Sophistic ethics in the technical writing classroom: Teaching nomos,deliberation, and action

Drawing on arguments by Carolyn Miller, Steven Katz, and others, this essay claims that teaching ethics is particularly important to technical writing. Next, the essay outlines a classical, sophistic approach to ethics based on the theories and pedagogies of Protagoras, Gorgias, and Isocrates. This sophistic approach emphasizes the Greek concept of nomos, internal and external deliberation, and responsible action or articulation. The final section of the essay discusses possible problems and pedagogical applications of sophistic ethics in the contemporary technical writing classroom.     

中美环境议题报道的比较研究

为应对气候变暖而召开的《联合国气候变化框架公约》缔约方第15次会议,吸引了以《人民日报》与《纽约时报》为代表的中美两国主流媒体的关注。两报在报道内容上的背离使得中美两国在环境新闻领域形成新的话语交锋。二者形成差异的原因在于国情相异,意识形态观念有别,文化积淀基础上形成的生态伦理观念迥异,新闻传播理念不同等。从中我们可以得到启示,我国环境新闻的写作需以科学方法为指导,在对外传播的过程中注重策略的优化,同时力求与现行的国际传播手段接轨,重塑中国勇于承担责任的大国形象。     

Mother–Child Referencing of Environmental Print and Its Relationship With Emergent Literacy Skills

Research Findings: Environmental print provides children with their earliest print experiences. This observational study investigated the frequency of mother–child environmental print referencing and its relationship with emergent literacy. A total of 35 mothers and their children (ages 3–4 years) were videotaped interacting in an environmental print–rich play setting. The frequency of environmental print referencing of letters and words was measured. Children were assessed on emergent literacy skills (letter name and sound knowledge, print concepts, phonological awareness, name and letter writing, environmental print reading). In all, 69% of mothers referenced environmental print. After child age, home literacy teaching, and maternal education were controlled for, greater maternal referencing of environmental print was positively related to print concepts and name and letter writing. Child environmental print referencing was positively related to name and letter writing as well as to maternal environmental print referencing. Mothers used a range of mediation strategies to support children's interactions with environmental print. Practice or Policy: Maternal referencing of environmental print may be a useful way to scaffold emergent literacy in young children.     

Moral Values and the Arts in Environmental Education: Towards an Ethics of Aesthetic Appreciation

There appear to be various respects in which the outdoor environment has been regarded as significant for education in general and moral education in particular. Whereas some educationalists have considered the environment to be an important site of character development, others have regarded attention to conservation and sustainable development as pressing moral educational concerns in a world of widespread human environmental abuse. The following paper argues that approaches to environmental education that proceed by way of character education or environmental ethics may yet fall short of the central goal of promoting intrinsic appreciation of nature and the outdoors, and explores an alternative strategy focused on exposure to the arts.     

Sustainability,virtue ethics,and the virtue of harmony with nature

This article argues that the dominant sustainable development approach fails to acknowledge the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of social and environmental issues, and that sustainability requires a ‘transformational’ approach, involving a fundamental change in how humans relate to each other and to nature. The authors propose that virtue ethics, grounded in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, provides a framework with which to tackle such a transformation; to redress the human-nature relationship and help foster a more ecological perspective; to facilitate a more holistic and integrative view of sustainability; and to explore questions of how to live and flourish within a more sustainable world. Beginning with an overview of virtue ethics and critique of current approaches in environmental virtue ethics, this article proposes a new virtue, ‘harmony with nature’, that addresses the interconnectedness of our relationship with nature. This is followed by a proposal for the re-visioning of human flourishing as being necessarily situated within nature. The article concludes with some of the implications of a virtue ethics approach to sustainability, and the new virtue, for both sustainability education and moral education.     

伽达默尔解释学经验与生态伦理

伽达默尔从解释学经验入手讨论生态伦理,把解释作为一种解构和建构的实践活动,用解释学的经验来解释生态伦理,具有实践哲学的意义。通过解释学经验,他逐一分析了人类中心主义和自然中心主义的缺陷与可取之处,主张建立人类与自然之间的交往伙伴般开放的关系,在互相听取对方的前提下实现和谐的可持续的发展,在人与自然的交往经验中,保持对传统的开放性,避免一方沦为另一方的奴隶或工具。伽达默尔的解释学经验对我们当今正确处理人与自然的关系具有重要的启示意义。     

A posthumanist approach to environmental education in South Africa: implications for teachers,teacher development,and teacher training programs

As we enter the sixth great mass extinction event, an event that points to humanity’s exploitative attitude towards nature, posthumanist ethics offers a different way of engaging with the world, a way which has clear and extensive implications for the way environmental education is taught in South African schools. However, given the official curriculum and assessment practices currently in use in South Africa, can a posthumanist approach to environmental education actually work within the current educational framework of discrete discipline/subject areas and specializations? The paper diffractively engages with the Department of Basic Education National Curriculum Statement: Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement: Foundation Phase Grades R-3: Life Skills for South Africa (the phase where environmental education is most likely to take place), and superpositions this text with a research study on environmental education undertaken in Canada and key posthumanist notions as they relate to environmental education. The paper concludes with a section on the implications for teachers, teacher development, and teacher training programs (not solely in South Africa) of using such an approach in the teaching of environmental studies.     

