I've developed this page to help me learn more about these topics and, hopefully, as a resource for students. And here is that promised data on Ph.D.s in philosophy broken down by gender, race and ethnicity, from the APA:
Data on the Profession
Ph.D.'s in Philosophy by Gender/Race/Ethnicity
Year | Men | Women | Total | Native American | Asian | Black | White | Hispanic |
1991 | 206 | 79 | 285 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 222 | 5 |
1992 | 207 | 73 | 280 | 2 | 12 | 9 | 177 | 7 |
1993 | 201 | 73 | 274 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 191 | 7 |
1994 | 219 | 83 | 302 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 215 | 8 |
1995 | 226 | 72 | 298 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 221 | 9 |
| 1996 | 261 | 108 | 369 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 261 | 10 |
Nathan,
ReplyDeleteI think there's more up-to-date information on these issues compiled by Sally Haslanger at:
https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/display/SGRP/SGRP+Home
Is there a teaching-related issue here to your mind, Nathan?
Thanks. I did not know about this project.
ReplyDeleteThe teaching question is, for better or worse, a broad one: there are not a lot of minorities in philosophy and presumably something about how philosophy is often taught (e.g., common topics, approaches, attitudes, etc.) plays *some* role in the explanation for why this is so.
I'd like to know more about what these influences or causal factors are. I think there is some literature on this (or at least thoughts from people with more experience and insight than me on these issues), but I haven't yet had the chance to track it down, so I seek others' input! :)
We discussed this a fair bit at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and the stats especially at the higher levels (ie MA & PhD) where just as bad as those you have posted Nathan. This is particularly worrying because at undergraduate level, especially in ethics, females made up a large share of the classes but this didn't translate across to the postgraduate level very well. And I don't think it was a lack of role models at least in terms of gender, while there wasn't a 50/50 split we had a fair number of inspiring female staff ie Rosalind Hursthouse and Gillian Brock to name two.
ReplyDeleteI've got a couple of speculations which I will throw out there.
In terms of ethnicity one year I taught an extra tutorial in the introductory ethics course for the Pacific Island students (I'm part Cook Island Maori, but culturally I am pretty much European). It was good value and much appreciated by the students, my main job was really translation of what the Profs teaching the course were saying into somewhat less precise but far more understandable language.
So one explanation might be that the philosopher's aim for clarity and exactness, ironically often means what they are saying is far harder to get, both for non-philosophers, but also for those who don't have a large diction.
I also think that in many ways continuing on in philosophy is seen as a luxury. Many of the 'minority' students I have talked to are far more focused on going to university to get a job than the European students.
Curious to hear what others think?
I'm pretty sure some it is a result of black students being much more inclined to see a college degree as having instrumental value than white students are, and philosophy degrees don't appear to have much instrumental value. Black students are more often the first generation in their family to go to college. There's a sense of a need to overcome systemic obstacles to financial success, and thus majors that will lead to more financial success are more urgently sought.
ReplyDeleteBlack students will sometimes see certain subjects as "white", usually because they don't see its relevance. Unless their exposure to philosophy brings in themes they see as relevant to their experience as black, some black students will expect philosophy to be another "white" subject that they'll take only if it's got themes they consider "theirs". Charles Mills has a nice paper on this in his Blackness Visible, encouraging instructors of introductory courses to include race-related issues in courses whose subject matter is across the philosophical spectrum.
I think Jeremy's point makes some sense, though the explanation is also true of the population at large (fail to see the relevance to their lives). Still, it may be a feeling that is particularly salient in the black community for the reasons Jeremy notes.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason, I think, may well be the perfectly obvious: how many Black philosophers are taught in the typical classroom? Here it may very well be that it is seen as a "white" subject for the additional reason that that course readings are full of white people only, and the history of the discipline as it is taught and discussed, is associated with European white culture.
A few thoughts and observations:
ReplyDelete• The data on Ph.D's doesn't tell us about the minority enrollment in philosophy doctoral programs. Attrition rates in Ph.D programs are high, so it would be useful to know if they are unusually high among minorities. In other words, this might be a graduate education issue.
• Jeremy's point about first-generation students resonates with my own experience. My own university is 'majority minority' (over half the students are Latino or Asian) and the values that inform their (or their families') decisions to pursue higher education are often not very 'academic'. If correct, this might say something about different students' willingness to take perceived economic risks in their educational choices.
