I. Course Description

This course examines in detail how one justifies ethical choices and the nature of controversy resulting from differences in ethical perspective. It examines the role of education in relating values to behavior, and the conditions of personal responsibility. It looks at policies that purport to pursue various educational values, the conceptions of justice underlying them and their relationship to both the mechanisms and actualities of benefit-cost distributions in our society.

The texts for the course will be available as indicated below. They are:

Clabaugh & Rozycki, Analyzing Controversy, 2nd Edition NewFoundations Press 2003 (download NOW, if you are a class member. Use the password emailed to you to open it. Read this ASAP.)

Rozycki, Workbook in Values & Ethics NewFoundations Press 2003 (available as a pdf file on a CD given out at first class. For contents of CD, click here.)

Hinman, Ethics: A pluralistic approach to moral theory Thomson/Wadsworth 2003 (order from Amazon, or similar companies online ASAP. You should get a response in two to three days. Order this now and familiarize yourself with it.)

RECOMMENDED FOR DISCUSSION AND QUIZ EXAMPLES: Robert Jackall (1988) Moral Mazes: the world of corporate managers. NewYork:Oxford. Paperback. ISBN0-19-506080-6 (Examine for parallels in educational administration.)

II. Major Course Objective: Through student and instructor presentations, reading, critique, and discussion, the participant will understand and be able to analyze ethical controversies and recognize ideological and other factors which have shaped the ethics of educational practice.

III. Learning Activities

Teaching methodologies will include the use of case study analysis techniques, lectures, dialogue, diagnostic sessions, visual displays, question and answer periods, situational simulations and immediate evaluation feedback.

IV. Evaluation: Evaluation : grades will be primarily based on a short paper addressing an ethical issue, due one week after the last class. This will be 75% of your grade. Also, a series of "mini-comps" will be given. These will be based on class discussions and readings and administered so as to mimic the actual Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations. Passing grades on 80% of them is required (but not sufficient) to achieve the grade of A.

Grades Range from A (4.0), A- (3.7), B+ (3.3), B (3.0), B- (2.7), C (2.0), F (0.0). Incompletes (I) will be given for good reason if work remains unfinished at the end of the course. The highest makeup grade for an incomplete is a B.

V. Requirements (click for details)

A. Individual or group presentations on specific topics from the texts. (Click for Samples with critiques)

B. Constructive critiques written in reaction to the presentations of other classmates.

C. Passing grades on 60% of in-class minicomps.

D. A final paper responding to the class critiques of the original presentation.

Class size and the compressed schedule may require adaptations or changes in the requirements of this course. See, especially, Ethical Argument, Practical Proposal. This will be the preferred form of your paper.

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