A British political philosopher at UW-Madison discussed the aims of higher education and problems of morality and justice early Tuesday evening in Lathrop Hall.
Professor Harry Brighouse mainly spoke about equity in education and the impacts of poor teaching on college and graduate students.
Brighouse said that people normally discuss issues regarding enrollment, admission and financial aid, but another issue is campus climate: how comfortable is the climate for different races, nationalities and social classes.
Brighouse believes that while other issues are important in addressing equity in education, he wants more people to talk about low-quality teaching on campus.
“People including faculty fail to recognize low-quality teaching and the impacts that this has on students,” Brighouse said.“Teaching is really hard and yet we don’t train people effectively to do the job, we don’t give them incentives to improve, and we lack the infrastructure to support or make a change.”
After the lecture, there was a question and answer session. One student asked, “how do you overcome these issues of low-quality teaching in the classroom?”
“You go to office hours, find other students, study together, and learn from each other,” Brighouse said.
This public lecture was hosted by the Phi Beta Kappa Alpha Chapter of Wisconsin, a society that honors a lifelong journey of learning, according to Claire Vanden Heuvel, a student fellow for PBK.
