Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Tag: ethics

  • Ethics or (doing what we do)

    Up at the top of this blog has appeared a new little grey box. Right there, next to Home. See it? Today I’m going to introduce you to it – readers, meet ‘Ethics’. Mine.

    I’ve been thinking about all of these words I’ve put into this blog, into my comments on other people’s blogs, about which blogs I read and return to again, and again, and again.

    What inspires all of this? What am I looking for?

    Hope for the future. That’s what it is all about for me.
    When I meet/see/do/participate/read/write about actions and people who care for each other as people, who help each other be our best selves – who show each other how we can care for each other.

    Who don’t put up with the opposite.
    Who stand by their beliefs no matter what.
    Who write about them, talk about them
    live them.
    (caring is biological)

    It gives me hope for a future with more caring than we have now.
    It gives me hope that our children can learn a curriculum of humanity before and behind any other.

    Words are powerful things for me. Once said or read they resonate in me. So I prefer to read and say ones that push toward our best selves. Our ever changing best selves.

    Where do I look for them?
    Everywhere I can. Lately that is

    Here.
    Here.
    Here.
    Here.
    and
    a new place for me, Here.

    So I adapted and absorbed and hold before you my statement on ethics. Read my blog, participate, come visit my classroom (for real) to see more. Read the links above and in my blogroll to see even more.

    And answer me this question to help me to understand more:

    What are you looking for?

    morning hug

    %NOCP%

  • Ethics in the classroom and common ground

    I have been involved in a very stimulating conversation on Durff’s blog around the issue of ethics in the classroom.

    Both Durff and I agree that ethical behaviour must be stressed in the classroom and modeled by teachers. I think you can tell from our comments that we are both quite passionate about this.

    Where our views start to differ is how this is done. You can read about our differing viewpoints in the comments to the original post – what I find interesting is the conversation that has developed.

    Ethics is messy – it really does have to do with our own world-views and it can be messy and difficult to talk about the things that really matter to us, the things that hit us in our gut, that touch our values around what it means to be human. The rub in all of this is that we do not all have the same values nor the same world view.

    Two of my beliefs related to this topic:

    • I strongly believe that we can not assume there to be one ethical plumbline to live by. Furthermore I think that this assumption implies another, that if one does not adhere to this plumbline then one is acting unethically. I think this is problematic in any society that is diverse.
    • I believe that ethical decisions should be contextual and arrived at from within a situation rather than determined from external sources like codes of conduct/ethics. (I have written more on this subject, if you are at all interested I invite you to read this paper, though I warn you it is a bit lengthy :) Conversations for ethical decision-making in secondary schools (Rosen, 2005) )

    I do think it important – indeed necessary – to create a common ground in order to be able to have conversations around ethics, in order to be able to teach about ethics.

    In trying to understand Durff’s insistence on an ethical plumbline, I wonder if perhaps this common ground is something along the lines of what she means.

    Such a common ground for me would have to:

    • acknowledge that there is more than one world-view in the room
    • acknowledge that my world-view is not better or worse than yours, just different
    • be prepared to learn about different beliefs and world-views
    • be prepared to take a considered position when I am involved in decision-making
    • understand that a considered position includes more than one or two considerations

    What would be important for you to have in this common ground?

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