Ethics and Education:
The Normative Dimensions of Education
TBC (Course Organiser)
Credit Rating 20 credits, SCQF 11
Course Description
This course offers master students the possibility to identify ethical issues that may
arise when working in the field of education and to find a way of responding
appropriately. The many things we do as educationalists imply that the lives of
others, as well as the quality of the world we live in, may be affected to a smaller or
larger extent. As such, this course prepares students to deal with decision-making,
setting an example oneself as educationalists, organizing educational programs or
community work projects, etc. The starting points of this course are that the work of
the educationalist cannot be reduced to a technical skill, and furthermore that true
educational action requires more than expert knowledge and professional
competences alone. Rather, this course approaches education as a matter of care,
i.e. as a way of relating to oneself, to others and to the world which involves oneself
as a whole person. Another focus throughout this course is that educating is a highly
embodied practice, and that ethical considerations should take this into account.
Various themes are discussed (such as equality, justice, citizenship, the value of
tradition, the role of humor and laughter) from a wide variety of past and present
intellectual perspectives.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, students will:

be able to distinguish normative from other (theoretical or practical) educational
questions

appreciate some of main educational issues in which ethical questions are
implicated

have insight in major philosophical concepts, ideas and theories, and be able to
form a personal standpoint on important ethical issues in education

be able to explore the implications of moral and normative issues for educational
policy

be aware of the exceptional importance of the personality of the educator and of
the role and importance of personal self-formation
Teaching
10 x 2.5 hour seminars = 25 hours
Each session will involve some formal presentation of the issues in the form of
lecture, guided reading or structured questions. This will be followed by seminar
discussion.
Next to this, students are required to watch some films, which are a substantial part
of the course material and which will form the background of our class discussions.
Assessment
One written essay of 4, 000 words, which relates to one of the topics discussed
during class.
Content
Weeks 1 - 2
Two Perspectives On Education
Education can be approached as a matter of expertise, meaning that it is seen as a
category of action that can be ‘mastered’ if one possesses the necessary knowledge,
skill and expertise, and that can be optimized on the basis of scientific insight only.
However, education can also be seen as a matter of care, i.e. as a category of action
that responds to a particular situation which resists full control, and which involves the
whole person (it matters that it is this particular person who gives this answer). The
educator’s professional identity might thus be defined in terms of what Ancient Greek
philosophers called an ‘ethos’, a way of life. In this part we discuss:
 The distinction between ethics and morality, and between ethics and
expertise/professionalism
 Two illustrations of the dominant discourse of expertise/professionalism (Ramaekers &
Suissa on parenting; McWilliam on the repression of the body in education)
 Teaching as asceticism (De Marzio) and as ‘parrhesia’ (‘to speak freely’, Foucault)
Weeks 3 - 6
Topics In Ethics And Education
Education can be approached as a matter of expertise, meaning that it is seen as a
category of action that can be ‘mastered’ if one possesses the necessary knowledge,
skill and competences, and that can be optimized on the basis of scientific insight
only. However, education can also be seen as a matter of care, i.e. as a category of
action that responds to a particular situation which resists full control, and which
involves the whole person (it matters that it is this particular person who gives this
response). The educator’s professional identity might thus be defined in terms of what
Ancient Greek philosophers called an ‘ethos’, a way of life. In this part we discuss:
 The pedagogical relation: a phenomenological account of the student-teacher relationship
shows that education is intrinsically an ethically and existentially normative practice (Tone
Saevi). Nell Nodding’s renowned point of view that ‘care’ is the very essence of the true
pedagogical relation offers a feminist interpretation of this idea. We will also discuss critical
point Gert Biesta raises, viz. that the possibility of disconnection might be at least as
important as this relational dimension
 Justice and equality: discussion of some basic principles that structure the discussion
concerning a just education and an education for all in a world in which resources are not
equally distributed, such as adequacy, meritocracy and equality (Kenneth Howe)
 Citizenship and educating for a democratic world: we will study Biesta’s criticism of The
Scottish Curriculum for Excellence and the depoliticizing effects a capability-approach
towards citizenship might imply. Furthermore we will study Biesta’s alternative ideas
regarding ‘public pedagogy’
 The value of transmitting culture and tradition: We will opposes Freire criticism of the
‘banking concept of education’ and Ken Robinson’s idea that the traditional school kills
creativity with views that defend conservatism for the sake of continuity (Oakeshott) or for
the sake of discontinuity (Arendt)
Weeks 7 - 9
‘The Ignorant Schoolmaster’: The Work Of Rancière
In this part we focus on a book in which the French philosopher Jacques Rancière
provocatively holds that we all possess equal intelligence and that true human
emancipation consists in freeing ourselves from the prejudice that there exist legitimate
inequalities amongst people (between parents and children, teachers and students,
politicians and civilians, etc.). Trying to come to an adequate understanding of these
claims, it will become clear that Rancière’s work has bearings on each of the four topics
discussed in part 2 and that it opens new ways to look at the role of the teacher, the
importance of including established subject matters in the curriculum, etc. His ideas
reflect and moreover specify the starting point of this course, viz. that the educator’s
work is a matter of developing an appropriate educational ‘ethos’. As an introduction to
his work, we’ll discuss a text by Cornelissen, who also shows how Rancière’s work
raises serious questions regarding the main-stream view defines education in terms of
students’ interests and needs.
Week 10
Humor And Laughter In Education
Humor and laughter are usually not dealt with as important educational topics.
Nonetheless, in recent years the unavoidable occurrence of laughter in pedagogical
contexts (classrooms) has become more and more the object of study. We’ll discuss two
major but opposed school-of-thoughts in this regard:

