Meira Levinson

Professor of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Schools

  • Harvard Graduate School of Education

Expertise

Links

Biography

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Meira Levinson is a normative political philosopher who writes about civic education, multiculturalism, youth empowerment, and educational ethics. In doing so, she draws upon scholarship from multiple disciplines as well as her eight years of experience teaching in the Atlanta and Boston Public Schools. Her most recent books include the co-edited Making Civics Count (Harvard Education Press, 2012) and No Citizen Left Behind (Harvard University Press, 2012). The latter book shows how schools can help tackle a civic empowerment gap that is as shameful and antidemocratic as the academic achievement gap targeted by No Child Left Behind. In 2013, it was awarded the Michael Harrington Award from the American Political Science Association, the Exemplary Research in Social Studies Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, and a Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association. It also won the 2014 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. Levinson fosters civic education scholarship at Harvard as co-convener of HGSE's Civic and Moral Education Initiative.

Levinson has been awarded a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship to support her newest project, on "Justice in Schools." In this work, she combines philosophical analysis and school-based case studies to illuminate the complex dimensions of evaluating, achieving, and teaching justice in schools. The project is intended to give educators tools for making just decisions in their own practice, and also to push political theorists to develop theories of justice that are robust enough to address complex school-based dilemmas. This project, like her previous research, reflects Levinson's commitment to achieving productive cross-fertilization — without loss of rigor — among scholarship, policy, and practice.

Areas of Expertise

  • Civic Education
  • Curriculum Development
  • Diversity
  • Middle Schools
  • Multicultural Education
  • Philosophy of Education
  • Political Theory
  • Urban Schooling

Awards

Guggenheim Fellowship,(2014) North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award,(2014)

American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Award for No Citizen Left Behind,(2013)

Michael Harrington Book Award, New Political Science Caucus, American Political Science Association,(2013)

NCSS 2013 Exemplary Research in Social Studies Education Award, National Council for the Social Studies,(2013)

Bunting Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study,(2003)

Young Scholar Award, Program in Ethics and Public Life, Cornell University,(2003)

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation,(2002)

Publications

Campbell, D., M. Levinson, and F. Hess (Eds.). Making Civics Count. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.,(2012) Levinson, M. (2012). No Citizen Left Behind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,(2012)

Levinson, M. (2011). Why Education is Not ‘The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time.’ Guest blogger on Rick Hess Straight Up. January 20, 2011.,(2011)

Levinson, M. (2011) Benefits of Civic Education: Increased Equality and Narrowed Civic Empowerment Gap. Section of national report on Keeping Our Republic: Restoring the Civic Mission of Schools, to be released by the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.,(2011)

Levinson, M. (2011) Racial Politics and Double Consciousness: Education for Liberation in an Inescapably Diverse Polity. Canadian Issues/Thèmes Canadiens. Diversity and Education for Liberation: Realities, Possibilities, and Problems. Spring 2011, 80-82.,(2011)

Levinson, M. (2011). What Can Schools Do To Promote Civil Dialogue? Guest blogger on Rick Hess Straight Up. January 19, 2011. Reprinted in Citizenship Matters. National Center for Learning and Citizenship, Education Commission of the States. March-April 2011.,(2011)

Levinson, M. (2011). Is Teaching About Martin Luther King, Jr., Bad for Kids? Guest blogger on Rick Hess Straight Up. January 18, 2011.,(2011)

Levinson, M. (2011). Democracy, Accountability, and Education. Theory and Research in Education 9(2): 125-144.,(2011)

Reich, J., M. Levinson, and W. Johnson (2011). Using Online Social Networks to Foster Preservice Teachers’ Membership in a Networked Community of Praxis. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE): forthcoming.,(2011)

Levinson, M. (2010). An Embarrassing Second Amendment: A Proud Daughter Belatedly (1) Recognizes and (2) Celebrates Her Father’s Influence on Her Life and Work. Law and Courts 20(3), 16-17.,(2010)

Levinson, M. (2010). The Civic Empowerment Gap: Defining the Problem and Locating Solutions. In L.R. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, and C.A. Flanagan (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth (pp. 331-361). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.,(2010)

Levinson, M. (2009). Taking Action: What We Can Do to Address the Civic Achievement Gap. Social Studies Review 48(1), 33-36.,(2009)

Levinson, M. (2009). Mapping Multicultural Education. In H. Siegel (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education (pp. 420-442). New York: Oxford University Press.,(2009)

Levinson, M. (2009). 'Let Us Now Praise...?' Rethinking Heroes and Role Models in an Egalitarian Age. In Y. Raley & G. Preyer (Eds.), Philosophy of Education in the Era of Globalization (pp. 129-161). New York: Routledge.,(2009)

“Combating the Civic Achievement Gap.” (2008). ASCD Express.,(2008)

“Minority Participation and Civic Education in Deliberative Democracies” (2002). In Daniel A. Bell and Avner de-Shalit, eds. Forms of Justice: Critical Perspectives on David Miller's Political Philosophy. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield: 159-82.

“Finding Role Models in the Community” (2008). In Mica Pollock, ed. Everyday Antiracism: Concrete Ways to Successfully Navigate the Relevance of Race in School. New York: The New Press: 120-4.

“Common Schools and Multicultural Education” (2007). Journal of Philosophy of Education 41(4): 625-42.Also in Mark Halstead and Graham Haydon, eds. (2008). The Common School and the Comprehensive Ideal. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell: 124-40.

The Demands of Liberal Education (1999). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It (2005). Co-authored with Stephen Macedo (primary author) and others. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

“Taking Action: What We Can Do to Address the Civic Achievement Gap” (forthcoming). Social Studies Review. Journal of the California Council for the Social Studies.

“Multicultural Education” (forthcoming). In Harvey Siegel, ed. Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

“The Language of Race” (2003). Theory and Research in Education 1(3): 267-81. (Book review of Lawrence Blum, I’m Not a Racist, But…)

“The Civic Achievement Gap” (2004). Threshold 2 (3): 12-15.

“Solving the Civic Achievement Gap in De Facto Segregated Schools” (2005). Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly 25 (1/2): 2-10.

“Liberalism, Pluralism, and Political Education: Paradox or Paradigm?” (1999). Oxford Review of Education 25: 39-58.

“Liberalism versus Democracy? Schooling Private Citizens in the Public Square” (1997). British Journal of Political Science 27: 333-360.

“Is Autonomy Imposing Education Too Demanding? A Response to Dr. De Ruyter” (2004). Studies in Philosophy and Education 23: 223-33.

“Dilemmas of Deliberative Civic Education” (2002). Philosophy of Education Yearbook: 262-70.

“‘Getting Religion:’ Religion, Community, and Diversity in Public and Private Schools” (2003). Co-authored with Sanford Levinson. In Alan Wolfe, ed. School Choice: The Moral Debate. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 104-25. Also in Sanford Levinson. Wrestling with Diversity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press: 90-123.

“Challenging Deliberation” (2003). Theory and Research in Education 1(1): 23-49.

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