By Robert Merikangas, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Originally prepared in connection with the conference: "Teaching for
Diversity, Unity, and Human Values:
An Education Summit"
University of Maryland
College Park, MD, September 11-13, 1998
Note: this bibliography is being continued after the conference and
revised periodically. Comments
are invited.
Revised: March 8, 2003/June 21,2006/Sept. 7, 2007/Sept. 29, 2007
Introduction: how can values be integrated into education in a diverse, pluralistic democracy? With so many differences in values, how can citizens in a democracy seek unity in the midst of pluralism?
If it is true, as it appears to be, that schools and universities generally stopped making moral education an integral part of their curricula in the early part of this century because of the lack of a cultural consensus and the increase in religious and ethical differences, is it possible to include concerns for values in new ways, which admit the conflicts and disagreements, but confront them and seek to transcend them?
This bibliography is designed to suggest areas for conversations originating from important questions. Examples of books and articles are given under the various questions, but certainly many more works could be listed.
For general searching and browsing use the general Library of Congress Subject Headings:
Selected subject headings on values and ethics:
THE QUESTIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Q-In 2003: how do we ask the needed questions in all schools and
colleges about war in Iraq?In 2006, there are a vast number of books
and articles on the war which could be discussed, as well the move to
impeach President Bush for immoral and illegal actions. An example of a
book that puts the invasion of Iraq in historical perspective, of
American interventions for regime change, is one by Kinzer:
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from
Hawaii to Iraq. New York: Times Books, Henry Holt, 2006.
Q-What is our situation in terms of diversity and pluralism in ethics and values?
Hesselgrave, Ronald P. Public Ethics for a Pluralistic Society: Contrasting Visions of
America's
Religious and Moral Foundations. San Francisco: International Scholars Publications,
1998.
This personal study raises many of the important issues in the historical context.
Etzioni, Amitai. The Monochrome Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2001.
Etzioni suggests ways for "Restoring the Moral Voice."
Note that the periodical edited by Etzioni, The Responsive
Community, offers debates on American values.
Q-To what extent are we able to support open discussion on diversity and values?
Trosset, Carol. "Obstacles to Open Discussion and Critical Thinking: The Grinnell College
Case," Change, 30,5 (Sept./Oct 1998), 44-49.
This very important study challenges us: "The majority of students not only thought that balanced
discussion of these [diversity] issues was impossible but feared that a single viewpoint would
dominate -- and feared reprisal if one spoke against that perspective." (p. 46). "Exploring new
ideas, encountering people with different values, learning a new discipline's way of thinking, and
having someone point out a flaw in one's argument -- these can be uncomfortable
experiences." (p. 49).
Q-Are there ways we can reach a consensus on common values?
Bok, Sissela. Common Values. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1995.
Bok provides a good basis for dialogue in these lectures and essays. Her project: "I suggest, in
this book, that we look for a limited set of values so down-to-earth and so commonplace as to be
most easily recognized across societal and other boundaries. To the extent that they are
acknowledged as common and respected as such, they can provide a basis from which to
undertake the dialogue and collaboration now needed. But they must also be so clear-cut as to
offer standards for critiquing abuses --including those perpetuated either in the name of
universalist political, religious, or moral doctrines or in that of ethnic, religious, political, or other
diversity." (p. 1) She offers a short list of approaches for discussion concerning possible
common values:
"1. The United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in June 1993.
2. The World Parliament of Religions, assembled in Chicago in August 1993.
3. Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II's encyclical, published in the fall of 1993.
4. The Report of the Commission on Global Governance, Our Global Neighborhood, issued in
February 1995." (p. 28)
The InterAction Council, composed mostly of former heads of state, has developed a document of global ethical standards and a universal declaration of human responsibilities.
Bell, Wendell. "Universal Human Values," pp. 171-227, in Values, Objectivity, and the Good
Society , volume 2 of Foundations of Futures Studies . New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction
Publishers, 1997.
Bell points out the "limits of cultural diversity and relativism" and provides resources in support
of "the core values of (a) knowledge, (b) evaluation itself, (c) justice, and (d) cooperation. (p.
172) He gives lists of universal or near-universal human values which have stood the test of time,
and adds "there is a need for further inquiry and worldwide discourse exploring the question of
what human values are the most appropriate." (p. 227) In a later chapter he asks: what human
values ought to be changed? As a futurist, he gives special attention to concerns for future
generations.
Nussbaum, Martha. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities
Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
"In the first chapter, I map out and defend an approach to the foundation
of basic political principles using the idea of human capability. I argue
that this approach yields a form of universalism that is sensitive to
pluralism and cultural difference; in this way it enables us to answer the
most powerful objections to cross-cultural universals." (pp. 7-8)
Huddleston, Lauren. "Morals, Ethics, and Common Values: Building a Base."Futures
Research Quarterly 14, 1 (Spring 1998), 87-100.
A report summarizing the efforts of futurists in a meeting to build a base of values for
humankind.
Prospects for a Common Morality . Edited by Gene Outka and John P. Reeder, Jr.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1993.
The essays reflect the current debates on the possibility of a cross-cultural morality: "some essays
defend and others attack the prospects." (p. 4) The editors compare the positions and summarize
the agreements and disagreements, primarily in relation to the Enlightenment paradigm.
Q-Is pluralism in our values itself a value?
Rescher, Nicholas. Pluralism: Against the Demand for Consensus. Oxford: Clarendon,
1993.
A prominent philosopher promotes the value of pluralism.
Marty, Martin E. "The Valuings of the Public Scholar," Soundings, 80,2-3 (Summer/Fall
1997), 265-287.
The prominent theologian and historian states that "the public scholar, in distinction from the
scholar who functions in public, values and welcomes pluralism and the pluralistic encounter."
(p. 265)
Q-How could educational institutions meet the challenges of a past and present of a "house divided" by gender, race, and class differences? Do we have the values to overcome a crisis in which "a house divided cannot stand"?
The national debates over slavery and its aftermaths provide a central challenge that continues.
Johannsen, Robert W., ed. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1965.
Editor: "The issues . . . have not lost their vitality with the passage of time. . . "
Jaffa, Harra V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.
See the report from President Clinton's advisory board on race, part of the Initiative on Race, released on Sept. 18, 1998. Comments and critiques appeared in newspapers and other publications after the release. The board "called for a public education program to highlight the common values' of a racially diverse nation." (Washington Post, Sept. 19, 1998, p. A8.
Q-Should American educators give attention to the values of indigenous peoples, and if so, how?
