Ethical Dispositions Research Articles

Autopsy

Judaism has many traditions, customs, rules, and laws, which relate to the proper and ethical disposition of a decedent when a Medical Examiner/ Coroner is involved. In almost all United States jurisdictions, statutes mandate the need to determine the cause and manner of death (Coroners' Act PA Pl. 323, num. 130, section 1237). This article is a review of some religious writings, legal precedents, and forensic authorities, which may help to assist the Medical Examiner/Coroner when confronted with a Jewish decedent. There can be flexibility as to the extent that such forensic studies can and should be performed. The final consent and interpretation of the rules, laws, traditions, and customs will rest with the courts and local rabbinic authority.

The Threshold Learning Outcome on self-management for the Bachelor of Laws degree: A proposed focus for teaching strategies in the first year law curriculum

The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Discipline Scholars for Law, Professors Sally Kift and Mark Israel, articulated six Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for the Bachelor of Laws degree as part of the ALTC’s 2010 project on Learning and Teaching Academic Standards. One of these TLOs promotes the learning, teaching and assessment of self-management skills in Australian law schools. This paper explores the concept of self-management and how it can be relevantly applied in the first year of legal education. Recent literature from the United States (US) and Australia provides insights into the types of issues facing law students, as well as potential antidotes to these problems. Based on these findings, I argue that designing a pedagogical framework for the first year law curriculum that promotes students’ connection with their intrinsic interests, values, motivations and purposes will facilitate student success in terms of their personal well-being, ethical dispositions and academic engagement.

Emergent Human Rights Contexts: Greg Constantine's "Nowhere People"

Emergent Human Rights Contexts:Greg Constantine's "Nowhere People" Wendy S. Hesford (bio) and Amy Shuman (bio) In "Nowhere People: The Global Face of Statelessness," the photojournalist Greg Constantine documents the conditions of statelessness and the lives of stateless people across the globe. The online version of the exhibition consists of several multimedia compilations and photo-essays on the Rohinyga in Burma, Dalit in Nepal, Bihari in Bangladesh, Hill Tamils in Sri Lanka, children in the state of Sabah in Malaysia, Nubians in Kenya, and ex-Soviets in Ukraine. As Constantine notes in his introductory materials, the United Nations estimates that nearly fifteen million people are stateless: "Statelessness can come as a result of conflict, shifting borders or in the creation of a new state, but in most cases, statelessness is rooted in discrimination and intolerance." Constantine's stated rhetorical intent is evidentiary; he wants to counter the invisibility of statelessness and "provide tangible documentation of proof that millions of people hidden and forgotten all over the world actually exist." 1 Although we approach Constantine's documentary project from distinct disciplinary perspectives as professors of rhetoric and folklore, we share an interest in understanding the pragmatic and ethical challenges of representing the conditions of statelessness and, more broadly, the circulation of knowledge about human rights violations. Constantine's stated goal is to "document and expose the human face and personal histories and stories of stateless people." We are interested in the conditions of this invisibility. Constantine points out that "stateless people are invisible to most." We ask, for whom are the stateless invisible? In asking "for whom" the stateless are invisible and "to whom" their newly staged global visibility is addressed we aim to contextualize the evidentiary promise of "Nowhere People." Through the examination of the disciplinary protocols, the aesthetic principles, and the symbols that designate social groupings and to which human rights representations are tethered, we hope to show how Constantine navigates these protocols. Given that the tools to create and distribute images have democratized and the subaltern increasingly can and does speak directly for herself, we ask what role photojournalists and scholars can play in the generation of human rights contexts and witnessing publics. Social media may be transforming the power dynamics of human rights representation, but we should not overestimate the impact of technological innovations or underestimate the valiant efforts and material risks that those resisting repressive regimes continue to face. Additionally, we should attend to the risks of romanticizing stateless subjects or unmooring representations of statelessness from the contexts and technologies that shape their production, reception, and circulation as part of a [End Page 315] broader visual human rights culture. In The Spectatorship of Suffering, Lilie Chouliaraki argues that "the ethical disposition that connects spectators with the distant sufferer depends on the capacity of . . . symbolic practices to produce proximity with sufferers and propose action to alleviate their misfortunes." 2 We add that in addition to producing proximity, our ethical responsibility also requires what Dominick LaCapra refers to as "empathic unsettlement," critical awareness of the differences that limit proximity. 3 Constantine's photographs provide evidence of a variety of proximities, including the intimacies between the subjects themselves, between the photographer and the subjects of the photographs (about which we know very little in this case), and between distant spectators and the photographs. 4 Even (or especially) humanizing photographs, which might alert and awaken distant audiences to injustices, call attention to the limits of understanding, empathy, and identification. Constantine's photographs invite provocative questions; for example, once a situation is made visible, to whom is it legible, and what are the conditions of its legibility? Photojournalists working in the field of human rights use certain compositional techniques (such as the close-up facial portrait) to simulate visual proximity between sufferers and distant spectators. Yet the political efficacy of such aesthetic practices, we want to suggest, lies not only in the humanization of the suffering "other" but in the capacity of the producers and receivers of such images to generate interactive human rights contexts, however provisional, which interrogate social injustices and imagine a "just" future. The responsibility for documenting human rights violations does not lie solely with violated subjects...