试论工程师伦理责任的生态转向

在当前工程哲学和环境伦理学的话语中,似乎都缺少对工程师在环境中伦理责任问题的关注。早期工程师把对雇主保持忠诚放在首位,但这种伦理观念在生态危机愈演愈烈的今天已变得过于狭隘。工程师的社会角色地位、循环经济的价值诉求、人类的可持续发展以及人与自然的和谐都呼唤工程师承担更多的环境伦理责任,这必然导致工程师传统伦理责任的生态转向。探讨这些问题对深化工程哲学、环境伦理学的研究以及落实我国的科学发展观具有重要的理论价值与现实意义。     

Engineering ethics at the Catholic University of Lille (France): Research and teaching in a European context

This paper relates to the development of non-technical education (and to ethics) in engineering curricula in Europe and particularly in France. Two projects being followed at the Centre de recherche en éthique de l'ingénieur (CREI) at the Catholic University of Lille (France) are discussed: the first is an engineering ethics course which has been running for 6 years in a state engineering school, where there is a strong emphasis on analysing the ethical issues of the students' first work experience. The second has to do with the writing of a European handbook on engineering ethics which gives us good insight into how engineering ethics as a discipline is shaped by the cultural background of those who develop it (dominant philosophical tradition, religious background, the way the engineering profession is organized and education). Two main approaches seem to be prevalent in Europe today: the first relates to professional ethics as discussed in the USA since the 1950s, the second relates to a new discipline that is developing in Europe, that of the ethics of technology.     

乡土重塑的想象与建构——论析《阿宫》的人性书写与艺术建构

以党益民回归乡土写作的标志性作品《阿宫》的乡土记忆为研究对象,采用类型化的分析方式,呈现《阿宫》多样化的人性表达,揭示党益民写作伦理的传统性;采用叙述学的路径,揭橥《阿宫》小人物书写的内在脉络性所隐含的历史情怀及其全知全觉性叙述的艺术建构特点。     

罗尔斯顿的环境伦理学的实践转向及意义

回顾西方环境伦理思想史,＂环境伦理学之父＂罗尔斯顿深受大地伦理思想的创立者利奥波德的影响,以＂自然价值论＂为核心,突破了传统的事实与价值截然两分的观念,从实践出发,提出让伦理学走向＂荒野＂,使之应用于政治、经济与个人道德层面,探讨了环境伦理学与现实生活相结合的基本途径。从这个意义上讲,作为20世纪最著名的环境伦理学家之一的罗尔斯顿在环境伦理学上的实践转向,将为我们重新审视人与自然之间的关系提供全新的思维方式和视角。     

加强大学生环境伦理教育的思考

加强大学生的环境伦理教育是实现可持续发展战略的必然要求,可以为生态文明建设奠定坚实的基础,有利于扭转大学生的环境道德缺失现象,提高大学生的环境道德素质。高校作为人才培养的基地,必须重视大学生的环境伦理教育,探索有效的环境伦理教育方式,加强制度建设,培养和提高大学生的环境伦理意识。     

Teaching Research Integrity in the Field of Counseling

Little has been done in terms of teaching or writing about research integrity or research ethics in the counseling field. Because of the continual push for research in counseling to maintain evidence‐based practices, there is a need for education in the area of research integrity in order for professionals in the counseling field to conduct responsible research. The Office of Research Integrity's 9 areas of responsible conduct of research and the American Counseling Association's code of ethics on research are presented, along with a discussion of ways to teach ethics and provide resources for research integrity in counselor education.     

Environmental Perception as a Diagnostic Probe of Environmental Complexity Levels

Purpose: Educational methods to diagnose and improve the level of environmental conception are required. The present work reports a methodology based on studies about the environmental perception of a university public, divided into general students and those related to the forest sciences, who are involved with disciplines and researches related to e.g. environmental management.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The environmental perception obtained from the graphical representation of environment and the most relevant actions indicated by the students to achieve the environmental conservation, divided in four levels of complexity, were correlated using principal component analysis.

Findings: The students from both groups having the highest scores in environmental perception prioritize actions related to the comprehension and responsibility levels, while the ideal scenario would be to indicate actions related to competence and citizenship. Thus, the complex concept about environment of the students is still incipient and, therefore, educational strategies can be traced based on the profiles obtained.

