presents a case study of school personnel who must decide whether to expel a fourteen-year-old student for bringing marijuana onto campus. She uses the case to explore a class of ethical dilemmas in which educators are obligated to take action that fulfills the demands of justice but under conditions in which no just action is possible because of contextual and school-based injustices. She argues that under such ci…
Philosophical Reflections on Teachers’ Ethical Dilemmas in a Global Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic raised not only overwhelming practical challenges but also deep ethical dilemmas for educators. There have been few efforts to connect these challenges to either ethical dilemmas teachers faced in pre-pandemic times or to philosophical analyses of complex normative terrain of teachers’ work. We facilitated eleven discussion groups with 101 educators from seven countries on the dilemmas they faced due to COVID-19. Analysis of…
The Ethics of World‐Building in Normative Case Studies
Normative case studies are designed to offer richly detailed “worlds of possibility” that invite complex reflection and discussion about authentic ethical dilemmas in education. In this essay, Tatiana Geron and Meira Levinson argue that authors' choices of what details to include in a case are themselves ethical decisions that require significant ethical responsibility. Case details can shape which avenues of ethical inquiry are open to readers, …
Can Our Schools Help Us Preserve Democracy? Special Challenges at a Time of Shifting Norms
Civic education that prepares students for principled civic participation is vital to democracy. Schools face significant challenges, however, as they attempt to educate for democracy in a democracy in crisis. Parents, educators, and policy‐makers disagree about what America's civic future should look like, and hence about what schools should teach. Likewise, hyperpartisanship, mutual mistrust, and the breakdown of democratic norms are perverting…
It’s (Still) All in Our Heads
Jaggar names six features of naturalized "reasoning toward justification."These reasoning practices are desirable because they are likely to help non-ideal philosophers describe problems more completely, construct more accurate and compelling thick moral accounts, achieve better understandings of what is at stake for whom, and gain new insights about not only the problem under investigation but about moral concepts and conundrums more broadly.Con…
Tacking Toward Justice
Reviewed for Social Theory
Response to the Review Symposium of No Citizen Left Behind
No Citizen Left Behind
While teaching at an all-Black middle school in Atlanta, Levinson realized that her students’ individual self-improvement would not necessarily enable them to overcome their historical marginalization. In order to overcome their civic empowerment gap, students must learn how to reshape power relationships through public political and civic action.
Referees
Is Autonomy Imposing Education Too Demanding? A Response to Dr. De Ruyter
The Demands of Liberal Education
Develops a liberal political theory of children's education provision. It argues that all children have a right to an autonomy‐promoting education, and that this right is best satisfied through a state‐regulated ‘detached school’ that aims to help children develop their capacities for autonomy. Parents have the privilege to direct their children's upbringing in substantial and pervasive ways, but they do not have the right to prevent their childr…
Liberalism, Pluralism, and Political Education
Inspired by concern about promoting civic participation and preserving the liberal democratic state, political theorists have recently reignited a debate about the nature of political education in a liberal society. These theorists' arguments in favor of teaching toleration are significant for the progress of education reforms currently being debated and implemented in current liberal democracies and some emerging nations. Despite the increasing …
Liberalism Versus Democracy? Schooling Private Citizens in the Public Square
This article examines the conflict in political liberalism between the demands placed on education by liberalism and those placed on education by democracy. In so far as the principles of political liberalism entail both that the state not interfere with individuals' private commitments and that it ensure the maintenance of liberal democratic institutions, I suggest that it is rent by an internal tension that poses particular dilemmas for educati…
Liberalism Versus Democracy? Schooling Private Citizens in the Public Square
This article examines the conflict in political liberalism between the demands placed on education by liberalism and those placed on education by democracy. In so far as the principles of political liberalism entail both that the state not interfere with individuals' private commitments and that it ensure the maintenance of liberal democratic institutions, I suggest that it is rent by an internal tension that poses particular dilemmas for educati…
Is Autonomy Imposing Education Too Demanding? A Response to Dr. De Ruyter