Providing Care to Patients with AIDS: How Prepared are Nigerian Physiotherapists

Adequate knowledge and core affective traits are important for effective management of patients with contagious diseases or conditions like AIDS. This study aimed to assess Nigerian physiotherapists’ cognitive and affective traits in providing care to patients living with AIDS (PWA). Methods: Physiotherapists across Nigeria (N=132) were surveyed using a 43-item questionnaire that elicited information on their demographic characteristics, knowledge of transmission, universal precaution and pathophysiology on AIDS, their feeling of preparedness, comfort, ethical disposition to care for PWA and their willingness to assess and provide intervention to PWA in different clinical scenarios.Results: The physiotherapists’ knowledge of AIDS pathophysiology was unsatisfactory, half of them did not have satisfactory knowledge of precaution, one-third recorded unsatisfactory score on feeling of comfort and ethical disposition, and one-fifth did not feel adequately prepared to care for PWA. Knowledge of transmission, pathophysiology and ethical disposition were respectively influenced by physiotherapists’ religious affiliation, rank and gender. Marital status, previous experience in caring for PWA, and gender were influential to willingness to evaluate and treat in two and three clinical scenarios respectively. Physiotherapists were less willing to provide whirlpool wound care procedures compared to other procedural interventions. Conclusions: The study identified improvement need in the cognitive and affective domain of learning among these practitioners in the care of PWA.

ETYKA ZAWODOWA - JAK TO DZIAŁA?

The aim of paper is seeking the answer of the question, how professional ethics acts as empirical phenomenon. The starting point is assumption about natural ethical disposition oh the man. In different professional situations the moral conflicts and dilemmas appears. The resolve thems moral maturality of the person is necessary, and group - oriented building of social trust. In the paper were described: regulation of professional conduct, forming professional standards and process of making ethical professional decisions. Moral intensity, framing of professional group and social expectations are complementary elements of social process in which professional ethics acts.

Who’s Who and What’s What? Special Education Services for Foster Care Students

This case describes the educational experiences of a foster care student named Chad. His foster parents and teacher notice educational deficits and express concern about gaps in the student’s cumulative educational record. The principal and special education director must guide all constituents to adhere to special education mandates and at the same time promote an ethical disposition toward the newly enrolled student. The case provides an opportunity for preservice and inservice administrators to analyze a situation (foster care) for which they may not have any professional or personal experiences to inform their leadership. The use of Bronstein’s theoretical model of interdisciplinary collaboration informs relevant discussion and analysis.

Gender and Corruption: Understanding the Increasing Role of Nigerian Women in Corrupt Practices.

This paper interrogates the corresponding increase of Nigerian women in corrupt practices within the spell of their marginal appropriation into political and bureaucratic life. It argues that corruption or lack of it does not inhere in gender as a biological trait; rather, it is inherent in the institutional mechanisms that shapes and conditions the ethical dispositions of its players irrespective of their gender. Consequently, we contend that the corrupt nature of Nigeria‟s bureaucracy and the renteer political system that appropriate women into the bureaucratic and political spheres predispose them to corruption and makes their involvement inevitable.Keywords: Gender, corruption, electoral system, godfatherism, party-politics, integrity

Gatekeepers or facilitators: the influence of teacher habitus on students’ applications to elite universities

Low application rates of state school students to elite universities have been identified as a factor in their limited participation in elite universities. This article explores the role of teachers in state schools and colleges in guiding higher education (HE) choice. Drawing on qualitative research with teachers and students in six institutions, we identify differential practices that corroborate explanations of an ‘institutional habitus’ shaping students’ likely pathways to HE. However, we suggest that attention is paid to teacher habitus, demonstrating how teachers’ political and ethical dispositions as well as their social capital are potential factors shaping students’ decision‐making about HE, and elite university applications in particular.

