Dini Metro-Roland

Dini Metro-Roland is a Professor of Educational Foundations at Western Michigan University, where he also serves as coordinator of graduate programs in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Studies and course director of Humanities for Everybody—a community program offering free humanities courses to members of the Kalamazoo area.

Dr. Metro-Roland’s academic journey began as a graduate student at Indiana University, where he taught high school English in Budapest and Miskolc, Hungary, and Multicultural Education at South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia. After earning his Ph.D. in 2008, he joined Western Michigan University and has been teaching at multiple levels ever since.

His scholarly interests center on multicultural education, philosophical hermeneutics, virtue ethics, and the moral and pedagogical dimensions of online learning. His recent publications include Why Teaching Matters: A Philosophical Guide to the Elements of Practice (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2020), co-authored with Paul Farber; “Moral Education and Technology” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education (2022), also co-authored with Farber; and The Cambridge Handbook of Ethics and Education, co-edited with Sheron Fraser-Burgess and Jessica Heybach, forthcoming in 2024.

Teaching (Selected)

Graduate Courses

• College Instruction and Assessment
• Human Flourishing and Education
• Human Nature and Diversity
• Sociological and Philosophical Foundations of Education
• Culture and Politics of Educational Institutions
• Class, Ethnicity and Gender
• Multicultural Education
• Issues in Diversity
• Curriculum Theory
• Readings in Comparative Education

Undergraduate Courses

• Human Flourishing and the Pursuit of Happiness (Honors, Bridge Program, and HEJI Prison Program)
• Teaching as a Profession (Essential Studies)
• K-8 Teaching as a Profession
• Introduction to American Education
• School and Society (Essential Studies)
• Social Studies Methods/Multicultural Education
• Issues in Multicultural Education (Southeast European University)
• Critical Perspectives in Multicultural Education (Southeast European University)

Research (Selected)

Research Interests

Dr. Metro-Roland’s research explores philosophical hermeneutics, virtue ethics, multicultural education, and educational foundations, with a particular focus on the moral and pedagogical implications of online instruction. His work often bridges philosophy and educational practice, examining how educators cultivate ethical and reflective approaches to teaching.

Recent Grants

• Michigan Department of Education, PI 2024-2025
  Mentoring Standards, Curricula, and Professional Learning Creation Grant ($425,751)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Access Grant, PI 2024-2027
  Building a New Liberal Arts Pathway for Incarcerated individuals: A Shared Intellectual Experience Through Humanities Literature Courses Co-PIs Dale Brown and Ann Miles ($149,952)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Access Grant, 2017-2021
  For Humanities for Everybody Bridge Year Program Development ($100,000 + $100,000 matching funds)
• Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA) 2020
  Impact of Humanities education on students at a juvenile home school ($9,031)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions Grant, 2013-2015
  For “What is Human Flourishing” Course Development ($21, 365 + $18,625 WMU Cost Share).

Recent Publications

• Dahlbeck, J., P. Farber, P. Lilja, and D. Metro-Roland (Under Contract) “Contested Ethical Spaces of Teaching: Establishing Teacher Authority and Responsibility in a Post-truth World” in Bloomsbury Handbook of Ethics and Teaching.
• S. Fraser-Burgess, J. Heybach, and D. Metro-Roland (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Ethics and Education. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2024.
• Farber, P. and D. Metro-Roland (2022) “Moral Education and Technology” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Metro-Roland, D. (2020) “Same over time? An Historical Context” in Barbara Dennis, Walking with Strangers: Critical Ethnography and Educational. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
• Farber, P. & D. Metro-Roland (2020). Why Teaching Matters: A Philosophical Guide to the Elements of Practice. New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press.
• Farber, P. & D. Metro-Roland (2021). “Moral Education and Technology.” In Kathy Hytten (Ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.24
• Metro-Roland, D. (2025). “Review of Kevin Gary’s Why Boredom Matters” in Educational Theory, 75(3)
• Metro-Roland, D. (2023). “Review of Doug Yacek’s The Transformative Classroom: Philosophical Foundations & Practical Applications” in Educational Theory 73(1), 195.
• Metro-Roland, D. (2021). The Dialectic of Expulsion: Positive Freedom and the School. Philosophy of Education 2020. Urbana: The Philosophy of Education Society.