Faculty Research Profiles: Christopher Higgins

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Assistant Professor

Educational Policy Studies
377 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
217 244-9191
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Research Biography

My scholarly interests fall into two main areas: philosophy of teaching and the aims of education. My work in the first area concerns teacher motivation and identity, transformative dialogue and the teacher-student relationship as well as teacher education and professional development. I am currently completing a book entitled The Good Life of Teaching: Pedagogy and the Paradox of Self Interest which examines how the practice of teaching fits into the teacher's own quest to lead a rich, meaningful, or excellent life. In this book, I challenge the rhetoric of service that often leads teachers to ignore their need for ongoing self-cultivation and helps us rationalize as noble sacrifices the many ways in which the classroom is miseducative for educators themselves. My work in the second area deals with imagination and aesthetic education; with humanism and liberal learning; and with vocational education and the nature of work. My areas of philosophical interest and expertise include virtue ethics, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, and (neo-Marxian/neo-Aristotelian) practical philosophy. I have published on the work of Hannah Arendt, Jessica Benjamin, Martin Buber, John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Oakeshott, and Plato.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Philosophy & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1998
  • B.A., Philosophy, Yale University, 1989

Key Professional Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006--
  • Asst. Prof. of Philosophy & Education, Department of Arts and Humanities, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1998-2005
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, M.A. Program in TESOL, Teachers College, Tokyo, Japan, 1999-2002

Activities & Honors

  • List of teachers ranked as excellent by their students (outstanding rating), Center for Teaching Excellence, 2007
  • Associate Editor and Review Editor, Educational Theory, 2006- present
  • Program Chair, Philosophy of Education Society, 2003-2004
  • President, Middle Atlantic States Philosophy of Education Society, 2002-2004

Selected Publications

  • Higgins, C. (2007). Interlude: Reflections on a line from Dewey. In L. Bresler (Ed.), International handbook of research in arts education (pp. 389-394). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
  • Higgins, C. (Ed.). (2005). Philosophy of education 2004. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society.
  • Higgins, C. (2005). Dewey's conception of vocation: Existential, aesthetic, and educational implications for teachers. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37(4), 441-464.
  • Higgins, C., Kramarsky, D., & Mackler, S. (2005). Philosophy of education. In S. J. Farenga & D. Ness (Eds.), Encyclopedia of education and human development (Vol. I). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
  • Higgins, C. (2003). Teaching and the good life: A critique of the ascetic ideal in education. Educational Theory 53(2): 131-154.