Philosophy of Education Question: Stanford and Columbia

[thedeadsea]

Though much of my experience has been in language and literacy education, I also have a background in philosophy, so I have been considering applying to a few philosophy of education doctoral programs.

Stanford seems appealing because they suggest that you can potentially work to take a M.A. in philosophy on your way to a Ph.D in philosophy of education. But the website doesn't list many professors associated with the department (except for Eamonn Callan), so it's hard to know if my own philosophical interests would be a good fit with the program.

Columbia has a more specific list of faculty members associated with their philosophy of education program, but they also have a specific Ph.D program in English education. Most of my philosophical interests are related to philosophy of language, philosophy of technology, and general epistemology - some of which, I suspect, would fall under the umbrella of the English program; some would be more at home in general philosophy.

With this in mind, I have two questions:

1) Does anyone know any addition information about Stanford's philosophy of education program/professors?

2) Does anyone have experience with Columbia's English Ed. or philsophy of ed programs that might help me decide which one would be a better fit?

Edited September 21, 2012 by thedeadsea

[bertiek]

I know someone in the Stanford program currently, so here's a guest post. Send me a message if you'd like more info.

Hi, I am a PhD student in the Philosophy of Education program at Stanford now. Eamonn Callan is my advisor, and he is actually the only philosopher of education in the School of Education at Stanford right now. I am the only PhD student in phil of ed at Stanford right now also. Rob Reich also does work in philosophy of education but he is in the political science department and doesn't take in education PhD students as far as I know. So it's a very tiny program. If you are interested in literacy/language, I would recommend pursuing a degree in that area rather than philosophy. Academic positions in phil of ed are incredibly limited, whereas there are more openings in language/literacy. So strictly with regards to your long-term job prospects, you'd be better off with a degree in the other area. If you apply to the language and literacy education program at Stanford, you would still have the option of pursuing a MA in Philosophy while here if you wanted to. You could also work with Professor Callan potentially or others in the philosophy department who work on language. Stanford encourages interdisciplinary work, so you have a lot of freedom regarding the courses you take and the work you do once you are here.

[thedeadsea]

Thank you so much for this information! I think I'll definitely switch my application over to the Language and Literacy program instead. It's nice that the program is flexible enough to let you pursue interdisciplinary study so actively. You just saved me $125.