The Moral Contours of Teacher Education

In this article, I describe the nature of and necessity for moral reasoning in everyday life and in programs in teacher education, consider ways teacher educators can consider moral issues with their students, and provide examples of how some educators have incorporated such issues in actual and proposed programs. Exchanges over school issues with moral connotations often focus on controversies such as censorship of books, appropriateness of sex education, or the legitimacy of creationism versus evolutionism. The Christian Coalition, other fundamentalist organizations, and groups with different perspectives have provoked controversies like these. Some recent efforts of the New Right have sought to regain what they perceive as lost intellectual ground, with cultural and ethical repercussions (Bennett, 1989; Cheney, 1988; Wynne, 1987; Wynne & Ryan, 1993). This ground was lost, so the argument goes, because of changes in the canon in higher education; progressive alternatives to more mainstream educational programs in public schools, especially during the 1960s; movements that promoted greater diversity and inclusiveness within the curriculum as well as among students; and a focus on issues of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation in public school and college classrooms. Those with alternative intellectual and political commitments (Asante, 1991,1992; Delpit, 1995; Gates, 1992; hooks; 1994; Kozol, 1991) have, in turn, challenged the perspective and agenda of the New Right. Such debates demonstrate that education is an ethically and politically contested domain, that the articulation of different points of view on basic moral questions is a central element of the educative process (Beyer & Liston, 1996). At the same time, these debates may be misleading, for they tend to be characterized by particularly heated, even inflammatory exchanges, accompanied by shrill, sometimes personalized accusations and counter-accusations that divide people into sides that talk past, rather than to or with, each other. Debates that grab headlines in the local and national media like those between proponents of creationism and evolutionism may hide the fact that value-laden perspectives underlie a good deal of the commonplace in education, and indeed help shape daily school practice. Moral Issues and Moral Reasoning Moral discourse operates on questions or dilemmas resolved neither by reference to empirical realities nor by logical or linguistic analyses, though the latter may clarify the relevant issues involved in moral disagreements. Moral questions arise whenever we ponder what is the right thing to do, or when we are puzzled about competing claims to action and the values on which those claims rest. Moral deliberation is central to daily lives as well as to decisions about social justice; for instance, in issues ranging from how I treat others on a day-to-day basis, to what my obligations are to members of my community, to what public policies will most help the least advantaged members of society. We may disagree about what makes for a good, responsible, or fulfilling life, as well as about the actions most likely contributing to the realization of that life. Discussion of alternative conceptions of the good life may not be commonplace outside some university classrooms and religious institutions, but issues concerning the politics of affirmative action and the legitimacy of capital punishment frequently contain implicit conceptions of what a good or worthwhile life is. Similarly, concrete classroom questions like those concerning which curriculum content should be selected, what student socialization patterns should be reinforced, what pedagogical practices should be emphasized, and when, how, and by whom evaluative activities should be incorporated, must be understood in relation to ideas about what constitutes a good or rewarding life (Beyer & Apple, in press; Macdonald, 1975). …