Mackler

Stephanie Mackler is Professor of Education and Assistant Dean of Ursinus College. 

Stephanie’s approach to education is best summarized in her own words from the college website,

I believe that as human beings we are, foremost, learning and teaching beings. As such, education – whether formal or informal – is at the heart of who we are and how we conduct our lives. Thus, I believe that to study education is necessarily also to study the human condition. I turn to philosophical and literary texts for insight into educational and existential questions. My expertise in both philosophy and education enables me to explore the ethical, epistemological, political, and social foundations of educational practices. More specifically, I am interested in considering the reasons and purposes – the “why” – of educational practices and policies.  There are no definitive answers to the kinds of questions I ask and encourage my students to ask in the classroom, but I believe the journey through such questions is an end in itself and that this journey is essential to being a learning, teaching, human being.

Here are some of Stephanie’s scholarship where she works with Hannah Arendt:

Mackler, Stephanie. “Raising a Human: an Arendtian Inquiry into Child-Rearing in a Technological Era.” Philosophy of Education 2017.

Mackler, Stephanie. “From the Positivist to the Hermeneutic University: Restoring the Place of Meaning andLiberal Learning in Higher Education.” Policy Futures in Education,8, (2), 2010.

Mackler, Stephanie. “And Worldlessness, Alas, is Always a Form of Barbarism: Hannah Arendt and the Challenge of Educating in Worldlessness Times.” Teachers College Record 112 (2), 2010.

Mackler, Stephanie. Learning for Meaning’s Sake: Toward the Hermeneutic University. Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, TheNetherlands, 2009. Awarded 2009 Critics Choice Book Award by the American Educational Studies Association(AESA). https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/educational-futures-rethinking-theory-and-practice/learning-for-meanings-sake/

Mackler, Stephanie. “Hermeneutic Leadership: Hannah Arendt and the Importance of Thinking What We are Doing” in Political Approaches to Educational Administration and Leadership, Ed. Eugenie Samier. New York: RoutledgePress, 2008.

Mackler, Stephanie. “Educating for Meaning in an Era of Banality.” Philosophy of Education 2007, Ed. BarbaraStengel. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society, 2008.