Maayan Levinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 95416 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maayan Levinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maayan |
| FAMILY NAME | Levinson |
| SIGNATURE | LEVINSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5645-7534 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| 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…
Encore ça change
‘Finding Consensus on Well-Being in Education’ is an ambitious and inspiring work in favor of establishing flourishing as the aim of education in classrooms and schools worldwide. The authors offer theories of action to explain how education for flourishing would be virtuously self-sustaining in its ideal state, how we could transition from current educational policies and practices to those that foster flourishing, and why schools currently impe…
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, …
We need a field of educational ethics
During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision-makers faced numerous ethical questions in biomedical science, public health, educational policy, and education practice. Bioethicists were key partners in informing decision-making in their areas of expertise; educational ethicists, on the other hand, had to fight our way to the table if we got in the building at all. How did bioethics go from non-existent as a field in 1960 to ubiquitous…
The power of open dialogue”
Gender homophily and gender distribution in social networks
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 risk displacement in research and public policy
We identify three distinct ethical problems that can arise with risk displacement. Risk displacement is the shifting of extant risk from one or more individuals to other individual(s) such that the reduction of risk to the first group is causally implicated in increasing risk to the second group. These problems are: concentration of risk in inequitable ways; transfer of risk to already vulnerable or disadvantaged populations; and exercise of undu…
Intentional collaboration, predictable complicity, and proactive prevention
In the United States, constitutional and statutory law reinforce the right of all children to receive an education, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. In a time of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment and law enforcement, however, partnerships among school districts, local law enforcement, and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security subject undocumented and unaccompanied minor students to indefensible levels of ri…
The association of mobility limitation and social networks in relation to late-life activity
The current study examines the interaction between mobility limitations and social networks in relation to activity in later life. Although the importance of activity participation to successful ageing has been well established, it is still unclear what contributes to higher levels of activity. This research addresses this issue, using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The analysis focuses on a sub-sample of respond…
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
Common Schools and Multicultural Education
Common schooling and multicultural education intuitively seem to be mutually reinforcing and possibly even mutually necessary: each is motivated by and/or serves the aims of promoting social justice and equality, common civic membership, and mutual respect and understanding, among other goals. An examination of the practical relationship between the two, however, reveals that neither one is a necessary or sufficient condition for achieving the ot…
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…
Common Schools and Multicultural Education
Common schooling and multicultural education intuitively seem to be mutually reinforcing and possibly even mutually necessary: each is motivated by and/or serves the aims of promoting social justice and equality, common civic membership, and mutual respect and understanding, among other goals. An examination of the practical relationship between the two, however, reveals that neither one is a necessary or sufficient condition for achieving the ot…
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…
The power of open dialogue”
The association of mobility limitation and social networks in relation to late-life activity
The current study examines the interaction between mobility limitations and social networks in relation to activity in later life. Although the importance of activity participation to successful ageing has been well established, it is still unclear what contributes to higher levels of activity. This research addresses this issue, using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The analysis focuses on a sub-sample of respond…
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
Common Schools and Multicultural Education
Common schooling and multicultural education intuitively seem to be mutually reinforcing and possibly even mutually necessary: each is motivated by and/or serves the aims of promoting social justice and equality, common civic membership, and mutual respect and understanding, among other goals. An examination of the practical relationship between the two, however, reveals that neither one is a necessary or sufficient condition for achieving the ot…
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…
Intentional collaboration, predictable complicity, and proactive prevention
In the United States, constitutional and statutory law reinforce the right of all children to receive an education, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. In a time of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment and law enforcement, however, partnerships among school districts, local law enforcement, and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security subject undocumented and unaccompanied minor students to indefensible levels of ri…
The association of mobility limitation and social networks in relation to late-life activity
The current study examines the interaction between mobility limitations and social networks in relation to activity in later life. Although the importance of activity participation to successful ageing has been well established, it is still unclear what contributes to higher levels of activity. This research addresses this issue, using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The analysis focuses on a sub-sample of respond…
The ethics of risk displacement in research and public policy
We identify three distinct ethical problems that can arise with risk displacement. Risk displacement is the shifting of extant risk from one or more individuals to other individual(s) such that the reduction of risk to the first group is causally implicated in increasing risk to the second group. These problems are: concentration of risk in inequitable ways; transfer of risk to already vulnerable or disadvantaged populations; and exercise of undu…
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…
Gender homophily and gender distribution in social networks
We need a field of educational ethics
During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision-makers faced numerous ethical questions in biomedical science, public health, educational policy, and education practice. Bioethicists were key partners in informing decision-making in their areas of expertise; educational ethicists, on the other hand, had to fight our way to the table if we got in the building at all. How did bioethics go from non-existent as a field in 1960 to ubiquitous…
The power of open dialogue”
Encore ça change
‘Finding Consensus on Well-Being in Education’ is an ambitious and inspiring work in favor of establishing flourishing as the aim of education in classrooms and schools worldwide. The authors offer theories of action to explain how education for flourishing would be virtuously self-sustaining in its ideal state, how we could transition from current educational policies and practices to those that foster flourishing, and why schools currently impe…
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 (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Engineering ethics (6 works) · Pedagogy (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Religious Education and Schools (6 works) · Higher education (5 works)