Thornton, Nicole, guest ed. "Reclaiming Native Education: Activism, Teaching and Leadership,"
Cultural Survival Quarterly, 22,1 (Spring 1998).
A special issue of the journal of the organization Cultural Survival, which is subtitled: "World
Report on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities."
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Native American Colleges: Progress
and Prospects.The Foundation, 1997.
What can we learn from the Native American colleges?
Q-Do we need to gain perspective from outside our Eurocentric history?
Frank, Andre Gunder. ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1998.
This challenging work represents the efforts to gain a wider perspective on world history. The
author makes a case for a diversity and a unity usually not admitted. He foresees critics, who
"will do battle against it by invoking ever more culturalogical and civilizationist arguments. That
is because the evidence presented in this book helps pull the historical rug out from under their
social science,' which is little more than a mask for Eurocentric ideologyof domination." (p.
339). This work has been called stimulating and absolutely essential, a fundamental rethinking
(see back cover).
Q-Is America a segmented society? How do our realities and our values look in the eyes of women, immigrants, Afro-Americans, others ? Who has the power and who makes the rules? How do we learn the praxis of change?
Wiebe, Robert H. The Segmented Society: An Introduction to the Meaning of America.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Wiebe provides a good historical context for our divisions.
San Juan, E., Jr. Racial Formations/Critical Transformations: Articulations of Power in
Ethnic and Racial Studies in the United States. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press,
1992.
"I suggest that aside from principled refutations of the neoconservative argument against civil
rights for disadvantaged peoples, Ethnic Studies can revitalize itself by challenging the
orthodoxies of Establishment intellectuals and of state policies." (p. 132)
Marable, Manning. Speaking Truth to Power: Essays on Race, Resistance, and Radicalism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. "To transform society requires the gift of speaking to a particular cultural reality, in a manner that can illuminate the problems of daily life for the oppressed. The question of language is inextricably linked to the ability to speak truth to power." (p. x) How do we learn this?
Miller, John J. The Unmaking of Americans: How Multiculturalism Has Undermined the
Assimilation Ethic. New York: Free Press, 1998.
Raises the issues of Americanization. Miller's manifesto provides the basis for debate.
Q-How well are we using the multitude of materials for multicultural education?
Multicultural Education Abstracts.
A quarterly serving as a current awareness service by scanning current periodicals, books,
conference papers, reports, and theses.
Padilla, Raymond, and Miguel Montiel. Debatable Diversity: Critical Dialogues on Change in
American Universities.. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.
"The subject of Padilla and Montiel's reflexivity is primarily their experiences as Chicano faculty
members at Arizona State University (ASU) over the past fifteen years or so." (p. xv)
Ball, Howard, S.D. Berkowitz, and Mbulelo Mzamane, eds. Multicultural Education in
Colleges and Universities: A Transdisciplinary Approach. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum, 1998.
Examples of programs, particularly at the University of Vermont.
An organization: National Association for Multicultural Education. Address: 1511 K St., NW, Washington, DC. (202) 628-NAME.
Q-How do we incorporate what we have learned and should learn from the life and wisdom of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in our educational institutions?
What about the need to cross boundaries?
Thelen, David. "Becoming Martin Luther King, Jr.: An Introduction," The Journal of
American History 78,1 (June 1991), 11-22.:
"Better than any other American, King embodied the projected the dream of creating a world in
which people and ideas could travel as far and intermingle as freely as they wanted without
hindrance from laws and customs erected to keep them apart. While some leaders achieve
greatness by making an original discovery in their fields or by contributing to the well-being of
their particular cultures, King built his fame on the borders where -- as Bernice Reagon puts it --
people must straddle cultures. He tried to draw separate worlds together by building borderlands
between them where people and ideas could mingle instead of collide. . . . Leaders who work at
borders between worlds must face in two directions, demanding that people in the dominant
culture listen to voices they have excluded while telling people from the excluded culture that
they must express their cries for justice in ways the dominant culture can accept." (p. 15)
Q-How well are we helping students learn of cultures in other parts of the world?
The International Center for the Study of Education Policy and Human Values at the University of Maryland has published a number of useful works, including:
Finkelstein, Barbara, and others. Studying Culture in the Classroom: Model Lessons for
Teaching and Learning about Culture. Yarmouth, ME: The Intercultural Press,
forthcoming.
Another title is Discoving Culture in Education. Experience has been gained in working
with Japanese educators.
Q-How well do our political leaders help us to develop our visions of unity and diversity, based on values?
We could study the second inaugural address of President Bill Clinton, given Jan. 20, 1997. He stated that "the greatest progress we have yet to make is in the human heart." He spoke of a "land of new promise," and called on political leaders to be "repairers of the breach." We would then study the history of our political leadership since that day and dialogue about it.
Q-How do civility and self-discipline enter into our conversations about learning together?
Carter, Stephen L. Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy.New
York: Basic Books, 1998.
Carter connects civility to the moral norms of the community.
Trout, Paul L. "Incivility in the Classroom Breeds Education Lit,'" Chronicle of Higher
Education, July 24, 1998, p. A40.
Trout encourages resistance to a "dumbing down" trend.
Schneider, Alison. "Insubordination and Intimidation Signal the End of Decorum in Many
Classrooms," Chronicle of Higher Education, March 27, 1998, Pp. A12-A14.
Who are the "classroom terrorists"?
Q-Which are the organizations which might help us in developing a consensus on values?>
Some examples, as a starting point:
Note the symposium sponsored by the Institute for American Values and the University of Chicago Divinity School in May 1998, and their report, "A Call to Civil Society: Why Democracy Needs Moral Truths."
Q-Are there conferences on education and values?
Conferences are announced in publications and on listservs. Some examples:
Moral Education in a Diverse Society, a national conference by The Kenan Ethics Program at Duke University, was held April 9-11, 1999, in Durham, NC.
There are annual conferences on ethics across the curriculum, for example:
Q-What are the possibilities of a global ethic based on common values of the world religions?
Kung, Hans, and Karl-Josef Kuschel. A Global Ethic: The Declaration of the Parliament of
the
World's Religions. New York: Continuum, 1993.
Kung has been one of those taking the lead in urging the need for a global ethic. See the more
recent study next.
Kung, Hans. A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics. Trans. By John Bowman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Knitter, Paul F. One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global
Responsibility. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995.
From Hans Kung's foreword: "Dialogue loses all moral credibility if it remains only on the level
of
the intellectual or the spiritual, detached from the social misery and the physical and psychic
sufferings of so many millions of persons." (p. x)
Studies such as the following may be found under the subject heading: Religious ethics -- comparative studies.