• I'm skeptical there's a discipline-specific explanation. I'd like to see comparable numbers for disciplines nearby philosophy (history, literature, etc.). This might well be a liberal arts or academic culture issue, not a philosophy issue.
• I'm also skeptical about philosophy being seen as a 'white' subject (or any whiter than any other liberal arts discipline) or that students turn away from it because not enough black or minority philosophers get taught. How many minority historians, economists, educational theorists, computer scientists, etc., get taught? I just don't think students notice, know, or care that deeply. Indeed, I have had minority students say to me that they appreciate that philosophy confronts (rather than avoids or simply makes assumptions about) racial or ethnic phenomena such as affirmative action, racial identity, etc.
Michael, I'm not necessarily saying that philosophy is more this way than nearby disciplines as a subject. I do think philosophers a more reluctant to do things that people in other disciplines more regularly do in this area. U.S. history classes are much more likely to cover African-American historical issues due to the focus on history at the level of the ordinary person, as opposed to the older style of focusing on the power-brokers and large-scale decision-makers. Sociology always takes racial issues into account. In your average introductory philosophy course that deals with metaphysics and epistemology, there's probably no mention of race issues at all and certainly no mention of black philosophers.
ReplyDeleteEthics can be different, depending on which philosophers are the focus. If it's ethical theory, it's probably more like metaphysics and epistemology. If it's applied ethics, issues like affirmative action will often come up (although more rarely anything like an examination of racism or what race is metaphysically).
Now I imagine the students who see that philosophy is a big help in terms of those issues are the ones who were taught by someone who made effort to include the issues in courses. But do you see this in general intro classes? Are people teaching race alongside free will, skepticism, the mind-body problem, and the existence of God? Not very commonly. Are many instructors bringing in examples that connect these issues with race issues or with issues that arise particularly in minority communities or in minority experience? Not a lot.
I should say that I've made efforts, and black students have noticed it. When I do Frank Jackson's Mary argument, I often ask a black student if I could ever know what it's like to be black. I usually ask a female student if she thinks I could ever know what it's like to be pregnant or to experience the attitude women have toward rape. It's little things like that that can make a big difference between a student who recognizes some value in philosophy and one who owns it because it ties into things they place their identity in.
Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need to disentangle a few different issues. First, data from other disciplines is relevant here. If it's simply the case that minority students don't pursue graduate study in liberal arts disciplines generally, then no explanation focusing on the teaching of philosophy is necessary. The scope of the problem is then much larger than our discipline, and it seems to me unhealthy to gnash our teeth about how philosophy is taught if that's too fine-grained an explanation given the data.
Second, we need to distinguish two separate points, one about role models and one about content-relevance. So one possible explanation of the data Nathan cites is that students look to disciplines for role models like themselves, and finding few in philosophy, turn away. But again, I'm skeptical that philosophy offers students fewer role models than nearby disciplines, and as I said, I'm not sure that students notice these things.
But in your recent comment, you make a different point, about whether minority students find philosophy irrelevant to their concerns or interests. There is of course the narrow attitude (we're touching on it in John's recent posts about biz ethics) that 'relevant' means 'gets me a high-paying job.' I think we can make some positive claims about philosophy being relevant even in that narrow sense. But you have in mind that philosophy doesn't speak (at least in introductory courses) to minority students' ethical, social, personal, etc., concerns qua minority students. I think the 'qua minority students' is crucial here: Minority students have religious beliefs; have probably wondered what happens to them after they die; have entertained questions about the degree to which their actions are truly their own; etc. In short, much of what gets taught in introductory philosophy courses is no less relevant to minority students than to others students. If students don't come to appreciate the relevance of such questions, that's a teaching challenge for instructors. Some of your suggestions for 'reaching out' to these students with examples that resonate with their experience are excellent. There are some dangers to such strategies, but I'll leave it at that.
One small relevant anecdote: I've had many conversations with an historian of African-America who often says that African-American students often dismiss what he teaches as irrelevant!
