*MON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Summer Semester 2001

EDUC 437 - 4 ?

Ann Chinnery

Ethical Issues in Education ?

Office: TBA

Phone: 291-3395/205-9066

D01.00 ?

E-mail: ahchinne@sfu.ca

Fridays 13:00-16:50 in EDB 8620

PREREQUISITE

60 credit hours

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In contrast to traditional views of education as the acquisition of abstract intellectual competencies and

so-called marketable skills, and moral education as a discrete subject, educational theorists are paying

increasing attention to the realization that education is itself a moral project. In other words,

classroom practices, curricula, and educational policy all reflect a certain moral standpoint, but one

which goes too often unexamined. In this course we will re-open questions of morality in education --

the nature of morality and moral agency; domains of moral concern; how we ought to live in

harmony with each other and the environment; and strategies of moral transformation. Since these

questions are essentially questions of moral selfhood, the course will focus as much on

self-transformation as on the exploration of content.

OBJECTIVES

The course will aim to foster:

• the capacity for (written and oral) reflexive inquiry into our theoretical frameworks and practices

• the ability to read philosophical texts accurately and critically, and to employ philosophical

vocabulary

• the ability to participate in productive large and small group dialogues in a community of inquiry

REQUIREMENTS

• reading journal

• presentation in preparation for the final paper

• final paper of 10-12 pages

REQUIRED TEXTS

Noddings, N. (1992). The Challenge to Care in Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

ISBN: 0-8077-3177-3.

Orr, D. (1996). Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect. Washington,

D.C.: Island Press. ISBN: 1-55963-295-X.

Purpel, D.E. (1999). Moral Outrage in Education. New York: Peter Lang. (Counterpoints, vol. 102)

ISBN: 0-8204-4169-4.