Practical Implications: The method for environmental perception can be designed for different populations and a scheme relating environmental perception with four levels of actions on behalf of the environmental conservation is proposed to diagnose environmental conceptions, as well as to guide educational strategies about socio-ecological system.

Originality/Value: A semi-quantitative method was developed to estimate, clearly and directly, the level of complexity about the environmental knowledge of university students and, consequently, to predict the actions on behalf of the environmental conservation that they would probably perform.     

Recontextualizing psychosocial development in young children: a model of environmental identity development

This article presents an Environmental Identity Development model, which considers the progression of young children’s self-cognitions in relation to the natural world. We recontextualize four of Erikson’s psychosocial stages, in order to consider children’s identity development in learning in, about, and for the environment. Beginning with Trust in Nature vs. Mistrust in Nature, we argue that cognitions of comfort in the natural world vs. discomfort, provide the foundation for healthy environmental identity development. This trusting bond/relationship with nature allows children to gain Spatial Autonomy through collectively or independently creating their own sense of place in nature vs. feelings of doubt or Environmental Shame. As children progress, they gain Environmental Competencies, creative innovations to use the environment for both personal and social purposes vs. separation from nature or Environmental Disdain. Such competencies promote children’s agency in exercising Environmental Action, applied care/ethics aimed at building a sustainable future, as opposed to behaviors that cause Environmental Harm. Young children’s environmental identity develops in diverse ways and in distinct sociocultural and geographical contexts. Caregivers/educators play a unique role in recognizing and supporting the needs of individual children as they progress towards healthy environmental identity development.     

当代诗歌写作的伦理困境与超越

纵观中国当代诗歌写作的现状,我们会发现这样一个令人不安的现象:我们一直憧憬着并乐观地认为,众声喧哗的当下诗歌写作就是我们期盼已久的多元化写作局面,但事实上这只是一个混乱不堪的表面假象而已,其实质是个体精神无所寄托的一次次的异化分裂的诗歌践行。当下诗歌写作这种貌似多元的混乱局面,其深层次原因是诗歌写作伦理失范造成的,当代诗歌写作一直深陷于这种以断裂为主要方式的"伦理困境"之中。从消费主义习性、日常生活赋魅和语言本体狂化三个方面对当代诗歌写作的伦理困境进行详细的考察,由此确立雅化世俗精神是当下诗歌新的写作伦理。     

Balancing Ethics and Quality in Educational Research—the Ethical Matrix Method

This paper addresses ethical issues in educational research with a focus on the interplay between research ethics and both internal and external quality of research. Research ethics is divided into three domains: (1) ethics within the research community; (2) ethics concerning relationships with individuals and groups directly affected by the research, and (3) ethics related to the external value and role of educational research for various user groups and for the quality of education. The three domains represent different stakeholders and interests. The paper presents an ethical matrix method including three types of matrices. The method combines a systematic and a case-based approach to ethical problems and possibilities. The purpose of the matrices is to serve as a framework for identifying, reflecting, analyzing, and discussing ethical issues and balancing ethical dilemmas in educational research and development.     

Volunteers as Products of a Zoo Conservation Education Program

Zoos embrace docents/volunteers as a means of interpreting the threats to wildlife and biodiversity to visitors. To accomplish this, zoos provide docents’ education, training, and work experience. Docents themselves also engage in solitary and social wildlife experiences outside of their volunteer obligations. This study examined what motivates docents and how they change as part of their experience. Results from a mailback questionnaire (91% response rate, n = 365) documented that both altruistic (interpreting wildlife to visitors) and egoistic (learning about wildlife themselves; socializing with like-minded others) motivations were predictive of continuing satisfaction with their volunteer experiences. Docents also reported starting or increasing many conservation behaviors after beginning to volunteer at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Docents with more years of experience tended to report more involvement with conservation behaviors. Results support an environmental socialization framework to explain the impacts of an environmental training program. Implications for future research and practice are presented.     

Pirates and poachers: Fan fiction and the conventions of reading and writing

This article explores what teachers and students can learn about contemporary story‐telling from a study of fan fiction – that is, stories created by readers and viewers out of the canonical material of previously published fictions. Drawing on the example of Pirates of the Caribbean, it investigates ways in which fan fiction writers develop codes and conventions to govern themselves. For example, online litmus tests establish when a writer is self‐indulgently writing ‘Mary Sue’ characters into a story; the self‐styled Protectors of the Plot Continuum patrol the fictional limits of an imagined world to make sure that canonical information is not violated by fan fiction writers. This article makes use of such examples to investigate how quality control in fan fiction is codified, and to explore what teachers can learn from such enterprises about contemporary writing, reading and viewing. It compares these possibilities with issues of online literacy outlined by Henry Jenkins under three headings: the participation gap, the transparency problem, and the ethics challenge.