Seamus Mulryan, Ph.D., is a teacher educator who believes that any educational endeavor should be anchored to aims broader than mere content, skill transmission or job preparation, that “education has a bigger purpose.”
Mulryan came to Cabrini in 2012 because he felt that his work in educational ethics fit well with Cabrini’s core curriculum of developing students’ ethical sensibilities around the concepts of justice and the common good.
“I believe Cabrini offers students something unique in that the educators here strive to provide a purposeful and richly meaningful education,” Mulryan says.
In Graduate Studies, Mulryan primarily teaches the philosophy and theory that both undergirds and can fundamentally challenge educational policy and practice, placing the civic role of liberal education at the center of his pedagogy.
“I believe educators have an astounding opportunity to effect transformation in schools, and that to do so well requires developing intellectual capacities to deeply, meaningfully and critically reflect on instructional practices and institutional policies,” he says.
To this end, Mulryan focuses on creating an environment in which his students can develop a literacy of educational discourse and learn to reason and reflect well within that discourse.
“This can involve employing any number of pedagogical relationships and activities, depending further on the content of the course, the day’s class, and the specific students composing the class, among other things,” Mulryan says.
Mulryan has presented at major conferences in his field, including those for the Philosophy of Education Societies of North America and Great Britain, the American Educational Studies Association, the International Conference of Philosophy, and the Society for the Philosophical Study of Education.
He has published articles or reviews in the scholarly journals Philosophy of Education, Policy Futures in Education, and Education Review, and has written book chapters and encyclopedia entries.
Mulryan earned a doctorate in educational policy studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master’s degree in philosophy and education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a bachelor’s in physics from Beloit College in Wisconsin.
Contact Information:
Seamus Mulryan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Graduate Studies
Grace Hall, Room 218
610-902-8398
seamus.t.mulryan@cabrini.edu