Explorations in Global Ethics: Comparative Religious Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue. Edited by Sumner B. Twiss and Bruce Grelle. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.
Dialogues among scholars, artists, and participants in global issues have been documented and could be used to generate further conversations. For example:
Divisive Barbarity or Global Civilization: The Ethical Dimensions of Science, Art, Religion,
and Politics. Fourth International Dialogue on the Transition to a Global Society. Edited by
M.L. Bradbury and Suheil Bushrui. Bethesda, MD: University Press of Maryland, 1996.
Value questions and global ethics are emphasized in this collection of papers.
Of course, we need to teach about religion in order to take advantage of what we might learn from the religions. As an example of websites in support of this project, as well as the sites on religions themselves, see:
Q-What might spirituality contribute to the role of values in education?
The concept of "spiritual heritage" has been found useful for dialogue and teaching. For example:
Bushrui, Suheil. Spiritual Heritage of the Human Race. Rockport, ME: Oneworld
Publications, 1997.
A related publication, "Retrieving Our Spiritual Heritage: A Challenge of Our Time," was
published by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the
University
of Maryland in 1994.
Groome, Thomas H. Educating for Life: A Spiritual Vision for Every Teacher and
Parent. Allen, Texas: Thomas More, 1998.
Groome, perhaps the best known Catholic religious educator, offers a vision for all, "regardless
of their religious background or affiliation or, indeed, the social context of their educating." (p.
11) .His treatment of a "reasonable wisdom" is particularly good.
Myers, Ched. Who Will Roll Away the Stone? Discipleship Queries for First World
Christians. Mayknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994.
An example of the challenge of liberation theology and American issues of rich and poor to
American values. Myers raises the issue of reparation.
Q-Is it useful to speak in terms of spirituality as a general goal for education?
Mott-Thornton, Kevin. Common Faith: Education, Spirituality, and the State. Brookfield,
VT:
Ashgate, 1998.
A study from the U.K.
Q-What would an empirical study show of American common values?
Wolfe, Alan. One Nation, After All: What Middle-Class Americans Really Think About: God, Country, Family, Racism, Welfare, Immigration, Homosexuality, Work, the Right, the Left, and Each Other . New York: Viking, 1998.
McElroy, John Harmon. American Beliefs: What Keeps a Big Country and Diverse People United. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.
Porpora, Douglas V. Landscapes of the Soul: The Loss of Moral Meaning in American Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Q-How do American values relate to values in other countries?
Human Values and Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook: Political, Religious, Sexual, and
Economic Norms in 43 Societies: Findings from the 1990-1993 World Values Survey.
Edited
by Ronald Inglehart, Miguel Basanez, and Alejandro Morena. Ann Arbor:
University of
Michigan
Press, 1998.
An enormous resource, full of tables and diagrams summarizing the data.
Q-Can the concept of responsibility for others help us in our conversations about agreement and disagreement on values?
Moran, Gabriel. A Grammar of Responsibility . New York: Crossroads, 1996.
Moran provides coverage of many issues, from personal responsibility to corporate
responsibility,
and being "humanly responsible."
Fischer, John Martin, and Mark Ravizza. Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral
Responsibility . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
This book is an example of philosophical reflections on responsibility.
Q-What about dedication to fairness -- can we build on this?
Mitchell, Lawrence E. Stacked Deck: A Story of Selfishness in America . Philadelphia:
Temple
University Press, 1998.
The series editor: "He provides a fascinating -- but devastating -- examination of dissonance
between what we say about fairness, our motivation to help those in distress, and how our
resulting mythology of self-reliance and autonomy ends up treating people in very unequal and
unfair ways." (p. xiii).
Q-Can schools reach a consensus on values?
In the United Kingdom a systematic effort was made to identify common values that could
be used in education:
Teaching Right and Wrong: Moral Education in the Balance . Edited by Richard Smith
and Paul
Standish. Stoke on Trent, England: Trentham Books, 1997.
The National Forum for Values in Education and the Community provided a statement of values
on which they found consensus. They also pointed out:
"Agreement on the values outlined below is compatible with disagreement on their sources.
Many
believe that God is the ultimate source of value, and that we are accountable to God for our
actions; others that values have their source only in human nature, and that we are accountable
only to our conscience."
"Agreement on the values is also compatible with different interpretations and applications of
these values." (p. 11)
Q-Could we use the Golden Rule for agreement on values?
Wattles, Jeffrey. The Golden Rule . New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
This work provides the basis for conversations about the role of the Golden Rule in our values.
Etzioni, Amitai. The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democractic Society
. New
York: BasicBooks, 1996.
Etzioni, a leader of the communitarian movement, offers methods for moral dialogues and
sharing
core values.
Q-Is there any agreement on wisdom (moral wisdom, practical wisdom, practical reason) as a primary goal of education? Could it apply at all levels, and not just in higher education?
Sternberg, Robert J. "Wisdom as a Form of Giftedness," The Gifted Child Quarterly, 44:4 (Fall 2000), 252-260.
Bereiter, Carl, and Marlene Scardamalia. Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry into the Nature
and
Implications of Expertise . Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
Going beyond their studies of expertise and creativity, the authors present a picture of active
wisdom as an objective of education. "If creative experts are just experts who have learned from
being more venturesome, wise expects are just experts who have learned from exercising more
concern with human values and far-reaching consequences." (p. 235)
Maxwell, Nicholas. From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution in the Aims and Methods of Science . New York: Blackwell, 1984.
Wisdom: Its Nature, Origins, and Development . Edited by Robert J. Sternberg. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
O'Brien, George Dennis. All the Essential Half-Truths about Higher Education . Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1998.
This book by a former university president asks: "does the knowledge available in the modern
university offer a foundation for politics and ethics?" (pp. 153-54). O'Brien is highly skeptical.
These books, by Anderson and Allan, support essential conversations about practical wisdom, what Anderson calls practical reason and Allan calls moral practices.
Anderson, Charles W. Prescribing the Life of the Mind: An Essay on the Purpose of the
University, the Aims of Liberal Education, the Competence of Citizens, and the Cultivation of
Practical Reason . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.
The quote on the cover from Alasdair MacIntyre makes a strong claim, which I would support:
"No university president,
provost, or dean should be allowed to hold office until he or she has passed an examination on
this book." [not just having read it!]
Allan, George. Rethinking College Education . Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
1997.
