Using Normative Case Studies to Engage Multiple Publics in Educational Ethics

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Values, Concepts, Cases: Questions of Method in Philosophy of Education

Abstract

Educators and policymakers face challenging ethical decisions on a regular basis: how to balance the needs of a disruptive child and other students, or what values to prioritize in selecting schools for expansion or closure. Such judgments require a phronetic approach that takes both abstract principles and specific contexts seriously in order to develop practical wisdom. Philosophical expertise thus needs to be paired with both social scientific insight and pragmatic expertise developed by educators and policymakers themselves. Normative case studies—richly described, realistic accounts of common ethical dilemmas in which identifiable protagonists must decide among courses of action, none of which is self-evidently the right one to take—can serve as crucial tools for fostering collaborative ethical inquiry and judgment.

Authors

• Meira Levinson, Harvard University

• Jacob Fay, Harvard University