“Eyes in the Back of Your Head”: moral themes in African American narratives of racial conflict

Abstract

This paper examines seven narratives of racial conflict elicited from African American adults and young people. Analysis focusses on the relational nature of the racial conflicts. Issues of power and authority inherent in the sociopolitical context in which racial knowledge develops and moral judgements regarding racial differences are determined are found to be likewise embedded in interracial interpersonal relationships. Adopting Brown & Gilligan's (1990) methodological approach to reading narratives of conflict and choice, the two moral themes of justice and care are explored in the constitution and resolution of the conflicts shared. Concerns specific to the psychological development of African Americans and to the transmission of race‐related morals and values in black cultures are addressed.     

Towards a Dynamic Systems Approach to moral development and moral education: a response to the JME Special Issue,September 2008

Abstract

This essay tells my story of using the moral orientations of justice and care to help me think about an incident of cheating in a seminar I taught. My story takes as a starting point the idea that teaching is a relational activity and that morality fundamentally concerns relations among people. These moral orientations gave me options to think about exploring, with my students, what it means to make moral choices in our everyday life. This narrative is about my own moral choice‐making in this dilemma and it reveals how using these psychological constructs helped me in my reflective practice of teaching. It also reveals the conflicts I faced in attempting to solve this dilemma and the questions and conflicts which still remain.     

Performance power: the impact of neoliberalism on social justice educators’ ways of speaking about their educational practice

ABSTRACT

Few studies have attended to the specific influence of neoliberalism on education for social justice, despite the complex ways in which the competing discourses of neoliberalism and social justice work side by side in local educational settings. This article reports data derived from interviews with 28 educators committed to social justice education from across Ontario, Canada. Participants were asked how they perceived the impact of neoliberalism on education and on their teaching practice. Findings were interpreted through critical democratic theory and discourse analysis. An unanticipated finding is the influence of neoliberal discourse on the ways that educators spoke about their teaching practice for social justice. The study found that discourse of performance is one arena where competing discourses of neoliberalism and social justice not only coexist but also intersect. This finding has important implications for the transformative potential of social justice education through more concentrated attention to the power embedded in everyday speech acts. Attending more to the performative potential of neoliberal discourse toward social justice ends can be a mechanism for resistance and teacher agency.     

Vision and Optimism: Empowering New Educators

Abstract

When people of faith participate in movements for social change, how are their religious and moral identities formed, challenged, and transformed? Although they have explicit and tangible goals as they participate in advocacy, protest, and boycotts, religious social activists also, James Jasper argues, craft “lives worth living” (1997). This article examines the identity-shaping power of religious participation in social movements, in conversation with scholarship in religious education and social movement theory; describes the relationship between social activism and theological imagination; and proposes some explicit practices for nurturing religious and moral formation.     

Moral Decision-making in Real Life: Factors affecting moral orientation and behaviour justification

The study addresses two separate but related issues in connection with people's real-life moral decisions and judgements. First, the notion of moral orientation is examined in terms of its consistency across varying contexts, its relation to gender and to gender role. Secondly, a new aspect of moral reasoning is explored--the influence on moral decision-making of considering the consequences of an action. Fifty-eight undergraduate students were asked to discuss two personal and two impersonal real-life moral dilemmas. The results reveal a significant interaction between gender role and type of dilemma. However, moral orientation was not consistent across various dilemmas and gender was not related to any particular orientation. Also the results indicate a significant difference between the reasoning of consequences of personal-antisocial conflicts and impersonal-antisocial conflicts. These findings suggest that different moral orientations may be embedded in life experience and connect with an individual's sense of his or her moral identity in real-life situations.     

Teachers' Ethical Choices in Sociomoral Settings

This article discusses ethical dilemmas in early childhood education as identified by kindergarten and elementary school teachers (N = 26). Ethical dilemmas are investigated in the theoretical framework of moral relevance and moral conflict (Wallace 1988). Professional ethics challenges teachers to collaborate with colleagues and parents. The empirical findings present conflicts between teachers and parents, collegial conflicts between teachers, and cultural conflicts in the community. The method used in the study is a relational reading of teachers' narratives. Interpretative accounts are created to give room to different voices in teachers' written reports. The analysis of the data reveals that the ethical dilemmas in early childhood education are relational and deal with competing interpretations of "the best interest of the child". Relevance and conflict problems arise when people have to co-ordinate their actions with others. Most of the time, discussions have not produced the desired results. Ethical conflicts in teaching invite teachers to consider the moral relevance of each dilemma by taking the perspective of each party involved.     