Allan's reflections on the purposes of higher education challenge us to go beyond the university
as
a resource center; he argues that "the essence of a college should lie in something other than its
purposes, I want to propose that its essence should be a matter of its and its society's moral
practices." (p. 134)
Note: there are a number of Web sites dealing with wisdom. One place to begin is:
Q-Is it possible to use a concern for future generations as the center of a move to discussions on unity and values?
de-Shalit, Avner. "Future Generations, Obligations to." In Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, Vol. 3, pp. 819-822. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
This article introduces a topic of growing concern and provides a list of references.
Q-Can we use "values in conflict" explicitly in teaching?
O'Callaghan, Phyllis, ed. Values in Conflict: An Interdisciplinary Approach . Lanham,
MD:
University Press of America, 1997.
These essays "grew out of the need to explore and define methods of learning and teaching in an
interdisciplinary program at Georgetown University -- the Graduate Liberal Studies Degree
Program, now in place since 1974." (p. vii) The emphasis is on values-based approaches.
Q-What kinds of conversations are there about values in higher education as an enterprise and as an institution?
"Ethical Issues in Teaching and Learning," Change 35:4 (Sept./Oct.
2003.
From the editor's introduction: "But the articles in this issue
suggest that we help our students' honest hearts not by pronouncing on
what is right and wrong but by nurturing their sense of responsible
personal and political agency." (p. 4)
Boylan, Michael, and James A. Donohue. Ethics across the Curriculum: A Practice-Based Approach. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003.
Young, Robert B. No Neutral Ground: Standing by the Values We Prize in Higher Education
.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Young reports that his "central purpose in writing this book was to describe seven essential
values
and to discuss the ways in which these values can be transmitted with integrity by colleges and
universities." (p. xii). The essential values are: "service, truth,
freedom, individuation, equality,
justice, and community" (p. xiii)
Long, Edward LeRoy, Jr. Higher Education as a Moral Enterprise. Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press, 1992.
A very comprehensive treatise, giving many starting points for discussion.
Wilcox, John R., and Susan L. Ebbs. The Leadership Compass: Values and Ethics in Higher
Education . ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports, Report One, 1992. Washington, DC:
The
George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development,1992.
Discusses meaning of "profession," ethical leadership, students' development, the dinstinctive
ethos of a learning community.
Morrison, Toni. "How Can Values Be Taught in the University?"< Michigan
Quarterly Review, 40,2 (Spring 2001), 273-278.
See also comment by
Thomas J. Cottle.
An important monograph which links leadership to values and social change in universities:
Ethics and Higher Education . Edited by William W. May. New York: American Council
on
Education, Macmillan, 1990.
Essays concerning ethics and institutional culture, activities, and issues.
Patterson, David. When Learned Men Murder . Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa
Educational
Foundation, 1996.
Patterson challenges a university that will not deal with ethical issues directly, reflecting on the
university people who participated in the Jewish Holocaust in Germany.
Q.What programs are there in higher education linked specifically to values?
John Templeton Foundation. Colleges that Encourage Character
Development: The Templeton Guide.Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation
Press, 1999.
See the website:
See also the article by Arthur J. Schwartz, "It's Not Too Late to Teach College Students About Values,"Chronicle of Higher Education, June 9, 2000, A68. See also the later letters to the editor about the article (the necessary practice when reading the Chronicle.
It was reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education of July 16, 2004, that a gift of $32 million to the University of Dubuque was to support character education. "The intent of the donation is to create curriculum and student-life programs that integrate 'the virtues of truthfulness, fairness, honesty, and the Golden Rule.' Specific projects include establishing a center for character education, providing salary support for professors as they integrate elements of ethics and character into course work, creating student scholarships, and underwriting a lecture series." (p. A25)
Note the "Ethics Bowl" competition of 15 independent Virginia colleges and universities, reported in the Washington Post, Feb. 13, 2001. (p>
Q.How might we generate dialogues about the connections between values and the academic disciplines?
Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences. Open the Social
Sciences.. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Immanuel Wallerstein and others call for a move to integration of the social sciences and explicit
concern for values.
Scholes, Robert. The Rise and Fall of English: Reconstructing English as a Discipline.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
This is a good example of a book that challenges the status quo of a field in the university and
asks for large changes in focus, based on what the goals of the "discipline" are. Could each
discipline move to such discussions?
The feminist critiques of many fields, notably economics, provide challenges for the disciplines.(See the article on feminist economics in the Nov. 1998 issue of Lingua Franca.)
Q-Can we teach ethics? How?
Radest, Howard B. Can We Teach Ethics? Westport, CT: Praeger, 1989.
As a leader in the Ethical Cultural Society, he asked "can virtue be taught?" and "was led to the
notion that the central fact of moral education was the act of teaching and not what was taught."
(p. x) He offers philosophical reflections on "four curricula."
Nash, Robert J. "Real World" Ethics: Frameworks for Educators and Human Services
Professionals . New York: Teachers College Press, 1996.
Basing this work on his years of teaching applied ethics, Nash offers three moral languages: the
language of background beliefs, the language of moral character, the language of moral principle,
and then he writes of integrating the three. This book is a rich source of resources and teaching
methods.
Q- What resources are there for teaching ethics in the schools?
Ethics and Values. 8 vols. Danbury, CT: Grolier Educational, 1998.
A new encyclopedia to be published in Sept. 1998, a resource for young students. Each 64-page
volume includes illustrations, quotations, readings.
Q-How can we use the Web to teach the subject of ethics?
Hinman, Lawrence M. "Resources in Ethics on the World Wide Web," in The Digital Phoenix: How Computers Are Changing Philosophy , eds. Terrell Ward Bynum and James H. Moor, 357-378. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.
Q-What about the ethics of distance education itself?
Gearthart, Deborah."Ethics in Distance Education: Developing Ethical Policies," Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 4:1 (Spring 2001).
Q-What are some general compilations for conversations on issues in ethics?
Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics . Editor in chief, Ruth Chadwick. 4 vols. San Diego:
Academic
Press, 1998.
Current and comprehensive.
Q-What might we learn about values in education from the study of commencement addresses?
There are a number, not many, of dissertations studying graduation addresses. Texts of some are available on the web.
Koehn, Daryl. The Ground of Professional Ethics . New York: Routledge, 1994.
"Since the professions are in their essence structures aiming a making the professional worthy of
client trust, any discussion of professions inevitably will prove to be both descriptive and
normative." (p. 8)
Rest, James R., and Darcia Narvaez, eds. Moral Development in the Professions: Psychology
and
Applied Ethics . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994.
