A Virtue-Centered Approach to Ethics Education

Abstract

Becoming an Ethically Good Teacher The critical question for the teacher is How can I become a good teacher? Every teacher must regularly engage in ethical reflection to become a good teacher. In this article, I question use of the rules-and-principles approach as the basis for developing educators' ethical judgment and suggest that a virtue-centered approach to ethical education is more in keeping with a teacher's essential commitment. Virtue-based case analysis helps teachers experience vicariously what it means to be an ethically good teacher and to resolve to act appropriately. The Ethical Basis of Teaching Teacher preparation programs place a high priority on effective, best practice in the classroom. But teaching also has a moral dimension that focuses on interactions and relationships teachers have with students, colleagues, and the larger community. Teachers directly engaged in moral instruction fulfill society's expectation that they should help develop American youth's moral character. Teachers as role models have a more subtle, yet significant effect on the moral development of young people. Fenstermacher (1990) points out that children do not enter the world compassionate, caring, fair, loving, and tolerant.... If there are no models for them, no obvious or even subtle pressure to adopt moral qualities ... they may never be acquired (p. 132). The character modeling of teachers has helped to develop generations of fair, honest, and tolerant citizens for participation in a democratic society. At their best, teachers are uplifting models of just and hopeful citizens. The development of this kind of citizen is a purpose of American education, more important than ever in a pluralistic, increasingly cynical America of approximately 270 million people. In such a society, civil behavior of all members is problematic and important. Civil behavior makes possible effective relationships with people not our intimates (Colby & Damon, 1994). To be civil is to care about the well-being of others; to have genuine concern for how what one does affects others; to refrain from always insisting on one's own rights; to give others more than they are due. Teachers work daily with individuals who are neither friends nor intimates. A civil teacher recognizes the inherent inequality in relationships between teachers, students, and other client groups. Civility means accepting responsibility for the well-being of students, promoting their needs over the teacher's own needs, and giving more than the teacher gets. The ethics of teaching is about how well teachers conduct these relationships with their client groups and colleagues, how well they attend to this moral dimension of teaching. The character of the individual teachers is central to the moral quality of their interactions with others. Teachers can be ethically good or bad in these relationships. But what is the ethically good teacher? What good qualities are conducive to achieving right conduct? Sockett (1993) suggests honesty, courage, care, fairness, and practical wisdom. Most individuals have memories of teachers who modeled these qualities and of those who did not. The teacher who pushed me until I thought she was harassing me but then praised me for meeting her standards was a model of care, honesty, and fairness. I remember equally well another teacher whose openness and warmth made me feel welcome and capable in a large, often impersonal institution. How do teachers who model ethical behavior acquire their habits? Although no way of knowing exists, some of them quite likely had a natural talent for teaching. Their ease in working with students made their good teaching look natural. Others, not born with patience, open-mindedness, and love of their subject matter, acquired these and other dispositions such as enthusiasm, sense of justice, and caring over a long period of time and with conscious effort. …