Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2025
Abstract
Philosophers of education rely on a set of concepts. They refer to students, teachers, learners, schools, classrooms, etc. to theorize about what education is and ought to be. In employing these concepts, however, two ambiguities arise: variation among conceptualizations and gaps between a conceptualization of a thing and the normative valence it holds. A concept can refer both to the thing as it is and the thing as it ought to be. The author proposes a different approach that, rather than resting on a normative account of higher education institutions--about which institutional actors can reasonably disagree--looks to what is true of students descriptively: students are necessary for and to the institution such that the institution can only be for them through their own participation. This institution exists because of students; they are the institutional functional unit. The author explores this underexamined conceptualization of students as the institutional functional unit. Though not a definitive solution, the author suggests this overlooked dimension of students underlies all other conceptualizations of students in ways that might assist institutional actors in finding mutual legibility across competing conceptualizations.
ORCID
0000-0003-3805-3856
Recommended Citation
Herman, J. (2025). The Student Functional Unit: Revisiting How We Conceptualize Students in Higher Education. Philosophical Studies in Education 56:146-155.