As well as chapters on ethics in the professions, there is a chapter "College Teaching and Student
Moral Development," with a report on a study at Bethel College on moral
judgment growth.
May, William F. Beleaguered Rulers: The Public Obligation of the
Professional. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
This book is extremely important.
See the series, Professional Ethics , edited by Andrew Belsey and Ruth Chadwick, for Routledge.
Current Issues in Business Ethics . Edited by Peter W.F. Davies. London and New York: Routledge, 1997
See the series, Sage Series in Business Ethics
There a numerous sites on business ethics. For a general website see:
Petrick, Joseph A., and John F. Quinn. Management Ethics: Integrity at Work . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997.
In 2004 it was announced that a center to be called the Business
Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics was to be housed at the
University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business
Administration.
This kind of venture is connected to a continuing issue reported on in
2006:
Mangan, Katherine. "Agents of Fortunes," Chronicle of Higher
Education, June 23, 2006, A14-A16.
"Scholars clash over whether an emphasis on maximum shareholder profit in
business education is to blame for corporate malfeasance." (p. A14)
For material on legal ethics:
Rhode, Deborah L. In the Interests of Justice: Reforming the Legal
Profession. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
See also her other works. Note that ethics is more than individual, the
whole profession is involved.
On engineering ethics, see this website:
Including our own ethics as professional educators?
Carr, David. Professionalism and Ethics in Teaching.New York: Routledge, 2000.
Gutman, Amy. "How Can Universities Teach Professional Ethics?", in Universities and Their
Leadership, edited by William G. Bowen and Harold T. Shapiro, pp, 157-171. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1998.
Gutman: "The valuable social purposes that universities serve -- pushing forward the boundaries
of human understanding; learning for leadership, citizenship, and living a
good life -- require us
to conceive of the ethics of the academic profession as entailing both moral reasoning and moral
conduct." (pp. 157-58).
Mitchell, Carlton T, ed. Values in Teaching and Professional Ethics . Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1989.
Sockett, Hugh. The Moral Base for Teacher Professionalism. New York: Teachers
College Press, 1993.
". . . the moral foundations of teaching are expressed in four dimensions of professionalism --
community, knowledge, accountability, and ideals." (p. ix)
Murray, Harry, and others. "Ethical Principles for College and University
Teaching," AAHE Bulletin 49,4 (Dec. 1996), 3-6.
From Canada's Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
Ethics of other professionals involved in education?
Counselors:
Jacob-Timm, Susan, and Timothy S. Hartshorne. Ethics and Law for School Psychologists
. 3rd
ed. New York: John Wiley, 1998.
Topics include codes of ethics, ethical principles, integrity in relationships, privacy and
confidentiality, and specific issues.
The law:
Cooper, Jeremy, and Louise G. Trubek, eds. Educating for Justice: Social Values and Legal
Education . Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1997.
What should be the goals and methods of a clinical legal education and preparation for public
interest law?
Librarians and information specialists:
Alfino, Mark, and Linda Pierce. Information Ethics for Librarians. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland &
Co., 1997.
Mason, Richard O., Florence M. Mason, and Mary J. Culman. Ethics of Information Management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995.
Q-To what extent can the education for future military officers in the academies provide examples for the teaching of values?
The U.S Naval Academy annnounced in October 1998 (Washington Post, October 27,
1998, p. B7) that it was creating a Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics, with two
endowed chairs. Conferences will be convened. Courses in military ethics have been taught for
years.
.
Then it was reported:
Hernandez, Nelson. "Naval Academy's New Chief Plans to Focus on
Character," Washington Post. Aug. 6, 2003, p. A5.
Rivera, Ray. "The Graduating Class of 9/11: Student Leave Naval Academy
for a Different, Dangerous World, Washington Post, May 27, 2005,
B1, B9.
"Midshipmen are run through day-long seminars in which they are placed in
small teams and confronted with moral dilemmas they might face as junior
officers." (p. B9)
Q-Can teaching leadership provide a core of agreement on values?
Komives, Susan R., Nance Lucas, and Timothy R. McMahon. Exploring Leadership: For
College
Students Who Want to Make a Difference . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
This work synthesizes a great number of approaches to and methods of leadership. One chapter is
"Leading with Integrity and Moral Purpose."
Numerous works on leadership deal explicitly with ethics:
Ciulla, Joanne B., ed. Ethics the Heart of Leadership. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1998.
Block, Peter. Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest . San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler,
1993.
He suggests replacing leadership with stewardship.
Q-How could we teach the examples of role models: heroes and leaders, those with consciences, those oriented toward the common good?
For a powerful perspective on the meaning of role models, see the "Postface," by Rene Girard, "Mimetic Desire in the Underground," in the following work:
Girard, Rene.Resurrection from the Underground: Feodor Dostoevsky.. Edited and translated by James G. Williams.New York: Crossroad, 1997.
Kidder, Rushworth M. Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations with Men and Women of Conscience . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.
Parks Daloz, Laurent A., and others. Common Fire: Lives of Commitment in a Complex
World.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Chapter themes: connection, complexity, community, compassion, conviction, courage,
confession, commitment. They "designed a study in which we conducted interviews over a
period
of several years with more than one hundred people who had sustained long-term commitments
to
work on behalf of the common good, even in the face of global complexity, diversity, and
ambiguity." (p. 5)
Wuthnow, Robert. Acts of Compassion: Caring for Others and Helping Ourselves.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1991.
Wuthnow gives examples of responsible people, and how they understand themselves.
Note that educators themselves may be role models, or, more generally, mentors.
Q-Do we teach who we are? How do we hold ourselves accountable?
Drake, Susan. "Confronting the Ultimate Learning Outcome: We Teach Who We Are." In
Restructuring for Integrative Education: Multiple perspectives, Multiple Context s, ed.
By
Todd
E. Jennings, pp. 39-51. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1997.
"It is impossible to teach a value-free curriculum, for we teach who we are." (p. 45) "Do we have
a moral purpose? Do we teach with heart? Do we really care about the students who have been
entrusted to us?" (p. 46)
These books by master teachers support conversations about the moral nature of the practice of teaching:
Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
A more general resource on teaching as a moral practice:
Goodlad, John I., Roger Soder, and Kenneth A. Sirotnik, eds. The Moral Dimensions of Teaching . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.
A new e-journal on values in education:
Note also the work of this association:
Q-What price are professors willing to pay when acting based on their convictions? What risks?
Should a university stand for the common good and rights of the people or the government or the corporations if there is a conflict? At what risk?