Preparing for politics: Judith Butler's ethical dispositions

The question of Judith Butler's ‘politics’ and their normative justification has been raised by critics and supporters alike for some time. The number of recent texts dedicated to this topic suggests that it remains an unresolved and still pressing question. I argue that in order to identify and evaluate the political implications of Butler's work, we must first recognize the relationship and distinction between four vectors of her thinking: her diagnosis of the human condition, her expression of specific normative aspirations, her defense of a distinct ethical comportment and finally her theory of political engagement. I conclude that Butler implicitly counsels the cultivation of certain ethical dispositions, including generosity, humility, patience and restraint, as part of a practice of preparing to engage in a kind of politics that breaks radically with the mastery- and sovereignty-seeking variety all too familiar to us in contemporary times.

The private is political: Women and family in intellectual Islam

In Hiba Ra’uf’s Woman and Political Work, she argues that the family is the basic political unit of the Islamic community or nation (the umma). Her thesis is both feminist and Islamist, as she argues that the ‘private is political’. By drawing analogies between family and umma, family and caliphate, the personal and the political, the private and public, Ra’uf seeks to dismantle the oppositions of secular society, to challenge the division of society into discrete spheres. This entails an implicit challenge to the secular state, but effected through the politics of the family. An Islamic family, she argues, is a powerful site for the transformation of socio-political institutions; a politics of the microcosmic with macrocosmic ramifications, effected through the very embodiment and practice of an Islamic ethos at a grassroots, capillary level. However, though Ra’uf contests liberal secularism’s division of spheres with feminist and Islamist critical methods, she reproduces some of its fundamental assumptions about the nature of the family: as the domain of religion, in opposition to the secular state; as rooting community, in opposition to the individualism of the citizen; as an ethics grounded in affect; and as an essentially feminine world. In making the family the sphere of Islamic politics, Ra’uf re-enacts secularism’s division of spheres, sacralizing the affective bonds of intimate relations and making the family the domain of religion. Furthermore, by emphasizing the family as the domain of women’s political work, she reinscribes the family as a feminine sphere, so that woman’s vocation is familial, as is her ethical disposition.

IN-BETWEEN THE OTHER AND THE THING EMBEDDING ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION IN AN ETHICAL DISPOSITION

Whereas traditionally proper conduct on the part of the architect implied loyalty to a patron and to a craft-guild, in Modernism ethics came to constitute a major component of the normative approach of architecture towards form and design principles. Since the 1960s, this approach has been severely criticized for its contents. However, the conviction that architecture needs an ethical backbone has persisted unequivocally. This paper suggests that prior to form and design principles, which necessarily vary in place and time, an ethical disposition should be cultivated that relates architecture to a larger sense of life. The paper outlines a platform for such an ethically oriented architectural disposition, rooted in the triple cornerstone of “I”, “The Other” and “Thing” - major phenomenological concepts in the writings of Husserl, Levinas and Merleau-Ponty. Although these universal concepts are ultimately irreconcilable, they are strongly recommended as part of architectural education precisely because architectural acts are so particular and specific. Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, whose research focused on the nature of intelligence, problem-solving and decision making, classified architecture as one of the “sciences of the artificial,” centered on the intentional action of design (Simon, 1969). Architecture, unlike science, is not about the world but involved in the world, intending to transform it through projects grounded in intentions, ends, and values (d’Anjou, 2004:211). As such, architecture necessarily embodies an ethical dimension; a nexus of ethics that is embedded in architecture (Wasserman et al., Spector, 2001; Ray 2005) The nexus has a history (Bell, 1990:25) and a current situation, and it is against the backdrop of this current situation that this paper aims to outline an ethical platform for architectural education.

Knowledge and affective traits of physiotherapy students to provide care for patients living with AIDS.

Purpose: This study aimed to assess Nigerian physiotherapy students’ knowledge and their affective traits in caring for patients living with AIDS (PWA).Methods: Nigerian students (N=104) in four training programs were surveyed using a 43-item questionnaire that elicited information on the students’ demographics characteristics, knowledge levels on AIDS transmission, universal precaution and pathophysiology, their feeling of preparedness, comfort, ethical disposition for PWA and their willingness to evaluate and provide care to PWA in different clinical scenarios.Results: Overall the students showed unsatisfactory know ledge of universal precaution and AIDS pathophysiology and did not feel comfortable or prepared to care for PWA. The students did not also show satisfactory ethical disposition and may be unwilling to care for PWA. The students’ knowledge levels on AIDS transmission and willingness were influenced by religious affiliation while feeling of comfort and ethical disposition were influenced by gender and knowing someone living with AIDS. They were more unwilling to provide whirlpool wound care procedures and chest physiotherapy compared to providing gait training, therapeutic exercise and activities of daily living training for PWA.Conclusion: The study identified the need to improve the curriculum on AIDS and recommends clinical clerkship and a methodical and sequential exposure of students to cases during clinical rotations.

