Virtue ethics and student teachers as prospective moral agents

Author(s):

Kennert Orlenius

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 A, Research on Professional Identity, Beliefs and Understanding of Teaching and Learning in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-29

15:30-17:00

Room:

NIG, HS D

Chair:

Alexander Groeschner

Contribution

Plagiarism is generally considered to be an increasing problem in academic writing among students in many countries. International research findings indicate an epidemic increase of plagiarism (Duggan 2006; McCabe 2005; Nilsson 2008). I maintain that this is also a problem within teacher education, and it is especially important to scrutinize and elucidate issues regarding student teachers’ attitudes about cheating and plagiarism. As prospective teachers they are expected to counteract cheating and plagiarism in school and also promote young pupils’ ethical thinking and moral behaviour. For instance, educational researchers as Gary Fenstermacher, David Hansen, and David Carr emphasize that a teacher is a moral agent. Focus is on virtue ethics and the mission concerns formation of pupils’ character (character building). The teachers’ role as a model and mediator of inalienable values is crucial from this point of view. Traditionally, there has been high expectations of teachers regarding blamelessness and serving as a moral guide. However, the society have changed dramatically and probably also attitudes to values and virtues among student teachers. This addresses some questions, for instance: - Are there any connections between private moral attitudes among student teachers and their attitudes towards plagiarism in academic writing? - What kind of ethical attitudes and reasoning do they express? - How can their attitudes be interpreted from virtue ethical and postmodern perspectives?

Method

In a Swedish study, a collaboration between three university colleges, a questionnaire has been answered by about 180 student teachers and just as many other students, primarily informatics students. The participants have also been asked to justify some of the answers which means that a qualitative analysis will be done as well. Data has recently been collected and statistic analysis will soon begin why no findings can be presented yet. The questionnaire will also be translated and carried out in a teacher education in Island.

Expected Outcomes

Findings will be discussed mainly from a virtue ethics perspective (Carr & Steutel 1999), but also from some other theories and views of teachers’ professional ethics. In a so called postmodern era (Bagnall 1998; Oser 1999), where the idea of solid and universal values are doubted, the issue of the teacher serving as a model to pupils and mediator of virtues is more topical than ever before (Orlenius & Bigsten 2006; Campbell 2003; Noddings 2003).

References

Bagnall, R. (1998). Moral Education in a Postmodern World: Continuing professional education. Journal of Moral Education 27(3), 313-331. Campbell, E. (2003). The Ethical Teacher. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Carr, D. (2007). Character in teaching. British Journal of Educational Studies 55(4), 369-389. Carr, D. & Steutel, J. (1999) (Eds.). Virtue ethics and moral education. London: Routledge. Duggan, F. (2006). Plagiarism: prevention, practice and policy. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(2), 151-154. Fenstermacher, G. (2001). On the concept of manner and its visibility in teaching practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies 33(6), 639-653. Hansen, D. (2001). Teaching as a Moral Activity. In: V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching. Washington DC: American Educational Research association. McCabe, D. L. (2005). Cheating among college and university students: A North American perspective. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 1(1). Nilsson, L-E. (2008). ‘But Can’t You See They are Lying’. Student Moral Positions and Ethical Practices in the Wake of Technological Change. Göteborg: ACTA Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Noddings, N. (2003). The caring teacher. In: V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching. Washington DC: American Educational Research association. Orlenius, K. & Bigsten, A. (2006). Den värdefulla praktiken. Yrkesetik i pedagogers vardag [The practice of values. Professional ethics in teachers’ everyday life]. Stockholm: Liber. Oser, F. (1999). Can a Curriculum of Moral Education be Postmodern? Educational Philosophy and Theory 31(2), 231-236.

Author Information

Kennert Orlenius

University of Skövde

School of humanities and informatics

Skövde

186

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