Whitfield, Teresa. Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuria and the Murdered Jesuits of El
Salvador. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.
The United States was involved in these events. What do we think?
Towards a Society That Serves Its People: The Intellectual Contribution of El Salvador's
Murdered Jesuits.Edited by John Hassett and High Lacey. Washington, DC: Georgetown
University Press, 1991.
The picture of the ethical role of the university in these writings may serve as a challenge to
North
Americans.
Q-What are the connections between our values as a democracy and the ways in which we govern our public schools, politically and administratively?
Sarason, Seymour B. Political Leadership and Educational Failure. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass,
1998.
"This is a book about responsibility and accountability in regard to educational reform."(p. xi)
"Also, in recent years I have asked people whom I meet the following question: If you were
starting from scratch, would you come up with the kind of system we now have? Nobody
answered in the affirmative." (p. xv)
Snauwaert, Dale T. Democracy, Education, and Governance: A Developmental
Conception.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.
Editor: "What he argues for is essentially a peacemaking approach to school governance that
might well be applied to international institutions and global governance."
Q-What is the current status of values in elementary and secondary education?
A survey of values in education in seven countries was based on a questionnaire, asking about
principles and strategies:
Stephenson, Joan, and others, eds. Values in Education. New York: Routledge, 1998.
One author was asked to give his summary of the situation in the US, not using empirical data:
Purpel, David. "Values Education in the United States of America," in Values in
Education,
edited by Joan Stephenson and others, pp. 197-208. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Purpel's comments could be used for a beginning of a discussion:
"The late 1970s and early 1980s was a time of considerable excitement in the field with the
emergence of at least two major moral education orientations, namely Values Clarification and
the
Kohlberg moral development approach. Interest in these programmes has essentially dissipated,
leaving behind a legacy of scepticism and disenchantment, if not dismissal not only of these
particular orientations but of the broader notion of the concept of values education per se. The
most important exception to this fall from grace is the Character Education Movement (Lickona,
1991)." (p. 200)
"My own sense is that there is very little if any attempt in the United States to provide systematic
training directly concerned with issues of values for either teachers-to-be or experienced teachers.
On the other hand there is an increasing sensitivity to the significance of values issues among
those involved in the professional preparation of educational practicitioners." (p. 203)
Khan, Yoshimitsu. Japanese Moral Education Past and Present. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press, 1998.
This work provides another aspect of our concerns for comparisons with Japanese education.
For a collection of essays on Values Education, see the May/June 1991 issue of The Clearing House (vol. 64, number 5), guest editor Peter F. Carbone, Jr.
Questions concerning the development of moral education in schools:
Q-Should we be making moral development central in schooling?
Noddings, Nel. The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to
Education.
New
York: Teachers College Press, 1992.
In the foreword, Jonas Soltis writes: "She insists that the main aim of education should be a
moral
one, that of nurturing the growth of competent, caring, loving, and lovable persons." (p. vii)
Heslep, Robert D. Moral Education for Americans. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
Of possible norms, Heslep selects: "Those we will seek are moral standards, that is, the values,
rights, duties, and virtues that pertain to people as moral beings. They are superior to cultural,
social, and civic principles in that they may serve as criteria for ultimately overriding the latter,
and in that none of the latter may serve as criteria for ultimately overriding the former." (p. 2)
Damon, William. Greater Expectations: Overcoming the Culture of Indulgence in America's
Homes and Schools. New York: Free Press, 1995.
What kind of behavior should we expect?
Q-What does the home schooling movement mean in relation to value choices, the meaning of freedom from compulsory forms of education, and possibilities of values in education in the United States?
For an overview, see the article "Learning at Home: Does It Pass the Test?" in the October 5, 1998, issue of Newsweek.
Some of the most thorough arguments for home schooling, outside of religious reasons, are provided by John Holt:
Holt, John C. Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education. New York: Delacorte Press, Seymour Lawrence, 1981.
Holt, John C. Instead of Education: Ways to Help People DoThings Better. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1976.
Public school educators might well examine the resources being developed for home schooling for a perspective on their own work. For a general Web site, see:
Q-What should we do with the more radical critiques of compulsory education (which has been called compulsory mis-education) itself?
Gatto, John Taylor. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory
Education. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1992.
Gatto: "Over the years of wrestling with the obstacles that stand between child and education I
have come to believe that government monopoly schools are structurally unreformable." (p. xiv).
Gatto moved to a "guerilla curriculum" after being NY State Teacher of the Year.
Q-How do values enter into the counseling situations?
Hall, C. Margaret. Identity, Religion, and Values: Implications for Practitioners.
Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis, 1996.
Hall offers scenarios for counselors who want to allow or encourage consideration of the values
and religious faiths of students.
See also the journal, Counseling and Values, 1975- .
Q-What are the proposals for character education, and reactions to them?
Lickona, Thomas. Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and
Responsibility. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.
Likona summarizes goals of character education and provides classroom and schoolwide
strategies.
Nash, Robert J. Answering the "Virtuecrats": A Moral Conversation on Character
Education.
New York: Teachers College Press, 1997.
According to editor Jonas Soltis, Nash "repudiates the postmodern tendencies toward moral
relativism and nihilism as well as traditional moral dogmatism, absolutism, and indoctrination.
He
offers a way for ordinary people to manage their moral lives in the discordant reality of of
contemporary pluralistic, secular, democratic society." (p. xii) Nash: "A morality of conversation
is my own personal alternative to the more grandiose virtue initiatives advanced by the
neo-classicals, the communitarians, and the liberationists [whom he has critiqued]." (p. 160)
Ryan, Kevin, and Karen E. Bohlin. Building Character in Schools: Practical Ways to Bring Moral Instruction to Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Some character education programs:
Midgley, Mary. Can't We Make Moral Judgments? New York: St. Martin's Press,
1991.
Nash reports that this book can be used effectively in college ethics classes. A title in the "Mind
Matters" series.
Q- Is scientific knowledge incompatible with good and evil? How does evolution connect
with values and altruism?
Wilson, Edward O. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Knopf,
1998.
Wilson seeks to find and show connections between the evolution of human qualities and moral
behavior.
Sober, Elliot, and David Sloan Wilson.Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of
Unselfish Behavior.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.
This comprehensive study opens many doors, as indicated in their final sentence: "It is heartening
to contemplate the emergence of a legitimate pluralism -- for evolutionary theories of social
behavior, for theories of psychological motivation, and for the larger intellectual traditions that
influence how we think about ourselves and the world around us."
Overman, Dean L. A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization. Lanham, MD:
Rowman &
Littlefield, 1997.
