Improving Philosophy’s Prospects with a Model for Bringing it to High Schools (guest post)

If more people were exposed to philosophy in high school, that would likely be good for those students and good for their schools—and good for academic philosophy, too, as one risk to philosophy at the university level in the United States is that people (students, other university employees, the general public, legislators) tend to be relatively unfamiliar with it.

How can we make that happen?

You’re about to hear how, from a philosophy professor who has been doing it—and doing it really well—with a dual-enrollment course he created.

In the following guest post, Tushar Irani, professor of philosophy at Wesleyan University, describes his course, explains how he offers it as a dual-enrollment option for high school students, puts forwards some ideas for how this model might become more widespread, and describes some of the program’s benefits.

Improving Philosophy’s Prospects with a Model for Bringing it to High Schools
by Tushar Irani

As Alex Guerrero noted in a blog post a few months ago, the future of philosophy as a discipline depends in large part on its visibility and accessibility to younger generations. Alex proposed one possible initiative to address the absence of philosophy instruction prior to college: the creation of an Advanced Placement (AP) Philosophy course. This is a bold and overdue suggestion to tackle the issue of philosophy’s limited presence at the high school level in the U.S.

Alex also invited other ideas to help improve philosophy education, and in that spirit I’m writing this post to share a complementary initiative I’ve been involved in to expand access to philosophy in underresourced high schools—one that aligns well with the goal to make the subject more available at the pre-college level. Over the last two years, I’ve been offering a course called “Live Like a Philosopher: Ethics and Civics in the Ancient World” through Wesleyan’s partnership with the National Education Equity Lab (NEEL). This is a dual enrollment course that provides college-level philosophy instruction to students in Title I and Title I-eligible high schools across the country. Students who pass the course receive a college credit and transcript from Wesleyan, which they can use toward graduation at any undergraduate institution that accepts it.

One commenter on Alex’s post (see here) raised the idea of providing more support for dual enrollment (or “dual credit”) courses, though it didn’t receive much uptake at the time. I’d like to expand on that idea. The dual enrollment model offers several possibilities in reaching a broad range of high school students and could support an initiative to develop an AP Philosophy course. Unlike AP courses, which often require high schools to employ teachers certified to teach advanced content and rely on standardized exams to evaluate learning, dual enrollment courses focus on creating a sustained and collaborative learning environment. These courses are designed and often taught by philosophy professors. They can run the gamut of a general intro to philosophy course or a more specialized intro course in a subject area (logic, moral philosophy, etc.) or time period (Classical Chinese, Early Modern, etc.).

The course I teach provides an introduction to Greek and Roman philosophy using project-based learning methods, as well as the standard elements of a beginning philosophy class—close reading, argument analysis, and essay writing—and I’ve been offering it regularly at Wesleyan for almost a decade. You can find the syllabus for the NEEL version of the course here and a write-up on last year’s pilot here.

There are three components to the dual enrollment model that NEEL has designed, each of which contributes uniquely to the program’s effectiveness: the role of the instructor, the involvement of teachers at high schools participating in the program, and the support of a team of undergraduate “Teaching Fellows.” The instructor creates and delivers the course content during the semester, including video lectures and assignments to prompt student engagement; teachers in high schools facilitate in-person classroom learning multiple times a week, helping students digest and debate the material; while advanced undergraduates at the instructor’s institution who are familiar with the material (or sometimes grad students) serve as Teaching Fellows paired with each school, leading weekly discussion sections online, grading work, and providing the high schoolers with a window into college life. Together, the three layers create a wraparound support system that guides students comprehensively through the course.

It’s also made the model highly scalable. For the pilot version of my course last year, over 75 students were enrolled from 6 participating high schools; this year, we have nearly 350 students from 19 high schools, and next year the course will roll out to over 30 schools. The network of partnerships NEEL has formed includes a group of over 100 school districts from 32 states across the U.S. The students enrolled in my course this fall come from districts in California, Texas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Kansas, and Florida.

The success of the NEEL model suggests it might be replicated and even expanded. A dual enrollment approach to high school philosophy instruction would be a different but complementary initiative to the AP approach in introducing high school students to the study of philosophy. It would immediately boost the reach of a philosophical education to a variety of students, particularly those in underserved communities, providing a proof of concept that lays the groundwork for a broad rollout of an AP course at the national level. The program NEEL has developed has already shown its ability to grow rapidly and widely, providing direct access to college-level courses to students in schools that are often excluded from these kinds of opportunities.

