Hogan, Padraig
(2010)
Preface to an ethics of education as a practice in its own right.
Ethics and Education, 5 (2).
pp. 85-98.
ISSN 1744-9642
Abstract
Education as a practice in its own right (or sui generis practice) invokes
quite a different set of ethical considerations than does education
understood as a subordinate activity – i.e. prescribed and controlled in
its essentials by the current powers-that-be in a society. But the idea of
education as a vehicle for the ‘values’ of a particular group or party is so
commonplace, from history’s legacy as well as from ongoing waves of
educational reforms, as to appear a quite natural one. So much is this case
that the idea of education as a sui generis practice may seem a bit eccentric
at first sight. Some preliminary work is called for then to render intelligible
the claim that education is indeed a practice in its own right, and to
illustrate the original starting point this gives for an exploration of
educational ethics. In undertaking this preliminary work, central themes
from two major sources are explored and reviewed: Richard Peters’ wellknown
study Ethics and education and MacIntyre’s After virtue. The
suggestive merits of both works for advancing a sui generis understanding
of education and its conduct are identified. But crucial occlusions are also
highlighted in the arguments of both authors, the recognition of which
might have enabled their thinking on educational matters to venture onto a
different plane. The kind of thinking that emerges from these investigations
as most promising for educational ethics is seen to differ in its key features
from what the various branches of academic philosophy have to offer by
way of ethical theory.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
sui generis practice; inherent purposes; justification;
practitioner; universality; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
| Item ID: |
8586 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449641003794173 |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Padraig Hogan,
|
| Date Deposited: |
09 Aug 2017 10:37 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Ethics and Education |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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