Ethics And International Curriculum Work

The widely cited, though highly contested, idea that “the world is flat” (Friedman, 2004) carries with it a call for education to provide a leveling effect across continents and cultures Students in Skokie or in Skopje, as the theory goes, are expected to experience a school curriculum that shares certain common elements, goals, and purposes. Such a globalized view is not, however, without its complications. This book addresses some of the issues that arise when the transmigration of educational ideas occurs, with a particular eye toward the ethical dilemmas that curriculum workers face in international contexts. The authors who have contributed to this volume explore, through case examples and critical reflection, what happens when ideas that are drawn from one set of cultural norms and experiences is introduced into other cultural contexts. In many cases these are the stories of “donors” and “hosts,” of structured inequities of power and influence, of disparities in material resources, and, as expressed in one of the cases, the dynamics of the “colonizer” and the “colonized.” A recurrent theme concerns the challenges faced by educators working internationally to reconcile their own ethical predispositions toward equity and cultural responsiveness with certain tacit assumptions about the appropriateness or value of curriculum practices brought from the “developed” world for teachers and students in the “developing” world. How these dilemmas are navigated forms the content of this collection of reports from the field written by those who engage in this complex and important work. While the content of this volume is situated at the intersection between the field of curriculum studies and comparative education, it is fundamentally a book about curriculum. Most of the authors come from various disciplinary backgrounds with specializations in curriculum development in content areas such as social studies, geography, or mathematics. As “outsiders looking in” on the field of international education and with thoughtful reflections grounded in practice, the authors provide a new set of insights into the challenges of international curriculum work. Finally, since many of the questions raised by the work included here are ethical in nature, the book begins and ends with analyses that link the practical realities presented in the cases with contemporary philosophical thought. This, then, can be seen as the primary contribution of the book to the educational literature as it offers a careful and well-articulated synthesis of theory and practice in the field of international curriculum work. This publication would make an important contribution to courses in curriculum theory and practice, comparative and international education, and international development outside of the field of education.

This book features articles by more than twenty experienced teachers of ethics who are committed to the idea that ethics can and should be taught virtually anywhere in the education curriculum. They explore a variety of ways in which this might best be done. Traditionally confined largely to programs in philosophy and religion, the teaching of ethics has in recent decades spread across the curriculum education. The contributors to this book discuss the rationale for supporting such efforts, the variety of challenges these efforts face, and the sorts of benefits faculty and students who participate in ethics across the curriculum endeavors can expect. An overriding theme of this book is that the teaching of ethics should not be restricted to one or two courses in philosophy or religion programs, but rather be addressed wherever relevant anywhere in the curriculum. For example, accredited engineering programs are expected to ensure that their students are introduced to the ethical dimensions of engineering. This can involve consideration of ethical issues within particular areas of engineering (e.g., civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical) as distinctive segments of certain courses (e.g., those that focus on design problems), or as a full semester course in ethics in engineering. Similar approaches can be taken in nursing, medicine, law, social work, psychology, accountancy, management, and so on. That is, some emphasis on ethics can be expected to be found in broad range of academic disciplines. However, many ethical issues require careful attention from the perspectives of several disciplines at once, and in ways that require their joining hands. Recognizing that adequately addressing many ethical issues may require the inclusion of perspectives from a variety of disciplines makes apparent the need for effective communication and reflection across disciplines, not simply within them. This, in turn, suggests that faculty and their students can benefit from special programs that are designed to include participants from a variety of disciplines. Such programs will be a central feature of this book. Although some differences might arise in how such issues might best be discussed across different parts of the curriculum, these discussions might be joined in ways that help students, faculty, administrators, and the wider public better appreciate their shared ethical ground.

Structured around the Equality Act and written collaboratively, Diverse Educators: A Manifesto aims to capture the collective voice of the teaching community and to showcase the diverse lived experiences of educators.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume argues for the need of a common ground that bridges leadership studies, curriculum theory, and Didaktik. It proposes a non-affirmative education theory and its core concepts along with discursive institutionalism as an analytical tool to bridge these fields. It concludes with implications of its coherent theoretical framing for future empirical research. Recent neoliberal policies and transnational governance practices point toward new tensions in nation state education. These challenges affect governance, leadership and curriculum, involving changes in aims and values that demand coherence. Yet, the traditionally disparate fields of educational leadership, curriculum theory and Didaktik have developed separately, both in terms of approaches to theory and theorizing in USA, Europe and Asia, and in the ways in which these theoretical traditions have informed empirical studies over time. An additional aspect is that modern education theory was developed in relation to nation state education, which, in the meantime, has become more complicated due to issues of ‘globopolitanism’. This volume examines the current state of affairs and addresses the issues involved. In doing so, it opens up a space for a renewed and thoughtful dialogue to rethink and re-theorize these traditions with non-affirmative education theory moving beyond social reproduction and social transformation perspectives.

Social work ethics provide practitioners with guidance on how to promote social work values such as respect, social justice, human relationships, service, competence, and integrity. Students entering the profession need to develop a real-world understanding of how to apply these values in practice while also managing the dilemmas that arise when social workers, clients, and others encounter conflicting values and ethical obligations. Ethics and Values in Social Work offers a comprehensive set of teaching and learning materials to help students develop the knowledge, self-awareness, and critical thinking skills required to handle values and ethical issues in all levels of practice--individual, family, group, organization, community, and social policy. BSW and MSW students will particularly appreciate how complex ethical obligations and theories have been translated into plain language. Additionally, the comprehensive set of case examples and exercises provides realistic scenarios to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills across a range of practice situations.

This book illustrates the relationship between politics and the ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues are taught in schools. This book examines relationships between society, schools, and LGBTQ inclusion in order to understand perennial issues related to critical democratic education, and how schools are responding to generational shifts in ideology. By conducting a case study comparison of California and Utah, Camicia provides an in-depth view of the politically and culturally different landscapes that shape LGBTQ curriculum in schools. This book will synthesize and extend theoretical frameworks to describe, analyze, and interpret the shifting landscapes in public education as they relate to LGBTQ issues in schools. Through queer theory and democratic education theory, Camicia offers recommendations to public schools and teacher educators about socially just ways to create inclusive LGBTQ curriculum.

Barton and Ho present a global vision of social and civic education, one that reorients the field toward justice and harmony. Drawing from diverse philosophical and cultural traditions, as well as empirical research, they introduce curriculum principles designed to motivate and inform students’ thoughtful and compassionate deliberation of public issues. This book argues that the curriculum must prepare young people to take action on issues of justice and harmony—societal ideals that are central to all communities. Effective action depends on deliberation characterized by emotional commitment, collaborative problem-solving, and engagement with diverse perspectives and forms of expression. Deliberation for public action also requires knowledge—of people’s lives and experiences, their insights into social issues, and strategies for advancing justice and harmony. These curriculum principles are illustrated through case studies of public housing, food insecurity, climate change, gender bias, public health, exploitation of domestic workers, incarceration of racialized minorities, the impact of development and environmental change on Indigenous communities, and other pressing global concerns. For additional resources and related information, please visit the authors’ website, www.justiceandharmony.com.