Teacher education in a post-modern liberal democratic society

Abstract

In the last few years, there is a strong inclination to see a technological development, economic growth and social cohesion as the goals of education and therefore teachers are taken to be responsible for social solidarity and for national success in the global economic competition. This paper rejects the reduction of teaching to maximize effective instruction in the service of economic success and group solidarity and therefore resists the utilitarian thrust of much recent policy and practice in teacher education. The main argument is that teachers today are committed to a moral education from the virtue ethics perspective. The role of the teachers in a post-modern democratic society that respects the ideal of autonomy is to seek the development of their students, shaping their character while practicing certain virtues and leading them to a life of individual flourishing and self-fulfilment. Having the ability to cultivate young people character while guiding them towards finding their own ideas about how to lead a valuable life depends on the relationships that teachers and students maintain. The conclusion is that teachers are required to base decisions first and foremost on values like attentiveness, sensitivity, empathy, responsiveness and trust, values which are derived from an ethics of care. An ethics of care is the most suitable ethical framework for guiding teacher's practice nowadays. The paper provides an account of why virtue ethics and an ethics of care, which is sometimes seen as a version of virtue ethics, are the appropriate ethical frameworks for contemporary teacher education.