How does our education shape us?

MIT Philosophy doctoral student Sonia Pavel believes that educational systems shape our lives. 

She cites, as examples, the correlation between growing up in poverty and attending poorly-funded schools and negative outcomes related to health and financial security, as well as research that shows students who interact with classmates from different socioeconomic strata are more likely to become empathetic and engaged learners.

“So much of how we’re socialized defines the paths we pursue and the possibilities we allow ourselves to envision,” she says. “I’m interested to learn more about how human beings are formed to occupy certain social positions and to understand themselves in certain ways.”

Pavel is invested in creating and sustaining a cooperative, rather than a competitive, classroom environment, one in which the K-12 public school experience equips us to understand and solve life’s complexities. 

Education was once central to political philosophy, she says, citing the work of thinkers like Plato, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, and John Dewey who saw education as politics’ primary function. Pavel, who graduates this spring, argues that this idea has been lost in contemporary political philosophy and should return to its center.

Her dissertation, “A Systematic Political Philosophy of Education,” investigates K-12 education’s impact on groups, the public policies that organize our lives, and the ethical considerations related to how we live. She wants to provide historical context for education impacts and observed outcomes, while also digging deeper into how identities are formed.

“A political self is formed, in part, through public policy choices,” she says. “Public policy is shaped by people, who are shaped by the systems public policy helps support and define.” 

Shaping future paths at home and abroad

Pavel was born in Bucharest, Romania eight years after the 1989 Revolution. Later, during her time as a student at a competitive high school in the city, she found herself being guided toward an educational specialization in computer science and mathematics despite her interest in the humanities. 

A multilinguist who began learning English from her parents before in first grade and who also speaks German, French, and Romanian, Pavel sought access to a humanities education in America, following a well-worn path away from the country other Romanians had forged, including her father. Half of her fellow students left to be educated in Western Europe while a smaller number sought and gained admission to institutions in the U.S. 

Pavel describes a Romanian educational model that’s “dramatically different” from America’s. “There’s no fully funded doctoral study available, certainly not like what can be found here,” she says. 

“I left Romania at 18 in search of the kinds of expanded educational opportunities available in the U.S.,” she continues. She didn’t have any experience with the United States until she began exploring her higher education options. With support and encouragement from her parents, she determined she would only apply to institutions that offered full scholarships to international students. 

“I was working from a plan that featured hopes and dreams,” she says.

Pavel completed her undergraduate study at Brandeis University, where she majored in philosophy and anthropology. Her opportunity was made possible by the Wien International Scholarship Program. She was also improving her English on the fly while acclimating herself to a rigorous educational experience. 

Studying culture and society was subtly shaping ideas that would form the foundation for her doctoral study at MIT. “I was taken with this idea that our norms, values, and behaviors are malleable, shaped by the cultural and material circumstances in which we find ourselves,” she says.

“Classrooms are complex places”

Pavel has accepted a tenure-track position at Clemson University, where she’ll begin teaching in the fall. She plans to bring a fresh approach to pedagogy into her classroom. “Classrooms are complex places,” she says, “and it’s important to meet students where they are.” 

There’s no “one size fits all” approach to education, she says. “Students are shaped by a variety of outside factors,” she believes, “and it’s important to lower barriers to classroom participation.” Students are also educators and philosophers with lots of knowledge, Pavel argues. “When students reflect on their personal experiences, they’re already well on their way to doing philosophy.”

Philosophy has both reaffirmed Pavel’s commitment to the humanities as a valuable field of inquiry and solidified its status as an important element in building collective educational capacity for change. “I understand being philosophical as being virtuous, wise, and considerate of other people and the relationships we maintain,” she says. “MIT has helped solidify my commitment to a liberal arts education.”

At MIT, Pavel has come to enjoy tackling thorny questions about identity. Exploring and challenging deeply-held ideas about concepts like gender and race helped to further narrow her focus. “What I liked most wasn’t the empirical work but the abstract questions about how we come to accept norms and arrange our social relationships,” she notes. 

Investigating these questions, along with encouragement from her advisors and an opportunity to study with MIT philosopher Sally Haslanger – whose work on gender and race inspired her as an undergraduate – led her to graduate study in philosophy. “Their guidance helped me understand the work and commitment I needed,” she says. 

Haslanger has been Pavel’s primary mentor and philosophical role model, significantly shaping her ideas and supporting her every step of the way. Haslanger described Pavel as a “remarkable philosopher” from whom she has learned a tremendous amount.

“She came to MIT with a deep background in multiple philosophical traditions, and has drawn on this, together with her broad interdisciplinary curiosity, to make an important contribution to political philosophy and the philosophy of education,” Haslanger says. “Her dissertation not only addresses pressing contemporary issues such as authority over school curricula and parental rights, but also promises to recenter education as a central task of a polity and one that has significant theoretical implications.”

MIT’s philosophy program, Pavel asserts, is among the world’s best, popular among undergraduates and good for graduate students’ intellectual lives. 

“Faculty devote lots of time to mentor and support students,” she says.

MIT philosopher Tamar Schapiro and political scientist Bernardo Zacka also helped Pavel solidify her areas of interest. “Schapiro shaped my historical sensibilities by helping me integrate history into my ethics and political philosophy work,” she says, “while Zacka, a brilliant political theorist, gave me the confidence to pursue an unusual area of inquiry in my work.”

Pavel made sure to immerse herself in experiences that allowed her to deepen her commitment to humanities education while working closely with students from other disciplines. She singles out MIT’s D-Lab and the Gender and Development course taught by both Haslanger and Associate Director for Practice Libby McDonald as a great incubator for ideas and a practice-based approach to scholarship. 

“I think that D-Lab is a gem and I hope MIT recognizes its value,” she says.

“D-Lab,” Pavel continues, “tries to cultivate ‘creative capacity building’ in the communities where its work occurs and makes partners and co-designers of the community members and the proposed solutions rather than handing a solution to a community.” Education, Pavel argues, should also embody creative capacity building by inviting students to collaborate on the educational process and increase their stake in the outcomes.

Connecting across disciplines

Pursuing philosophy at a STEM school has been an eye-opening experience for Pavel. “Philosophy was never going to be enough for the questions I was asking,” she says. “I was going to have to engage with other disciplines and social sciences to learn how to implement changes.”

During her time at MIT, Pavel has also acted as co-director of the Experiential Ethics course. The course, a unique, exclusive teaching opportunity founded by philosophy graduate students and made possible with the support of MIT’s Office of Experiential Learning, features educators from across disciplines, a huge draw for her. 

“Experiential Ethics has been a highlight of my experience at MIT,” she says. “While teaching assistants don’t always have opportunities to develop syllabi and teach the courses they develop, I was able to do that here.”

In addition to the administrative duties she completed like recruiting students, designing collateral, and logistics related to staging the course, advisors also modeled positive behaviors like how to create an effective classroom and how to support students from a variety of backgrounds. 

This, Pavel asserts, can lead to opportunities for more students and potentially grant them access to flourishing lives. “It’s been really great getting the perspective of other social scientists on the topics we taught,” she says.