Educating Teachers as Agents of Social Justice: A Virtue Ethical Perspective

Abstract

The idea of teachers acting and being educated as ‘agents of change’ has been increasingly promoted in educational literature and policy-making, often in particular relation to social justice agendas. In this paper we raise questions about the meaning and implications of this claim for teachers’ roles, practices, and preparation. We explore the moral dimensions of classroom practice before considering more ambitious suggestions that teachers might address larger issues of educational or other injustice beyond the classroom. We take it that respect for fairness and justice has been part of the received conception of what it means to be a good classroom teacher, while the meaning of teachers’ acting as agents of social justice beyond classroom has been less clearly foregrounded. Finally, drawing on a virtue ethical perspective, we discuss the implications of our observations for teacher education, arguing that the cultivation of virtuous teacher character is as important as exploration of theories of justice.