Philosophical Reflections on Teachers’ Ethical Dilemmas in a Global Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic raised not only overwhelming practical challenges but also deep ethical dilemmas for educators. There have been few efforts to connect these challenges to either ethical dilemmas teachers faced in pre-pandemic times or to philosophical analyses of complex normative terrain of teachers’ work. We facilitated eleven discussion groups with 101 educators from seven countries on the dilemmas they faced due to COVID-19. Analysis of…
Liberalism Versus Democracy? Schooling Private Citizens in the Public Square
This article examines the conflict in political liberalism between the demands placed on education by liberalism and those placed on education by democracy. In so far as the principles of political liberalism entail both that the state not interfere with individuals' private commitments and that it ensure the maintenance of liberal democratic institutions, I suggest that it is rent by an internal tension that poses particular dilemmas for educati…
Liberalism, Pluralism, and Political Education
Inspired by concern about promoting civic participation and preserving the liberal democratic state, political theorists have recently reignited a debate about the nature of political education in a liberal society. These theorists' arguments in favor of teaching toleration are significant for the progress of education reforms currently being debated and implemented in current liberal democracies and some emerging nations. Despite the increasing …
The Demands of Liberal Education
Develops a liberal political theory of children's education provision. It argues that all children have a right to an autonomy‐promoting education, and that this right is best satisfied through a state‐regulated ‘detached school’ that aims to help children develop their capacities for autonomy. Parents have the privilege to direct their children's upbringing in substantial and pervasive ways, but they do not have the right to prevent their childr…
Is Autonomy Imposing Education Too Demanding? A Response to Dr. De Ruyter
Referees
No Citizen Left Behind
While teaching at an all-Black middle school in Atlanta, Levinson realized that her students’ individual self-improvement would not necessarily enable them to overcome their historical marginalization. In order to overcome their civic empowerment gap, students must learn how to reshape power relationships through public political and civic action.
Tacking Toward Justice
Reviewed for Social Theory
Response to the Review Symposium of No Citizen Left Behind
It’s (Still) All in Our Heads
Jaggar names six features of naturalized "reasoning toward justification."These reasoning practices are desirable because they are likely to help non-ideal philosophers describe problems more completely, construct more accurate and compelling thick moral accounts, achieve better understandings of what is at stake for whom, and gain new insights about not only the problem under investigation but about moral concepts and conundrums more broadly.Con…
Can Our Schools Help Us Preserve Democracy? Special Challenges at a Time of Shifting Norms
Civic education that prepares students for principled civic participation is vital to democracy. Schools face significant challenges, however, as they attempt to educate for democracy in a democracy in crisis. Parents, educators, and policy‐makers disagree about what America's civic future should look like, and hence about what schools should teach. Likewise, hyperpartisanship, mutual mistrust, and the breakdown of democratic norms are perverting…
The Ethics of World‐Building in Normative Case Studies
Normative case studies are designed to offer richly detailed “worlds of possibility” that invite complex reflection and discussion about authentic ethical dilemmas in education. In this essay, Tatiana Geron and Meira Levinson argue that authors' choices of what details to include in a case are themselves ethical decisions that require significant ethical responsibility. Case details can shape which avenues of ethical inquiry are open to readers, …
Reprint
In this article, Meira Levinson presents a case study of school personnel who must decide whether to expel a fourteen-year-old student for bringing marijuana onto campus. She uses the case to explore a class of ethical dilemmas in which educators are obligated to take action that fulfills the demands of justice but under conditions in which no just action is possible because of contextual and school-based injustices. She argues that under such ci…
Philosophical Reflections on Teachers’ Ethical Dilemmas in a Global Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic raised not only overwhelming practical challenges but also deep ethical dilemmas for educators. There have been few efforts to connect these challenges to either ethical dilemmas teachers faced in pre-pandemic times or to philosophical analyses of complex normative terrain of teachers’ work. We facilitated eleven discussion groups with 101 educators from seven countries on the dilemmas they faced due to COVID-19. Analysis of…
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Higher education (5 works) · Religious Education and Schools (5 works) · Democracy (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)