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Schedule of Topics and Readings for the
Faculty Seminar on Ethics in Higher Education
Philosophy 290
Spring, 2004
Holly Graff and Tom Bowen
January 21 - Introduction
Read: Canin's "The Palace Thief."
Consider the question of what, if anything, Hundert has done wrong?
Exercise: Write your own case study describing a moral dilemma you have
encountered as a teacher or administrator. Before writing your case study,
you may want to review the case studies that previous seminar participant have
written. These can be found in our anthology, Ethics in Higher
Education.
January 28 -
Ethical
Theory: The Challenge of Relativism, Kant, and the Requirements of Duty
Read:
If you have time or are interested in reading Kant’s own work, you can read
or review Kant's Fundamental Principles of the
Metaphysic of Morals.
Otherwise, read the section on “Duty-Oriented Morality” in Palmer’s
text, Does the Center Hold ?(pp 279-290), or you can read the section on
Kant’s Ethics (deontology) in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Also
read Bill Taylor’s “Letter to Students” in the Anthology.
Consider
the ways in which the behavior of teachers and administrators model “ethical
behavior” for students in general. How does this impact the requirements or
duties that a professor has towards their students? What are the (or are there
any) “duties” of a professor? Consider the conceptual framework/apparatus
that Kant provides for thinking through ethical problems and dilemmas. Can
this framework work for our everyday interaction with students? Does it
provide useful insights into the “ethics of teaching”? Finally, consider
Taylor’s letter in this context. How might the behaviors he requires of
himself as the professor “model” ethical behavior? How do they stand as
list of “duties”?
February - Utilitarianism
Read:
If you have time or are interested in reading Mill’s own work, you can read or
review Utilitarianism.
For background on Mill’s ethics (utilitarianism) read the selection on
“Utilitarianism” in Chapter 7 of Palmer's Does the Center Hold? (pp 269-279) or look in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Please
watch the movie “Cheaters” over the week. You can rent it at most
video stores or borrow it from Holly.
Consider the conceptual framework/apparatus that Mill provides for
thinking through ethical problems and dilemmas. Note how the focus of ethical
reasoning is fundamentally different from that of Kant. Can this framework
provide a useful model for articulating and working through the ethics of
teaching? The movie “Cheaters” presents a widely disparate situation than
that provided in Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief.” Is the basic
moral problem the same? How might the ethical problem be articulated differently
here than in Canin’s story? What
is the purpose of education? How is its utility determined?
February 11……Ethics of
Care
Read: "Morality and Moral
Education" from Caring by Nel Noddings (Coursepack). You might
also want to look at the summary of feminist ethics in chapter 8 of Palmer's
book.
Focal Questions: Do Noddings' ideas about education have applications at the
college level?
What do you think about her claim that grading necessarily shows a lack of caring and
teaches all the wrong lessons? What is your response to her complete rejection of rules and penalties?
Consider the last page of the chapter very carefully. Do you
believe that Oakton an institution
that encourages or undermines caring?
You might
also want to read: "Is
Caring Inherently Good?
by Barbara Appelbaum and the response, "Abstractions
can't be good, but they can be dangerous by Barbara Houston.
This week we will begin discussing the case
studies of seminar participants.
Further Reading for the Ambitious: Philosophy
of Education by Nel Noddings
February 18.....Community Colleges as
Public Institutions I......Liberalism and John Rawls
Read:
For background on Rawls and liberalism look in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the piece on the “difference
principle” in the same source ). In
addition you can look at the section on “Social Philosophy” in Palmer (pp
360-377).
Does
Rawls’ basic theoretical position justify the existence of publicly supported
education, such as community colleges? From
the Rawlsian liberal perspective, what is the purpose of education? Does the
liberal perspective have implications for our vision of Oakton’s priorities
and for how we address moral dilemmas we face in the classroom?
Further Reading for the Ambitious: Rawls' A Theory of Justice
February 25.....Community
Colleges as Public Institutions II: Critiques from the Right......Edward
Shils and Robert Nozick
Read:
"A New Declaration of Rights and Duties" by Edward Shils
(pp. 213-249 of The Academic Ethic" on reserve in the library) and the section on Nozick's
conception of distributive justice (called libertarian conservatism) in the
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
or the section called "The Minimal State" in Chapter 9 of
Palmer's Does the Center Hold? (pp. 368-373).
Fundamental
critiques of the community college can be offered from these two different
conservative perspectives. What are
they? Can you
answer them?
Further Reading for the Ambitious: Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia
March 3.....Community Colleges as Public
Institutions III: Critiques from the Left
Read:
Shor’s “The Working Class Goes to College” in the Coursepack
Is Shor right about the social function of
community colleges? Is he right
that we should reject this social function?
How does this relate to the entire history of public education in this
country? Can we structure our
classes and our institution in ways that overcome this problem?
How does the situation of adjunct faculty affect community colleges?
Does the situation involve inherent injustices?
What are our obligations to change the situation?
March 10....Community Colleges as Public
Institutions IV: The Community College as a Teaching College
Read:
The selections from Honored by Invisible by W. Norton Grubb and
associates in the Coursepack and "The Role of Part-time Faculty in
Higher Education: The Ethical Dilemma" by Cheryl Wollin in
the Anthology.
