PhD (University of Toronto)
Assistant Professor, Philosophy of Education

BA Political Science, Concordia University, 1995.
MA Religious Studies, McMaster University, 2001.
BEd OISE/UT, 2002.
PhD OISE/UT, 2008.

Research Interests include

My research focuses on the intersection of education, politics and philosophy, or, a political philosophy of educational thought. The main stream of my research concerns globalization, (neo)liberalism and democracy, with a specific focus on the political and pedagogical implications of consumerism.

A 2010 book with University of Toronto Press, “Consuming Schools”, investigates the origins and nature of consumerism within Western political, pedagogical and philosophical thought and its current impact on the public and democratic functions of education, with a variety of cases drawn from current trends in school commercialism. Modernist and postmodernist approaches help illuminate the contrasting features of consumerism and how it impacts teaching and learning. Recent appearances on CBC and other media have been concerned with the sponsorship of TDSB classrooms by ‘Future Shop’, and published as “The Illusory Solution: Is Commercialization The "Future" Of Education at the Toronto District School Board?” Our Schools/ Ourselves (2009), and earlier in Educational Researcher: “School Commercialism and the Fate of Public Schooling: What’s “Good” for America?”.

A second key research area is regarding high school philosophy in Ontario and beyond. Ongoing research into the teaching and learning of philosophy in Ontario public schools, studied by over 30,000 students per year, has culminated in the approval of several new courses in philosophy teacher education at OISE. Current investigations into teachers’ conceptions of the aims of philosophy education, as well as debates in the emergent field of teacher education in philosophy, have positioned OISE as a potential global leader in the area of research into high school philosophy.

These two areas give rise to a third, philosophical “methods” in education:  An investigation of philosophical methodologies beyond the qualitative/quantitative divide in relation to the teaching and learning of philosophy, ie, the contributions of philosophy of education to understanding and moving beyond the ‘methodology wars’ in educational research. Currently being explored in a paper titled “Theorizing Research in the Teaching of Philosophy: Challenges and Possibilities”.

Last, a philosophical biography of noted Canadian philosopher of education Dieter Misgeld titled “A Philosophers Journey from Hermeneutics to Emancipatory Politics”, coauthored with Iranian philosopher Hossein Mesbahian, is undergoing final revision.

To learn more, visit Trevor's website.