What is Ethical Education Dr Laura Dooley Secondlevel

What is Ethical Education? Dr. Laura Dooley Second-level Education Officer Educate Together

Ethical Education • Ethical Education involves exploring different worldviews and beliefs, considering ethical dilemmas and the process of ethical decision making. • It enlightens, challenges and widens our perspective of the world. • It encourages reflection and engagement with local and global issues. • It teaches us to think of ourselves as citizens of our local and global communities with a shared responsibility for ensuring equality and human rights are extended to all people and inspires us to act to achieve this common goal • Ethical Education invites students and teachers to engage with issues and problems facing society and aims to develop the skills of critical thinking, discussion and debate.

Ethical Education aims to extend and hone students’ ability to: • To explore local and global issues • To question and investigate their own beliefs, values and worldview and those of others • To improve understanding and practice of ethical behavior and meaningful action in the face of injustice and inequality • To develop empathy and intercultural awareness • To hone communication, discussion, debate and critical thinking skills

Ethical Education Curriculum • Values • Making Moral & Ethical Decisions • Beliefs and Worldviews • Different Teachings & Perspectives • Diversity in Ireland • Migration • Power and participation • Gender equality • Development Education Learn Together • Moral and Spiritual • Ethics and the Environment • Equality and Justice • Belief Systems • www. learning. educateto gether. ie

What is the difference between Ethics and Ethical Education? • Ethics is the study of moral principles. One’s ethics or ethical stance refers to their standards of right and wrong. • Ethical Education is concerned with developing students’ awareness of their ethics and ethical stance and how this has been influenced, but it also involves teaching them to consider and apply ethical lenses to different equality and justice issues and encourages students to act in an ethically responsible way in response to them.

Ethical Education Intercultural education Human Rights education Philosophy Religious education Citizenship education

Ethical Education at Senior Cycle Ø Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism • How do our values influence what we believe is “right” and “wrong”? • Case Study: Online Communities- Ethics, Anthropology and Ethnography Ø Gender Equality • Gender Quotas and Gender roles • Case Study: Waking the Feminists Ø Teaching a Junior Cycle Ethical Education lesson

Learning outcomes • 1. 3 Create a personal values ‘time capsule’ letter and give to their teacher for safekeeping until towards the end of the course. • 2. 1 Compare and apply 5 different approaches to Ethical Decision Making. (Utilitarian approach, Rights approach, Fairness or Justice approach, Common Good approach, Virtue approach)

Ethical Education Curriculum Values Making Moral and Ethical Decisions Beliefs and Worldviews Different Teachings and Perspectives Diversity in Ireland Migration Power and participation Gender Equality Global Citizenship Education

Learning Outcomes • 3. 4 Work as part of a group to investigate different beliefs and worldviews which may include a focus on how significant life events are marked. • 4. 1 Study a number of diverse texts, narratives and myths and compare how they communicate particular beliefs and worldviews. • 5. 4 Examine images of Ireland “Irishness” used in advertising, tourism and films and analyse how representative they are of diversity in Ireland.

Learning Outcomes • 6. 5 Analyse how the Direct Provision system upholds or violates asylum seekers’ Human Rights. • 7. 1 Create a model of power relations in the school. What role do teachers, parents, teachers, the principal, the board of management, school patron bodies and the Department of Education play in creating and implementing rules and guidelines? • 8. 4 Explain why a chosen film does or does not meet the requirements for the Bechdel test.

Learning Outcomes • 9. 5 Work with others to devise and/or participate in a school or web-based intercultural event or initiative to celebrate diversity, promote equality, challenge negative stereotyping/discrimination and develop cross-cultural dialogue eg. Show Racism the Red Card.

Creating a conducive classroom environment • How would you like to be treated by other students when you are working together in class? • How should we treat each other when we disagree about serious issues? • What are your rights and responsibilities as a member of the class?

• What does listening look like? • What does listening sound like? • What does respectful discussion look like? • What does respectful discussion sound like?

Good practice • Small groups • Recording points of consensus and disagreement • Quiet reflection time/ Time out • Written responses • Reviewing and recapping

Speed debate • “Zoos are cruel” • • • 1 - Strongly agree 2 - Agree 3 - Unsure 4 - Disagree 5 - Strongly disagree

• Tackling Controversial Issues • www. learning. educatetogether. ie