Winston C. Thompson is an internationally regarded philosopher of education concerned with social, political, and ethical issues related to justice and education. Prior to joining the College of Education and Human Ecology at OSU, he was a faculty member in the Department of Education and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire.

In 2016-17, Professor Thompson was a Fellow-in-Residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He previously taught at New York University and Hofstra University. He is on the Executive Board of the Association for Moral Education and is the President of the New England Philosophy of Education Society.

Thompson's scholarship focuses upon normative ethical and social/political questions of justice, education, and the public good, with recent efforts analyzing dilemmas of educational policy. His work has appeared in EducationalTheory, Philosophy of Education, Teachers College Record,The Journal of Philosophy of Education,Educational Philosophy and Theory, and Studies in Philosophy and Education. Thompson is currently working on a book project that takes the mainstream view of the relationship between education and politics to 1) cheapen our sense of justice in education and 2) imperil our understanding of the political essence of justice in public life. By enlarging the mainstream view of this relationship and asking what is owed to persons and polities as a matter of educational,rather than only political,justice, this project explores a renewed approach to the very core of democracy within pluralistic societies.

Thompson received his PhD (with distinction) in Philosophy and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.