Name: Virtue Signalling in the Classroom
Start: 2026-07-07T14:00:00+1200
End: 2026-07-07T14:55:00+1200

Tuesday July 7, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm NZST

Recent survey data (Romm & Waldman 2025) suggests that university students often project ideological alignment with their professors and classmates in order to succeed socially and academically. In other words, university students virtue signal in the classroom. In this paper, I set out to answer three questions: (1) What is classroom virtue signalling? (2) What are the impacts of classroom virtue signalling on the goals of university education? (3) What, if anything, should be done about classroom virtue signalling? In response to (1), I offer a characterisation of classroom virtue signalling. In response to (2), I argue that classroom virtue signalling compromises three educational goals: the acquisition of epistemic goods, the cultivation of autonomy, and the cultivation of intellectual virtues. In section (3), I argue that students, professors, and universities have duties to disrupt the practice of classroom virtue signalling so that the educational goals of universities can be better realised.

Speakers

William Tuckwell

Lecturer, Charles Sturt University

I am a Lecturer in philosophy at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Before becoming a lecturer, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Future of the Professions Research Group at CSU. Prior to joining CSU I was a Society for Applied Philosophy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the... Read More →

Tuesday July 7, 2026 2:00pm - 2:55pm NZST
MSB1.36 & 37

Social Epistemology, In Person

AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

William Tuckwell

Attendees (22)

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AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

William Tuckwell

Attendees (22)

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