Michael, even if the problems true in philosophy are also true in other disciplines, it might be that how to avoid them will play out differently in philosophy because the problems have a different enough manifestation. If it's related to how content is seen in liberal arts in general, the way to change that is to refocus the content, but philosophers might need to do that differently from how historians might.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure black students are influenced by seeing a black professor in a discipline that doesn't have many. They're more likely to see it as the kind of thing "for them". Imagine never seeing a black physics professor and then encountering one and being surprised, just because it's rare in your experience. (I don't have in mind someone who thinks black people are dumb and can't handle physics, just someone who hasn't ever seen a black person interested enough in physics to do that.) Imagine, then, someone who is black who has repeatedly seen black people in certain lines of work but not others. Can't that give us some reason to think the role model issue is at least of some relevance?
For the record, I think you're right that nearby disciplines aren't that different in this respect. But again I don't see how that obviates the need within philosophy to do something about it, and hiring black philosophers isn't going to look the same as hiring black classicists or hiring black literary critics. The pool of candidates is different, the pool of black candidates is different, and the jobs available are different, at least.
But you have in mind that philosophy doesn't speak (at least in introductory courses) to minority students' ethical, social, personal, etc., concerns qua minority students. I think the 'qua minority students' is crucial here: Minority students have religious beliefs; have probably wondered what happens to them after they die; have entertained questions about the degree to which their actions are truly their own; etc. In short, much of what gets taught in introductory philosophy courses is no less relevant to minority students than to others students. If students don't come to appreciate the relevance of such questions, that's a teaching challenge for instructors. Some of your suggestions for 'reaching out' to these students with examples that resonate with their experience are excellent. There are some dangers to such strategies, but I'll leave it at that.
Yes, that's exactly the issue. I thought I'd made that clear. I think this is an unfortunate situation, but I think it's the situation we face. I'm aware of some dangers to these strategies. Sometimes it involves lack of precision because the example I use isn't really the same thing. It also caters to a mindset I don't want to support, that only issues relevant qua minority are really relevant. But I also want people who have such a view to see the value of philosophy, and I do think part of its value is in that area.
"I'm also skeptical about philosophy being seen as a 'white' subject (or any whiter than any other liberal arts discipline) or that students turn away from it because not enough black or minority philosophers get taught. How many minority historians, economists, educational theorists, computer scientists..."
ReplyDeleteI'm with Jeremy here -- I'm not sure why this is relevant. Black students may avoid philosophy _and_ subject Y because the two lack black role models (actual teachers or past black thinkers taught), but that's still a problem philosophy has. I'm not sure why it matters that subject Y has it too. It still may keep blacks away from philosophy, and if so, it's something we should be concerned about.
I think Jeremy's point about first-generation students is relevant here. A first-gen student is likely to either (a) find a field of high practical important OR (b) find a field that isn't so practical, but that is one that the student really identifies with. Okay, we know that students avoid philosophy due to (a). So are they coming due to (b)? Well, when you feel "otherized" by the general culture, I'd think that the fact that there are no people like you (1) teaching it and (2) no people like you being studied in it, and moreover (3) the subjects studied in it seem "removed from the concerns people like you have" (here sociology does fit the bill), well...seems to me that you may wind up with a problem attracting such students.
What do about it? I'm not sure. Is it a problem shared by other disciplines? Sure. But it's still a problem we have _in_ philosophy.
I wonder whether my findings about the evaluation of arguments used in design and planning (and as it turns out, in politics..)may relate to this issue. It turns out that the disciplines traditionally concerned with argument evaluation since Aristotle and before, have neglected the study of these arguments -- ostensibly because they are not 'valid' from a formal logic point of view, merely inconclusive. This in spite of the fact that humanity is arguing, arguably, at least if not more about planning issues (what we ought to do) than about the Ariistotelian quest for true knowledge. Thus, when faced with exhortations to be more rational and rely on logic in their arguments from well-meaning wise folks who then don't offer any practical explanations as to how one might go about 'weighing the pros and cons', the recipients of such advice might be tempted to dismiss it as being of little use in their everyday pursuits. (I have studied this issue and developed an approach for evaluating such arguments; if interested let me know at thormann@nettally.com) I have taught at an HBCU (albeit not in philosophy) as well as in a Southeast Asian university, and know the syndrome very well. It is not the fault of the minority students that they don't pursue such studies in larger numbers.
ReplyDelete