Educational Ethics: Facilitation, Dialogue, and Productive Tension in Practice

EDU T430 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Ethical principles are not forged in solitude. They emerge imperfectly and provisionally, under pressure and in conversation with others who do not share our views. This course focuses on that very process. Drawing on normative case studies in philosophy of education that feature complex educational dilemmas in policy, leadership, and the classroom, and on research on dialogue across difference, this course immerses students in the messy, unresolved work of ethical discussion. We will use transcript analysis, experimentation, and live facilitation practice to understand how principles emerge across group conversation and what makes genuinely contested discussions possible. Students leave with a deep grounding in educational ethics and a self-developed personal toolkit that integrates their own self-knowledge with new strategies for managing, holding, and working productively with conflict-- one that is uniquely their own and built for the groups, organizations, and contexts they will inhabit.