大学生道德现状与思考

随着社会的快速发展变化,各种社会矛盾、利益冲突和社会思潮层出不穷.面对复杂的社会现实,大学生在道德选择上产生迷惑和盲从,道德越轨事件时有发生.文章就大学生道德方面出现的问题、社会根源、应对方法进行了分析与探讨,以期把大学生陪养成为高道德素质的人才     

Values education and lifelong learning: principles,policies and programmes

Abstract

For education to be moral enough, its goal is defined not as to help individuals to learn the life ideals of church or state (which means centuries of practice whereby a group of individuals is trying to impose these ideals upon another group) but to create moral individuals‐‐people who are willing and able to treat each other as equals, and who are willing and able to feel compassion towards one another. Consideration is given to lessons from psychotherapy about the potential of autonomous human individual development for programmes of social change, in order for these programmes to be carried out without government and education resorting to imposition of the life ideals presupposed by them. In conclusion recognition is given to a trend of ethical thought, revitalising the moral significance of responsiveness to the reality of other people, grounded in the virtue of care for particular people. Adding the virtues of care and compassion to the virtues of impartiality and fairness offers a much deeper understanding of the moral grounds of society in its communitarian aspects, as evidenced by Solidarity as the social movement of the early 1980s in Poland.     

Authentic moral conflicts and students’ moral development

This research deals with the different psychological processes people undergo when they experience firsthand authentic moral conflicts. It also discusses the value of authentic moral conflicts in students’ moral development, and reasons for the ineffectiveness of moral education in China. The main reason for the unsatisfactory effects of moral education in China over a period of time lies in the predominance of virtual moral education. In authentic situations, the proper arrangement of moral conflicts requires careful analysis of values hidden in the prearranged or generated moral conflicts so as to utilize, guide, and control them properly. Such arrangement of moral conflicts should be adapted to students’ life experience for deepening their understanding of the moral aspects of life. Also, special attention should be attached to students’ varied requirements, thus leaving enough options and space for their independent participation in activities of moral education. __________ Translated from Educational Research, 2005(3)     

我国“无直接利益冲突”探析

目前我国社会部分地区出现了“无直接利益冲突”。这类冲突具有突发性强,多发生在官与民、利益集团之间,演变为直接利益冲突危险性高等特点。这类冲突的产生有思想心理因素和深刻的社会原因。各级政府要采取倡导和谐理念、提高政府公信力、拓宽民意表达渠道等举措化解这类冲突,促进社会和谐发展。     

马克思权力思想解读及对我国公共行政启示

马克思恩格斯的权力思想主要包含以下几个方面的重要内容:第一,从政治哲学角度阐述了人类的自由全面发展是公共权力存在的道义基础和终极价值;第二,从国家和社会的二元分立角度阐发了公共权力的起源和本质,揭示了公共权力的社会本位;第三,辨证考察了集权和分权、总结了巴黎公社的实践经验,提出了权力监督制约的人民主体性。联系当前我国公共行政领域的实践,马克思恩格斯权力思想为我们提供了如下几个有益视角:第一,公共行政要在科学发展观的指导下,坚持以人为本,服务于人的发展;第二,公共行政要加强政府职能转变,沿着行政社会化方向迈进,做到权力下放;第三,加强公共行政廉政建设,关键在于制度设计上要保证人民享有监督权。     

Discursive Power and Creativity in Inter-Professional Work

This paper discusses how discursive power and creativity are found to be inter-related in a context not traditionally associated with creative work; the operating theatre of a hospital. Here, it is proposed that creativity relies on socio-cultural factors emphasizing the practical nature of creativity, and highlighting the fact that a large part of our creativity connects with our everyday social life and practices. We assume that power is exercised in an embedded manner in everyday work and continuously reproduced and redefined between the social actors. The data utilized here derive from a collective ethnographic research project focusing on surgical workplace learning and professional identity. Observational data and field notes from work situations in operating theatres are utilized. The paper illustrates the manifestations of discursive power through three selected example episodes. Our findings show the intertwined nature of power and creativity in OT work practices. The power relations do not function only to restrict collaboration but can also promote collective creativity. Collective creativity in inter-professional work is exercise of agency in the workplace, especially with the actors with less power. Shared creative solutions in the work practices are achieved in a shared organizational culture in which power becomes discursively internalised and institutionalised. We argue that new insights will be brought up in the area of workplace learning and professional development by taking into account the institutionalized collective acts in working communities. The study supports the need for further development of inter-professional collaboration and learning in health care work organizations.     

A Moral Education in an Ethical System

This article raises a number of interrelated issues. It first considers the need for a disability-aware education for everyone, including post-school leavers. This has both structural and curricular implications. At the structural level, it is argued that if we are to move towards a more ethical educational system, institutional discrimination must be dismantled. At the curricular level, the notion of a "culture of resistance", with distinctive moral characteristics, is explored. The article next considers the moral education of disabled people, covering such issues as recognition of alternative perspectives, building on life-experience and the development of self-confidence and self-esteem. In conclusion, it is suggested that a moral education in an ethical system would integrate universalising understandings of the principle of justice, and its application, with the development of contextual thought which can take account of the value and uniqueness of individuals and the particularity of their educational needs.     

The case of educational gerontology in Lebanon: a harbinger of empowerment,emancipation and social change?