Overman wrote this book in reaction to an article which reasoned from scientific theories that
"individuals are free to select their own purposes and goals without regard to any standard" (p.
xvii) Overman discusses the mathematical probabilities of the observed increasing complexity of
the biological world and the possibilities of life arising from accidental or chance events.
Q-How do values enter into our discussions over the curriculum?
Beyer, Landon E., and Daniel P. Liston. Curriculum in Conflict: Social Visions, Educational
Agendas, and Progressive School Reform. New York: Teachers College Press, 1996.
What are the political ramifications of the curricular choices as to the values to promote in
education? Stress conservative, traditional values? The authors have a proposal: "We believe that
what is needed now is a coherent yet inclusive synthesis of a progressive tradition that challenges
both the curricular status quo and the recent attempts at a conservative restoration, a synthesis
that points to possible common goals, concerns, and commitments." (p. xv)
Q-How central are the studies of the humanities in learning about diversity and unity?
Nussbaum, Martha C. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal
Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Based on her experiences visiting many colleges, the professor encourages diversity in higher
education. "It is therefore urgent right now to support curricular efforts aimed at producing
citizens who can take charge of their own reasoning, who can see the different and foreign not as
a threat to be resisted, but as an invitation to explore and understand, expanding their own minds
and their capacity for citizenship." (p. 301)
Q-What are our models of personal moral development? Do we endorse the movement toward altruism, prosocial behavior, compassion, responsibility for others? What do the student affairs professionals contribute to the vision of ethics and education?
Kegan Robert. In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Cambridge,
MS:
Harvard University Press, 1994.
A quite challenging and comprehensive study of development of great relevance to education.
Guthrie, David S., ed. Student Affairs Reconsidered: A Christian View of the Profession and
its
Contexts. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997.
In one chapter, editor Guthrie reports that "we contend that the development of wisdom is the
ultimate purpose of student learning, regardless of institutional setting. So, what do we mean by
developing wisdom? We offer that growing in wisdom consists in establishing and reestablishing
connections among three interrelated processes: remembering, discerning, and exploring." (pp.
53-54).
Colby, Anne, and others.Educating Citizens: Preparing America's
Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility.San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Important study of what is missing and needs to be done.
Mosher, Ralph H, and others.Moral Action in Young Adulthood.Columbia, SC: National Resources Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition University of South Carolina, 1999.
Q-How do we see service learning as connected to the goals for moral education?
Jacoby, Barbara, and associates. Service-Learning in Higher Education: Concepts and
Practices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Overview, with chapter on connections with student learning and development.
Rhoads, Robert A. "In the Service of Citizenship: A Study of Student Involvement in
Community
Service," The Journal of Higher Education, 69,3 (May/June 1998), 277-297.
Rhoads gives good access to the literature on service learning and community service, and
documents an effect on "democratic citizenship and fostering more caring selves" (p. 285).
Not all agree with motives of caring for others. The Ayn Rand Institute has opposed volunteerism and instituted anti-service internships, "in which students may volunteer to fight volunteerism." (Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1998, B2.)
Q-Do our conversation about ethics include discussions of such areas as athletics and cheerleading?
Thomas, Carolyn E. "An Old Wine and New Bottles: The Transformation of Ethical Emphasis in
Higher Education," Quest 45,1 (Feb. 1993), 133-138.
This issue of this publication of the American Academy of Physical Education deals with ethics.
Arnold, Peter J. Sport, Ethics and Education. London: Cassell, 1997.
One of many books dealing with ethics and sports. The critiques in numerous books of
intercollegiate athletics in the USA are significant. Of course, many see sports, especially
international amateur sports, as valuable for creating bonds.
Boyer, Ernest. College: The Undergraduate Experience in America.New York: Harper &
Row, 1987.
Boyer: "Perhaps the time has come for faculty and students at universities engaged in big-time
athletics to organize a day of protest, setting aside time to examine how the purposes of the
universities are being subverted and how integrity is lost." (p. 184). Shall we schedule the day?
Bennett, J.C. "The Secondary School Cheerleader and Ritualized Sexual Exploitation." The
Clearing House, 64:1 (Sept/Oct. 1990), 4-7.
Should schools encourage cheerleading? Why does it continue?
There is a Center for Sport, Spirituality, and Character Development.
Q-Do we assume that the arts help promote unity with diversity, and common values? What about music?
Frith, Simon.Peforming Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Univerity Press, 1996.
Can we not only enjoy music, but also converse about its values and make judgments? Frith:
"The importance of value judgments for popular culture thus seems obvious, but it has been quite
neglected in academic cultural studies." (p. 8)
Q-How do we converse about how to educate for active democratic citizenship?
Education and Democracy: Re-Imagining Liberal Learning in America. Ed. by Robert
Orrill. New
York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1997.
An outstanding collection of essays on pragmatism and education, providing topics for
indispensable conversations on higher education.
Morse, Suzanne W. Renewing Civic Capacity: Preparing Students for Service and Citizenship. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report no. 8. Washington, DC: School of Education amd Human Development, George Washington University, 1989.
Becker, Theodore L., and Ricard A. Couto, eds. Teaching Democracy by Being
Democratic.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
This work provides resources for both the classroom and service learning, and a campus-based
mediation service.
Isaac, Katherine. Ralph Nader Presents. Civics for Democracy: A Journey for Teachers and
Students. Project of the Center for Study of Responsive Law and Essential Information.
Washington, DC: Essential Books, 1992.
This work provides ways for high school students to learn about the political process and to take
an active part.
Lappe, Frances Moore, and Paul Martin Du Bois. The Quickening of America: Rebuilding
Our
Nation, Remaking Our Lives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.
An overview of ways for citizens to take action.
Q-How can we integrate values in the teaching and formulation of public policy?
Carrow, Milton M., Robert Paul Churchill, and Joseph J. Cordes. Democracy, SocialValues,
and Public Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.
Explicit discussions of the sources and relevance of social values.
Q-When we teach rhetoric and written composition, do we and should we include explicit treatment of values, and if, how? Is writing a moral practice?
Couture, Barbara. Toward a Phenomenological Rhetoric: Writing, Profession, and Altruism.
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998.
The author asserts: "In short, I defend and explain writing as a practice that develops truth and
value in human experience." (p. 3)
Of course, we need to bring the history of rhetoric to bear on questions involving ethics and writing, and we often return to Aristotle, as in this work by Garver:
Garver, Eugene. Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Art of Character. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1994.