Is gender inclusivity an answer to ethical issues in business? An Indian stance

PurposeIf females are more ethical than males, as the literature on the subject generally suggests, engaging and encouraging females in their careers would certainly promote an ethical environment. The present paper is motivated by such a viewpoint and aims to investigate gender‐based differences in the ethical disposition and the underlying dimensions in ethical decision‐making processes, by specific examination of business students.Design/methodology/approachThe main research instrument is a quantitative questionnaire through which the responses of 162 business students (45 females and 117 males) are examined. For data analysis univariate analysis by invoking one‐way analysis of variance and multivariate approach using cluster analysis are conducted to investigate gender‐based differences in the ethical disposition. To determine the underlying dimensions in ethical decision‐making processes, for female and male business students, the principal axis approach to factor analysis has been used.FindingsThe findings provide evidence that female business students are more ethically predisposed than their male counterparts. It is further observed that males exhibit less diversity in ethical decision making while females more readily invoked different ethical dimensions for different business scenarios.Originality/valueThe paper offers valuable insight into the role of gender in ethics in the context of Indian business. The fact that females appear to demonstrate greater sensitivity on ethical issues suggests that practitioners may want to use this knowledge for developing their organizational strategies, ethical codes, and evaluation systems. Further, the study also highlights the importance of realigning the curriculum in a manner that the teaching of ethics becomes an integral part of business school education.

Moral Sources and Emergent Ethical Theories in Social Work

This paper examines the feminist ethics of care as an emergent ethical theory that casts ethical dispositions in a different way to the deontological focus on duties and rules and consequentialist–utilitarian focus on minimising harm. It is closer to, though different from, virtue ethics with its focus on moral character. The paper highlights the philosophical tensions within and between these disparate theories, suggesting nevertheless that discussions about ethics are enriched by these diverse influences. Since it is not possible within the scope of this paper to deal with all of these ethical theories in depth, following a brief overview of the more established theory of deontology, virtue ethics and the ethics of care are discussed. While the feminist ethics of care attempts to provide a more complete view of morality and ethics in social work, there are important philosophical problems with which social work needs to engage in order to discern whether it offers a better understanding of morality than existing approaches in social work ethics and whether it can address the complexities of the problems social workers deal with and the harsh practice environments in which they work where the ‘practice of value’ is becoming ever more difficult and strong reasons to care must be found.

Direct and Multiplicative Effects of Ethical Dispositions and Ethical Climates on Personal Justice Norms: A Virtue Ethics Perspective

From virtue ethics and interactionist perspectives, we hypothesized that personal justice norms (distributive and procedural justice norms) were shaped directly and multiplicatively by ethical dispositions (equity sensitivity and need for structure) and ethical climates (egoistic, benevolent, and principle climates). We collected multisource data from 123 companies in Hong Kong, with personal factors assessed by participants’ self-reports and contextual factors by aggregations of their peers. In general, LISREL analyses with latent product variables supported the direct and multiplicative relationships. Our findings could lay the groundwork for justice research from a morality perspective in future.

Developing Val Plumwood's Dialogical Ethical Ontology and Its Consequences for a Place-Based Ethic

This essay attempts to develop the foundations of what Val Plumwood calls a dialogical ethical ontology. I defend Plumwood's analysis situating the conceptual roots of the environmental crisis in dualistic thinking, but disagree that a solution is arrived at in an intentional, teleological conception of nature. Rather than arguing for a substantial union of mind and nature, I argue that a relational ontology ought to be adopted. This analysis is carried out by examining three aspects of Plumwood's philosophy: the ascription of mind-like properties to nature, her taking nature to be autonomous on the basis of that ascription, and the claim that sensitivity to place is necessary to the development of ethical dispositions toward nature. I conclude by presenting how her ethical views might be adjusted to accommodate the transition from a substantial ontology to a relational one.

