Philosopher-Kings and Academic Advisers: Learning from The Republic

Authors

  • C. J. Venable Kent State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18113/P8mj2060566

Keywords:

academic advising, Plato, dialogues

Abstract

This paper engages with two deeply philosophical questions about academic advising: who should academic advisers be and what should be their aims?  The Republic of Plato offers both substantive insights towards answering these questions and a novel form with which to explore them: the dialogue.  The paper that follows is written as a dialogue, a discussion between the author, Plato, and a fictional interlocutor named Carla.  After considering and discarding other possible arguments, the discussants eventually come to the conclusion that advisers should be like the philosophers of The Republic.  The implications of this are many, including the notion that advisers should be involved in the process of curriculum development and revision.  Beyond grappling with these substantive issues, the author utilizes the unconventional format of a dialogue to show how advisers could engage in philosophical thinking about academic advising.

Author Biography

C. J. Venable, Kent State University

Academic Advisor II

References

Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R (Eds.). (1940). φιλόσοφος. In A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=filo/sofos

Lowenstein, M. (2000). Academic advising and the "logic" of the curriculum. The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, 2. Retrieved from http://dus.psu.edu/mentor

Matheson, B., Moorman, R., & Winburn, D. (1997). The McDonaldization of advising. NACADA Journal, 17(1), 13-14.

Plato. (2016). The republic. (A. Bloom, Trans., 2nd ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books. (Original work published ca. 380 BC).

Thelin, J. R., & Gasman, M. (2011). Historical overview of American higher education. In J. H. Schuh, S. R. Jones, S. R. Harper, & Associates, Student services: A handbook for the profession (5th ed., pp. 3-23). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Wade, L. (2013, June 18). Professors join the precariat. Sociological Images. Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/06/18/professors-join-the-precariat/

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Published

2018-04-06

Issue

Vol. 20 (2018): The Mentor: Innovative Scholarship on Academic Advising

Section

Articles

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