Wayne Booth is quoted on the jacket: "It is one of the fullest and most responsible encounters
ever with philosophical, political, and ethical issues raised by the theory and practice of rhetoric."
An excellent work to generate discussions between English and Speech teachers and other
scholars.
Q-How well do the schools and colleges bring ethical considerations to bear on their studies of media such as television?
Many works are highly critical of American television. What do schools do with such works? An example:
Baker, William F., and George Dessart. Down the Tube: An Inside Account of the Failure of
American Television. New York: BasicBooks, 1998.
The call their chapter especially on television for children, "Kinderfeindlichkeit,
pervasive
hostility toward children. Provocative?
What about the issue of violence in the media?
Bok, Sissela. Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley,
1998.
Bok offers analysis and ways to deal with our dilemmas concering violence in the media. What
role should educational institutions play?
Q-How can we converse about making ethical and valued-based judgments about intervening in other peoples lives? What should the state and others do to those they care about, for their own good?
VanDeVeer, Donald. Paternalistic Intervention: The Moral Bounds of Benovolence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Kultgen, John. Autonomy and Intervention: Paternalism in the Caring Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Sher, George. Beyond Neutrality: Perfectionism and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Q-What kinds of conversations might we have about ways to influence the personal behavior of others? What paradigms are there other than the pro- and anti-abortion debates on intervention? Policies on the use of drugs? Are there public standards for behavior, and ways to influence that behavior?
Sullum, Jacob. For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public
Health. New York: Free Press, 1998.
How does the anti-smoking movement compare to other movements?
Clor, Harry M. Public Morality and Liberal Society: Essays on Decency, Law, and
Pornography.
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996.
Clor notes: "As readers are no doubt aware, the appropriate posture of the civic community
toward virtue and vice is a perennial and intensely debated topic." (p. 1) He offers considerations
useful for conversations on the "public morality."
Q-What role do we see associations playing in the moral life of Americans? How does the pluralism of American free associations help or hinder the ethics of citizenship?
Rosenblum, Nancy L. Membership and Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in
America a.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
"This book is a brief for going beyond ethics. The thought that social and values pluralism is not
only a fact of modern life but also a condition for developing moral capacities has a solid place in
both moral and political philosophy." (p. 18)
Q-What kinds of emotions are brought into our conversations about the common good? How are emotions part of our visions of education and morality?
Dunlop, Francis. The Education of Feeling and Emotion. London: George Allen &
Unwin,
1984.
Dunlop gives a good justification and also methods on the education of emotion.
Callahan, Sidney. In Good Conscience: Reason and Emotion in Moral Decision Making.
New
York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Callahan gives good coverage of the role that emotions play in morality.
Q-If the dominant American emotional style is being cool, what is the place in education for moral outrage? Are we even willing to show and discuss our emotions?
Stearns, Peter. American Cool: Constructing a Twentieth-Century Emotional Style. New
York:
New York University Press, 1994.
This social history provides access to general questions about emotions and judgments.
Mestrovic, Stjepan G. Postemotional Society.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997.
Mestrovic's analyses, in this and his other sociological works, raise good questions about our
ability to go beyond "nice" to serious ethical, emotional judgments and then to action.
Q-How should schools and colleges raise issues of social justice and ethical issues concering the environment? Many books, and specifically some books on education, challenge educators to deal with issues of social values: how should be meet and discuss these challenges? How do we go beyond "respect and responsibility" to deal with controversial issues such as peace and nonviolence, justice and the political economy of a democracy, and the priority of a sustainable economy and ecology?
How could or should schools and colleges deal with books such as the following, which raise value-laden issues on a global scale?Are American teachers and students willing to converse about perspectives critical of the past and present policies of the U.S.A.?
Barber, Benjamin. Jihad vs. McWorld. New York: Times Books, Random House, 1995.
Martin, Hans-Peter, and Harald Schumann. The Global Trap: Globalization and the Assault on Prosperity and Democracy. Translated by Patrick Camiller. London and New York: Zed Books, 1997.
Bowers, C.A. Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Culture: Rethinking Moral Education, Creativity, Intelligence, and Other Modern Orthodoxies. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Bowers, C.A. The Culture of Denial: Why the Environmental Movement Needs a Strategy
for
Reforming Universities and Public Schools. Albany: State University of New York Press,
1997.
"Science Undermines the Meta-narratives that are the Basis of Moral Authority." (Section
heading, p. 43). This work challenges educators to examine their taken-for-granted cultural
assumptions and to help their students to do so.
French, Marilyn. Beyond Power: On Women, Men, and Morals. New York: Summit
Books,
1985.
French's extensive treatise provides material for discussions of power and the critiques of social
patterns of domination by feminism. "But it is possible to live with an eye to delight rather than
to
domination. And this is the feminine morality." (p. 542)
Q-How well do we teach peacemaking and "getting along"?
Hutchinson, Francis P. Educating Beyond Violent Futures. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Provides goals and resources for education for peace and sustainable futures.
Levin, Diane E. Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable
Classroom. Cambridge, MA: Educators for Social Responsibility, 1994.
Includes many materials for teaching.
Paley, Vivian. You Can't Say You Can't Play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1992.
Inspiring process of helping students change the culture of play and work.
Rothman, Jay. Resolving Identity-Based Conflict in Nations, Organizations,
and Communities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Rothman provides what he calls the ARIA framework.
Q-Are educators willing to foster conversations about the conflicts between individualism and a community orientation?
Beyond Individualism: Toward a Retrieval of Moral Discourse in America. Ed. By Donald L. Gelpi. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989.
Lappe, Frances Moore. Rediscovering America's Values. New York: Balantine Books, 1989.
Q-Is it useful to study the traditions of radical rhetoric as well as the mainstream American public address?
Darsey, James. The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
Q-What are some journals for current reading on ethics and education?
The Journal of Moral Education (UK)
See vol. 25, 1 (March 1996): Moral Education from the 20th into the 21st century
Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal
The Society for Values in Higher Education: "The common purpose of the membership is to
promote classroom teaching that illuminates the moral issues inherent in serious inquiry."
"Soundings encourages scholars to challenge the fragmentation of modern intellectual life and to
turn the best and most rigourous deliverances of the several academic disciplines towards the
sterner discipline of a common good in human affairs. Soundings aims to publish essays that
open
disciplines to each other, and it looks for readers who sense in such openings some prospect for
greater coherence and amplitude in public discourse."
This bibliography is maintained by Robert J. Merikangas.
All comments and suggestions concerning this document should be directed to Robert Merikangas at bobmerik@umd.edu