Solon of Athens and the Ethics of Good Business

The ancient lawgiver Solon of Athens left norms of proper conduct that carry important ethical implications for all manner of human affairs, including commercial activities and the pursuit of wealth. In his extant poetry, he emphasizes the strong connections between individual virtue and its consequences in the social and political sphere. In considering the proper means of obtaining material wealth, he describes multiple ways to earn a living and connects them to proper intellectual and ethical dispositions through a concept of justice. This focus on virtue establishes a long-range ethics that is based on a principle of justice, demands rational intellectual activity, and carries implications for everyone’s self-interest. Solon’s concern for matters of virtue, the proper means of attaining wealth, and the need for long-range awareness of consequences offers a valuable point of historical focus for our own examinations of business ethics today.

Second Language Teacher Education: International Perspectives

Contents: S.J. Hudelson, Foreword. Preface. Part I: The Knowledge Base of Second Language Teacher Education. D.J. Tedick, Introduction. E. Tarone, D. Allwright, Second Language Teacher Learning and Student Second Language Learning: Shaping the Knowledge Base. D. Freeman, K.E. Johnson, Response to Tarone and Allwright. A. Scarino, Introspection and Retrospection as Windows on Teacher Knowledge, Values, and Ethical Dispositions. B. Johnston, F. Pawan, R. Mahan-Taylor, The Professional Development of Working ESL/EFL Teachers: A Pilot Study. D. Freeman, K.E. Johnson, Toward Linking Teacher Knowledge and Student Learning. Part II: Contexts of Second Language Teacher Education. D.J. Tedick, Introduction. E. Shohamy, The Power of Tests Over Teachers: The Power of Teachers Over Tests. S. Hiramatsu, Contexts and Policy Reform: A Case Study of EFL Teaching in High School in Japan. H. Byrnes, Toward a Comprehensive Conceptualization of Teaching Assistant Education: Contents, Commitments, Structures. L. Poynor, A Conscious and Deliberate Intervention: The Influence of Language Teacher Education. Part III: Collaborations in Second Language Teacher Education. D.J. Tedick, Introduction. J. Edge, Build It and They Will Come: Realising Values in ESOL Teacher Education. L.C.Smith, The Impact of Action Research on Teacher Collaboration and Professional Growth. S. Cormany, C. Maynor, J. Kalnin, Developing Self, Developing Curriculum, and Developing Theory: Researchers in Residence at Patrick Henry Professional Practice School. N.E. Dubetz, Improving ESL Instruction in a Bilingual Program Through Collaborative, Inquiry-Based Professional Development. Part IV: Second Language Teacher Education in Practice. D.J. Tedick, Introduction. M.A. Snow, Key Themes in TESOL MA Teacher Education. N. Cloud, The Dialogic Process of Capturing and Building Teacher Practical Knowledge in Dual Language Programs. T. Erben, Teacher Education Through Immersion and Immersion Teacher Education: An Australian Case. M. Bigelow, D.J. Tedick, Combining Foreign and Second Language Teacher Education: Rewards and Challenges. C.L. Walker, S. Ranney, T.W. Fortune, Preparing Preservice Teachers for English Language Learners: A Content-Based Approach.

Children's Narratives of Post-Divorce Family Life: From Individual Experience to an Ethical Disposition

This article draws on interviews with 60 children and young people to explore how they construct narrative accounts of post-divorce family life. Rather than seeking to describe children's experiences as if their accounts are simple factual recollections, the focus of the article is on how young people position themselves in their narratives and the ways in which they construct their past experiences. It is argued that these narratives are multi-layered, often revealing ambivalence and contradictions. The conclusion turns to the question of whether these individual accounts can give rise to what might be referred to as an ethical disposition in which children's experiences can inform a broader social ethos on how to divorce ‘in the proper manner'.

Can students’ reasons for choosing set answers to ethical vignettes be reliably rated? Development and testing of a method

Although ethics is an important part of modern curricula, measures of students’ ethical disposition have not been easy to develop. A potential method is to assess students’ written justifications for selecting one option from a preset range of answers to vignettes and compare these justifications with predetermined ‘expert’ consensus. We describe the development of and reliability estimation for such a method – the Ethics in Health Care Instrument (EHCI). Seven raters classified the responses of ten subjects to nine vignettes, on two occasions. The first stage of analysis involved raters’ judging how consistent with consensus were subjects’ justifications using generalizability theory, and then rating consensus responses on the action justification and values recognition hierarchies.The inter-rater reliability was 0.39 for the initial rating. Differential performance on questions was identified as the largest source of variance. Hence reliability was investigated also for students’ total scores over the nine consensus vignettes. Rater effects were the largest source of variance identified. Examination of rater performance showed lack of rater consistency. D-studies were performed which showed acceptable reliability could nevertheless be obtained using four raters per EHCI.This study suggests that the EHCI has potential as an assessment instrument although further testing is required of all components of the methodology.