Context: In Lebanon, older adults face socioeconomic challenges that are expected to worsen due to an increase in older adult population, chronic governmental neglect, institutionalised ageism and a lack of educational and social gerontologists. Consequently, local older adults are in dire need for social change, which can be initiated through later life learning. The University for Seniors (UfS) is a University for the Third Age providing learning opportunities for older people in Lebanon. While most older adult learning programmes are occupied with their learners’ self-fulfilment, Critical Educational Gerontology promotes emancipatory learning and social change. Study Objective and Design: A case discussion based on a variety of data sources is used to showcase and then challenge the practices of UfS from a critical educational gerontology perspective. To do that, we consider the semantic difference between emancipation and empowerment in their relation to power. Recommendations: We recommend programme-specific measures starting by revisiting the current philosophy of learning, targeting social change as an additional goal to later life learning, and advocacy for the establishment of educational degrees to prepare professionals and academicians in the field of social gerontology. We also recommend a more critical use of empowerment and emancipation within critical educational gerontology.     

The Existentialists and Problems of Moral and Religious Education: 2. Tillich and Jaspers

Abstract

This assessment of L. Kohlberg's theory of moral development is a dialectical critique focusing on his claim that the sixth stage of moral development is morally adequate, specifically, that it is both comprehensive and fully equilibrated. The dialectical method employed follows the generalized empirical method advanced by B. Lonergan. The paper includes a brief account of this method and of the sixth stage of moral reasoning as outlined by Kohlberg. Employing the dialectical notions of intellectual conversion and moral conversion, it uncovers certain unresolved conflicts of this stage and points to the need for a further moral stage of development, which would be both more highly differentiated and more fundamentally based.     

Interacting with People who have Severe Communication Problems: Ethical considerations

People who have severe speech and communication problems have difficulties making themselves heard both in everyday communications and society at large. In spite of the positive results which have followed the development of non-vocal intervention strategies, this group of people is at risk for being left out of the social common and being alienated. It is important to realise that one cannot do in the technical what one cannot do in the ethical. Unless both social interaction and intervention with people who have severe communication impairments are based on ethical reflection, the moral standards that are applied to this group may be lower than for other people. True communicative interaction depends on the acceptance that the other partner has something of value to communicate, even if the means for expressive communication are limited and the messages are vague and difficult to understand. A moral requirement for autonomy, that is, an equal footing or right to expression, places an ethical imperative on the more competent communication partner to strive to overcome the asymmetrical relationship and help the disabled person create authentic messages. Ethics is awareness based on the reflection on moral phenomena, grounded in the norms and values of the society and typically the result of discourse and co-constructive reflection, in the form of everyday discussions as well as of public philosophical scrutiny. Communication is a vehicle of reflection and discourse may be regarded as joined reflection. Thus, time for discourse in professional work may be a prerequisite for ethical practice.     

Teachers' views of forgiveness for the resolution of conflicts between students in school

This study investigated teachers' views of forgiveness and institutional pardon for conflict resolution at schools. We asked, "Should teachers endorse student resolution of interpersonal conflicts at school by asking for forgiveness and forgiving?" "Considering that students' conflict led to behaviours that violated norms in the school, should schools pardon students' misconduct if students effectively used forgiveness for interpersonal conflict resolution?" Finally, "Is an internal and autonomous orientation for forgiveness related to social harmony or interpersonal ethics of care?" Fifty-three participants answered a background information questionnaire and two dilemmas. Findings showed that teachers endorse forgiveness as social expectation, a humanitarian, moral response to conflicts at conventional levels. Teachers do not endorse institutional pardon because they do not perceive forgiveness as being related to resolving social issues. Opposition to forgiveness and pardon was supported by authoritarian, discipli narian views of education.     

Conflict Resolution in Preschool Social Interactions

Conflict has frequently been hypothesized to play an important role in development, and yet, until recently, little empirical work has been conducted on preschoolers' social conflicts. The aim of this study was to investigate the types of social issues that produce conflicts, the extent to which children respond positively to protests from others, and how conflicts are resolved. Children were observed in two contexts: semi-structured peer groups in which adults did not intervene, and school-time free-play. The results showed that even when adults do not intervene, children are often responsive to protests from others and resolve conflicts on their own. Differences were also observed for the types of issues that generate conflicts in the two settings and the types of conflicts that children respond to most often. These results indicate that children's conflicts are not solely negative or aggressive and that children's social interactions and their social contexts are multi-dimensional. The findings point to interpersonal aspects of settings, such as the differential role of adults and peers, and to contextual features of settings, such as free-play and sustained play, that should be considered by teachers and parents when structuring social interactive opportunities for young children.     

Moral disengagement: A new lens with which to examine children’s justifications for lying

ABSTRACT

The development of children’s lie-telling abilities is considered to be a social and cognitive milestone. While occasional lying is developmentally appropriate, the use of frequent, antisocial lies as a maladaptive problem-solving mechanism can indicate behaviour problems. Since lying is often considered a moral transgression, researchers should examine lying from the perspective of moral theory to understand children’s reasons for lying, which may help to understand how chronic lying develops. A theoretical framework, namely the social cognitive process of moral disengagement (MD) could not only provide new insight into children’s justifications for telling common lies, but also atypical, antisocial lies. This paper aims to describe how MD may be applied to explain children’s justifications for lying, especially antisocial lies, and how adults can address MD by modelling the positive consequences of truth-telling, to promote honesty in children.