Mordechai Gordon: no laughter without humor (intimacy)

Joris Vlieghe: laughter as immanent life-affirmation (i.e. as an intrinsically equalizing and
communizing phenomenon)
Some Recommended Course Reading
Arendt, H. (1968). The crisis of education. In Id., Between Past and Future (pp 173-196).
New York: Penguin
Azzam, A. (2009). Why Creativity Now? A Conversation with Sir Ken Robinson.
Educational Leadership 67 (1)
Biesta, G. (2008) What kind of citizen? What kind of democracy? Citizenship education
and the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Scottish Educational Review 40 (2)
Biesta, G. (2012). Becoming Public: Public Pedagogy, Citizenship and the Public
Sphere. Social and Cultural Geography 13 (7), 683-697
Biesta, G. (2012). No education without hesitation. Thinking differently about educational
relations. In C. Ruitenberg et al. (eds), Philosophy of education 2012 (pp. 1-13). UrbanaChampaign, IL: PES
Blake, N. et al. (Eds.)(2002). The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Education. Oxford:
Blackwell
Cornelissen, G. (2010) The public role of teaching: to keep the door closed. Educational
Philosophy and Theory, 42(5-6), 523-539
De Marzio, Darryl (2007) Teaching as Asceticism: transforming the Self through
Practice. In: Philosophy of Education Society Yearbook, 349-355
Foucault, M. (1983). Discourse and Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia. Six
lectures given at the University of California at Berkeley, Oct-Nov. 1983
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.). London:
Penguin
Gordon, M. (2001). Hannah Arendt on Authority: Conservatism in Education
Reconsidered. In Id., Hannah Arendt and Education: Renewing our common world (pp.
11-36). Boulder: Westview Press.
Gordon, M. (2014). Friendship, intimacy, humor. Educational Philosophy and Theory 46
(2), 162-174
Howe, K. (2013). On Equality versus Adequacy: Principles and Normative Frameworks.
Philosophy of Education 2013, 452-460
McWilliam, E. (1996). Admitting Impediments: Or Things to Do with Bodies in the
Classroom, Cambridge Journal of Education, 26 (3), pp. 367-379
Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education
Berkeley: University of California Press
Oakeshott, M. (1991). Rationalism in politics and other essays. Indianapolis: Liberty
Press
Ramaekers, S., Suissa, J. (2012). What all parents need to know? Exploring the hidden
normativity of the language of developmental psychology in parenting. Journal of
Philosophy of Education, 46 (3), 352-369
Rancière, J. (1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster. Stanford: Stanford University Press
Saevi, T. (2011) Lived Relationality as Fulcrum for Pedagogical–Ethical Practice.
Studies in Philosophy and Education 30 (5), 455-461
Vandenabeele, J., Reyskens, P., Wildemeersch, D. (2011). Diverse views on
citizenship, community and participation. Exploring the role of adult education research
and practice. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults,
2(2), 193-208
Vlieghe, J. (2014). Laughter as Immanent Life-Affirmation. Reconsidering the
educational value of laughter through a Bakhtinian lense. Educational Philosophy and
Theory 46 (2), 148-161
Zembylas, M., Fendler, L. (2007). Reframing emotion in education through lenses of
parrhesia and care of the self. Studies in Philosophy and Education 26, 319-333.
Films
Le Fils (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2002)
To Sir with Love (James Clavell, 1967)
list to be completed
UPDATED: 28 July 2015