Are ethics a thinv to be taught?

1. CAN WE TEACH ETHICS?
Mackenzie Chibambo
mackchibambo@gmail.com 1

2. Lesson objectives
• By the end of this lesson, you should be able
to answer the question: Can teachers teach
ethics? How can/should they teach?
• The challenges faced in the teaching of
ethical and moral education.
• Explain the differences between morality and
ethics.
• Trace the origins of ethics and morality.
• Explore some ethical theories as the sources
of the challenges faced by moral educators.
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3. Distinguishing Ethics from Morality
• The two maybe used interchangeably, but are
different.
• Ethics refer to the justification of the rules.
• Ethical codes defines acceptable behavior but
have nothing to do with cosmic
righteousness.
• In institutions, ethics help build the image of
the organization. Rule breakers are hence
punished.
• Schools have codes of conduct
teachers/students follow. 3

4. MORALS
• Morals are individuals' own guiding
principles regarding right or wrong/good or
bad.
• A moral person seeks to do the right and
good thing.
• A moral precept is an idea driven by the
desire to be good.
• A moral impulse usually means best
intentions.
• Our idea of morals is shaped by our
environment, values and or beliefs.
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5. ORIGINSOF ETHICSANDMORALITY
• Pure ethical(moral) theories begin with
ancient Greek philosophers (Sophists,
Socrates and others).
• Later early English positivists joined the
debates during the Medieval times in Europe
and included it in their research.
• Other scholars believe ethics are derived
from God (E.g The Hebrew Ten
Commandments (see DavidHume)
• Sigmund Freud (Psychologist) and Emily
Durkheim (sociologist) challenged this claim
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6. Implicationsof associatingethicswith God
• The arguments by Freud and Durkheim that
God was nothing but a projection almost
discredits Hume’s claim.
• How do schools teach ethics whose origin is
considered to be fraught and false?
• Likewise, thinking of ethics as coming from
God puts schools (teachers/students) in
awkward positions since not all schools
ascribe to Christians beliefs.
• This means the teaching of ethics may
promote exclusion of the ‘other’. 6

7. EETHICAL THEORIESAND THEIR
CHALLNGES TO THE TEACHING OF ETHICS
Subjectivism
• An individual’s mental activity is the only
unquestionable fact of experience not shared
experiences
• What is good/bad depends on the individual.
• Implications on education: If the good/bad rests in a
person, then schools would have to design ethics for
each individual for them to be acceptable by
everyone which is impossible.
• If individuals/schools make
different moral judgments on one action, then
accepting that action as morally right would be
impossible.
• This could also lead to inconsistent judgments about
the same act done by different students/staff.
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8. CULTURAL RELATIVISM
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• An action is good/bad if it is judged so by society
or culture.
• There is no universal truth in ethics but
various cultural codes, and nothing more.
• This challenges our belief in the objectivity and
universality of moral truth.
• By claiming that each culture has its own mode of
perceiving truth/good, it means there is nothing
absolutely right/wrong. This means no need to teach
ethics because it is ethics of nothing.
• If each society has its own truth, then which
societies’ ethics should schools teach since
schools consist of heterogeneous societies.
• Thus, the teaching of ethics becomes almost
uninspiring and impossible.

9. KANTI’SDEONTOLOGICALETHICALTHEORY
• We can’t think of anything as good without
limitation except a good will.
• States that an action is good if the principle
behind it has duty to Moral Law, and arises
from a sense of duty in the Actor.
• Kant identifie the Categorical Imperative (CI),
(unconditional) and the hypothetical
Imperative (conditional) for judging moral
actions.
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10. KANT’S ETHICS CONT
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• Principle of Universalizability( a C.I.) considers
an action as right if it can be applied to
everybody without contradictions.
• The principle of Human Agency (C.I): suggest
that people be treated as an end in themselves.
• Principle of autonomy suggests that Rational
Agents must be bound to the moral law by their
own will.
• Hypothetical Imperative is an action where the
good depends on a condition.

11. Kant’stheory Cont
• There are two examples of duties: perfect and
imperfect.
• Kant used lying as an example of duties.
Because there is a perfect duty to tell the
truth, we must not lie, although lying would
bring benefits.
• A perfect duty (e.g. honesty) always holds
true; an imperfect duty (e.g., lying) is
transient and limited to place/time.
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12. Implicationsof Kant’stheory on moral education
• Since moral education makes a citizen valuable
for a state, it is inadequate to teach students
ethics.
• Thus Kant proposed teaching students how to
think to enable them to act according to ethical
laws.
• Since this theory is too abstract and just prescribes
good actions not the right thing to do in particular
situations, then teaching of ethics would be difficult.
• Alasdair MacIntyre argues that universality principle
can be used to justify practically anything.
• If lying is wholly wrong; would hiding to a student
whose mother has died to avoid distressing her be
wrong? 12

13. Other Views on Ethicsand MoralEducation’s
Challenges
1. Fredrick Nietsche
• Nietzsche (1844) believed that the energy that
drives humans to achieve greater things is not as
(Christians or Kant) believed, e.g. “Love your
neighbours’ but the will to dominate.
• If individuals act in pursuit of personal interests
then schools would not serve as
equalisers/places for socialization and resource
redistribution. No school would willing to teach
ethics that promote individualism and greed.
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14. II. KOLHBEG AND MORAL
EDUCATION
• Kolhbeg (1984) borrowed Kant’s claims that
moral education is a rational activity.
• What is moral is defined by reason not
actions.
• A moral person must offer justifiable rational
arguments for their actions.
• Used Piaget (1965) theories of child
development theory to redefine moral
education.
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15. Kolhbeg Cont
• Devised three stages of moral justification.
• Pre-conventional: a person judges something
as moral/immoral if adults judge it so.
• Conventional: when pre-conventions are
internalised, one begins to understand and
justify actions as good or bad.
• Post-conventional: arises from conventional
stage. Here rules of natural justice come into
play.
• One may challenge the Law as unjust and
reject it (Think of Zuma’s Case)
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16. So, can we teachethics and morality?
• These debates have shown us that ethics can
be taught though that does assure the
creation of a moral or ethical person
• Thus morality (be’s) cannot be taught.
• The problem on ethics (do’s) lie on the
disagreements over what is good/bad.
• Aristotle proposes that we must teach virtue
(not ethics) because ethics are highly
contested and contextual.
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17. Implications of this school of
thought
• Since this appeals to rational justice, it fails to
account for other things such as compassionate,
care, consistency and moral resilience.
• There is a possibility to forego justice based on
other good factors and knowledge of the leaners.
• Schools as social institutions may reflect some
values of society yet they must cultivate morality
in learners.
• This often pose problems on the sort of ethics to
be taught since society is broad and fluid. (Think of
Corporal Punishment and its changes).
• Pre-conventional stage may work at early grades
not at upper levels. 17

18. So can we teach ethicsand morality? Cont…
• The notion that all ethics derive from God has
been challenged giving rising to further
complications on the teaching of ethics.
• Instead of focusing on teaching ethics, we should
focus on cultivating people’s disposition to act in
particular ways as (Aristotle) proposed.
• To cultivate virtue in our students, means we
should act virtuously not teaching them ethics
which are contested concepts.
• Try to be act morally to serve as a role model to
the students.
• In conclusion, we cannot teach ethics but we can
help them grow morally. 18

19. • The end
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