Jennifer Morton wins inaugural Scheffler Prize for insights into student and teacher behaviors

The American Philosophical Association is pleased to announce that Dr. Jennifer Morton (City College of New York) has been selected as the winner of the inaugural Israel Scheffler Prize in Philosophy of Education for her connected set of papers, “The Non-Cognitive Challenge to a Liberal Egalitarian Education,” “Cultural Code-Switching: Straddling the Achievement Gap,” “Molding Conscientious, Hard-Working, and Perseverant Students,” “Unequal Classrooms: Higher Education and Online Learning,” and “The Educator’s Dual Role: Expressing Ideals While Educating in Non-Ideal Conditions.”

The Israel Scheffler Prize in Philosophy of Education, in memory of Israel Scheffler, is awarded every third year for either a book or a connected set of three or more papers on a topic in philosophy of education, broadly construed. There were twenty-seven entries of both books and connected sets of papers in this inaugural competition—as the winner, Morton will receive a $1,000 prize check.

The selection committee stated, “We recommend Jennifer Morton for her collection of essays exploring the contextually-laden meaning of student and teacher behaviors in a school setting.  Morton’s work focuses especially on the demands placed on students from minority backgrounds by an educational system that is designed to assimilate them into a dominant culture, and argues that such assimilation entails political and moral costs that conflict with common assumptions of political liberalism. Morton’s approach is interesting philosophically, crosses over into political theory and political science, and speaks to problems and concerns that are recognizable by everyday teachers and students.”

Morton is assistant professor of philosophy at the City College of New York and a senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During the 2015–2016 academic year, she was a Laurance S. Rockefeller Faculty Fellow at the Princeton Center for Human Values. Morton’s areas of research are philosophy of action, moral philosophy, philosophy of education, and political philosophy. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and her A.B. from Princeton University. Morton is currently working on a book on the ethical challenges faced by students from low-income and/or minority backgrounds on their path to upward mobility.