My experience working with NEEL has been excellent, and their model would be well worth the attention and support of the philosophy profession. I think there’s also great potential for the American Philosophical Association to get involved in the dual enrollment arena and creatively adapt NEEL’s model. I’m going to suggest three possibilities here with increasing levels of ambition.

1. Low-level blueskying: The simplest way forward is for more philosophy faculty to get involved in teaching dual enrollment courses. If you already teach an intro-level course at your college or university that you believe could be pitched well to a high school audience, try it out! NEEL has relationships with several higher education institutions and recently partnered with the University of California system, with additional partnerships in the works.

Faculty who are interested in expanding philosophy access could explore opportunities through NEEL or consider teaching dual enrollment courses in their high school districts. Almost 90% of high schools across the country report offering dual enrollment courses, and if you teach at a public or private institution in the U.S. there’s a good chance you already have dual enrollment options to provide philosophy courses to high schools in your area.

2. Mid-level blueskying: The APA could support the creation of dual enrollment introductory philosophy courses by providing grants to faculty. These grants could help offset the costs associated with developing and teaching such courses (more on this below), making it easier for professors to engage in the work. The financial backing would encourage more faculty and philosophy departments to participate, thus scaling the initiative.

In tandem, the APA could organize workshops over the summer to connect faculty who design such courses with high school teachers who will co-facilitate the learning during the regular school year. These workshops would not only support the quality of instruction but also serve as professional development opportunities for high school teachers, who often seek out such experiences over the summer. In the long term, this could establish a base of demand for hiring philosophy teachers at the secondary school level.

3. High-level blueskying: In addition to and building on (2) above, the APA could adopt the dual enrollment model NEEL has developed and partner directly with high schools across the country to offer introductory philosophy courses. The success of NEEL’s approach lies largely in the teaching teams it forms in connecting philosophy instructors with high school teachers and Teaching Fellows. The APA, with its extensive network of professional philosophers, is ideally positioned to adopt this approach, fostering strong teaching collaborations across diverse educational contexts. Since the APA isn’t a credit-bearing institution, a different incentive structure could be developed to encourage high school participation, such as a Certificate of Completion. High school juniors and seniors often seek co-curricular opportunities to enhance their applications to college, and this would be a valuable addition. (If it also entices a few away from the ubiquity of debate clubs, so much the better.)

The institutional support and infrastructure that the APA could provide to instructors would be especially helpful given the start-up effort that’s required to produce philosophy instruction at scale. Developing lecture content that’s accessible to a high school audience is rewarding but labor-intensive. For my course, I recorded about 8 hours of material spread across 20 videos, all available on my website here. The process required significant planning, scripting, and technical work. While I managed this without professional filming software—using PowerPoint and a professional microphone plus the invaluable assistance of a student I hired last summer to create illustrations for my slides—additional support in the form of funding, technical assistance, or designated development opportunities would significantly ease this workload, making such initiatives more feasible for others.

I’ll close with some observations on the impact of offering philosophy at the high school level, both for those teaching such courses and for the students enrolled. Last spring, a high school co-teacher who participated in the pilot version of my course at a school in Topeka, Kansas, wrote to share this perspective:

“I work with many low-income talented students seeking admissions to selective universities. However, I must confess that Wesleyan was not on my radar as a recommendation. … The Midwest is notoriously underrepresented in the selective college community and often this boils down to counselors not having the knowledge base to appropriately guide students toward these schools. Additionally, geographic isolation makes it difficult for my students to visit these schools.”

She went on to describe how her school’s partnership with NEEL helped bridge this gap, and how one of her students applied and was admitted to Wesleyan after taking the course. That student is now enrolled in her second philosophy course with me on campus.

Another co-teacher reflected on the difference that teaching philosophy made in their curriculum: “My students were able to address topics and issues that are not typically addressed at the high school level.” And just last week, a student reached out to say, “I haven’t felt more ‘complete’ than when studying philosophy,” and spoke of their interest in majoring in the subject in college.

These messages underscore the significance of offering philosophy at the pre-college level. Over the last two years it’s become clear to me that making philosophical education accessible in high school doesn’t just benefit individual students—it also enriches the learning culture within schools. By expanding access—whether through AP courses, dual enrollment programs, or new partnerships led by organizations like the APA—we can introduce many more students to the value of philosophical inquiry. The success of the NEEL model has shown that these efforts are both feasible and transformative. Now would be a great time to build on such initiatives and find new ways to make the study of philosophy a part of every student’s educational experience.