We will view a film on the history of Oakton.
Try to articulate your vision of the purpose of higher education in
general and community college education in particular
Spring Break.....If you haven't decided on
your project, now is the time to do so.
March 24.....Pedagogy of Liberation.....Marx and Freire
Read: Chapters 3 of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of
Freedom and Holly's Summary of Marx's
Theory of Alienation. It may also be helpful to read about Marx's
theory of alienation in Chapter 9 of Palmer's Does the Center Hold?
Focal Questions:: Is higher education alienating? If so, is there anything we can do
to make it less alienating? Do Freire's suggestions adequately
address this? What do you think?
If you agree with Freire's perspective, evaluate one of your
classes from his perspective?
Further reading for the ambitious: Marx's Economic and Philosophic
Manuscripts of 1844. Read the entirety of Freire's Pedagogy of Freedom.
March 31..........Pedagogy of Liberation
2
Read: Chapter 4 of Freire's Pedagogy
of Freedom and Holly's Summary of Marx's
Theory of Ideology.
Focal Questions: From Freire's perspective,
what counts as critical thinking? How would this require us to
transform our teaching? What is your position on Freire's proposals?
April 7….. Postmodernism and the Debate over Multicultural
Education
Read: "The Vanishing Classics and Other Myths" from Gerald Graff's
Beyond
the Culture Wars (on reserve in the library)
and "Introduction: Our Virtue" by Allan Bloom from
The
Closing of the American Mind ( in the Coursepack)
.
Exercise: If you agree that Eurocentric bias is a problem, examine your
own courses for Eurocentrism and consider how you could begin developing them. If you
don't agree, explain why not.
Further reading for the ambitious: Read all of Beyond the Culture Wars
and A. Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind for the other side
April 14.....Applications: Advocacy and the Classroom
Read: Selection from Martha Nussbaum's Cultivating Humanity (chapter
on women's studies) and Elias Baumgarten's "Ethics in the
Academic Profession: A Socratic View" from A Professor's Duties
(both in the coursepack)
April 21….. Applications: Sexism and Homophobia
Read: Selection from Failing at Fairness by Sadker and Sadker
(Coursepack) and
"The Chinese
Lobster" by A. S. Byatt in The Matisse Stories (on
reserve).
Focal Question: Consider the Byatt story as a case study in ethics.
Further reading for the ambitious: Read The Gender Question in Education:
Theory, Pedagogy, and Politics by Ann Diller, Barbara Houston, Kathryn Pauly Morgan,
and Maryann Ayim. This book contains some interesting applications of the ethic of care
and some interesting critiques of it as well.
April 28…..Applications: Racism
Read: "White is a Color! White Defensiveness,
Postmodernism, and Anti-Racist Pedagogy" by Leslie Roman and "How
White Teachers Construct Race" by Christine E. Sleeter, both from Race
Identity and Representation in Education edited by Cameron McCarthy and
Warren Crichlow (This book is available on the Farside bookshelf.)
Also
read: "Racism in Academia: The Old Wolf Revisited" by Maria de la
Luz Reyes and John Halcon
(You can pick up these three
articles in the Division 3 Office beginning Thursday afternoon.)
May 5.......Presentations of Projects
May 12......Presentations of Projects
Books for the Seminar
1.
Ethics in Higher Education Anthology (This is free and will be
provided to you by Holly and Tom)
2.
The Coursepack (this has not yet been printed, but should be available
in the bookstore by the end of next week).
3.
Pedagogy of Freedom by Paulo Friere. This should be in the
Oakton bookstore, or available at any Borders, etc.
4.
The Palace Thief, by Ethan Canin. This should be available at
any normal bookstore, or you can borrow a copy from Tom or Holly.
5.
“A New Declaration of Rights and Duties” from The Calling of
Education by Edward Shils (pp213-233). This text will be on reserve in the
library.
6.
Chapters 1 & 2 of Beyond the Culture Wars by Gerald Graff.
This will also be on reserve in the library.
7.
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt (in bookstore and library)
8. Highly
Recommended for Beginners: Does the Center Hold? by Donald Palmer.
This will be in the library and the bookstore.
Course Projects
While we do not intend these final projects to be
onerous, we do want participants to have the incentive to apply the ideas
aroused during the semester to their professional work.
As our work develops, we will meet with each participant to discuss
possibilities for a course project. We
imagine this could take a number of forms, including but not limited to the
following:
·
A course unit on ethical questions in the discipline or profession
·
A letter to students
·
A case study presentation or essay
·
A revision of course policies
·
Presentation of an ethical perspective not included in our
common readings
·
An extensive course journal
Those of us who teach writing know that writing is a
form of thinking “aloud.” There
are a number of ethical issues to reflect on, so we are offering the option
of keeping a journal for this
class instead of a different sort of project.
Most weeks we will give you an
ethical question to focus preparation for the next week’s discussion. You can use these as jumping off points in your journal, or
you can use the time to reflect on your own concerns related to the
readings, your teaching, your other professional obligations.
Author: Hollace Graff
Oakton Community College
Last Updated: April 7, 2004