EDUCATIONAL THEORY最新文献

We have good reasons to be concerned about the underrepresentation of historically marginalized people's perspectives from philosophical and academic discourse. Normative case studies provide a potential avenue through which we can address this lack of diversity. However, there is a risk that those who engage in this kind of project are “speaking for others” in ways that reproduce the inequalities we seek to remedy. While this challenge cannot be avoided, Jennifer Morton discusses here how the problem can be mitigated by conceiving of normative case studies as a way to facilitate dialogue within our classrooms and with communities outside the academy.

Normative case studies are designed to offer richly detailed “worlds of possibility” that invite complex reflection and discussion about authentic ethical dilemmas in education. In this essay, Tatiana Geron and Meira Levinson argue that authors' choices of what details to include in a case are themselves ethical decisions that require significant ethical responsibility. Case details can shape which avenues of ethical inquiry are open to readers, whether and how institutional and structural conditions get considered, whose perspectives are included and legitimized, and what political issues are understood as “open” or “closed.” At its best, case “world-building” can help readers understand the full complexity of ethical decision-making in education. However, for this to occur, case authors must seek out expert and dissenting perspectives, field test the case with diverse audiences, and remain reflexive about their own perspectives and how these shape their world-building decisions.

Linda Zagzebski's theory of moral exemplarity emphasizes the importance of admiration in developing ethical behavior. This essay argues that admiration involves wonder and distance and is best evoked by mixed or flawed characters; it demonstrates this through discussion of the characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Using Paul Ricoeur's taxonomy of prefiguration, configuration, and refiguration in narrative work, it discerns a self-reflexivity in the protagonists of these fantasy novels, which is echoed by that of the readers, who are brought to realize their own emplotment in larger narratives. Features in Tolkien and Rowling that aid this exploratory reading include the length and depth of the novels, the decentering of the reader's own reality, and their open endings, which offer an invitational role to further interpretation. Virtue is viewed more teleologically than in Zagzebski, for moral realism is woven into the metaphysics of these novels, which allows mimesis of flawed characters to be ethically productive.

Theatre practitioners use empathy formation techniques within their acting methodology to develop particular characters for the stage. Here, Ann Phelps and Dylan Brown argue that, when Constantin Stanislavski's seminal dramatic method is placed in conversation with exemplarist moral theory, acting can become a tool for moral formation. To illustrate this claim, they describe their work with the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, where a neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics framework is embodied and expanded using this dramatic method. By using acting exercises to help students rehearse how their moral exemplars would respond to situations, Phelps and Brown challenge students to embody their exemplars instead of merely engaging with them as a passive intellectual exercise. Moral educators can achieve their pedagogical aim by expanding Stanislavski's dramatic “super-objective” to encompass a “moral meta-objective.” This neo-Aristotelian modification to Stanislavski's method might extend beyond the stage in ways that facilitate the embodiment of morally exemplary behavior, even after the curtain falls.

In this paper, Kate Kirkpatrick argues that the recent return to moral exemplars in exemplarist moral theory might benefit from engaging with existentialists' use of exemplars in two ways: first, by considering the role of negative exemplars and the power of emotions other than admiration in moral formation; and second, by considering objections to exemplarist education, in particular Simone de Beauvoir's objection that narrative exemplars often serve an ideological function and perpetuate oppressive ideals — especially (but not only) about women. After situating this discussion in ancient and recent debates about the role of literary narratives in moral formation, Kirkpatrick outlines a moral perfectionist reading of Beauvoir and an objection to exemplarist moral theory's reliance on exemplars that “we” admire on the basis that “the admirable” often serves to promote the interests of the powerful rather than the flourishing of all human beings. Finally, while agreeing with this symposium's editors that efforts to improve our understanding of how to use narrative exemplars in educational settings are valuable, she asks how, given the force of the Beauvoirian objection, their criterion of “appropriate critical reflection” might be met.

Nothing was more important to Tolstoy than character development. For him, the purpose of life is to grow morally. The purpose of literature — as all art — is to aid that growth. Abstract philosophy and pedantic scholarship are therefore redundant. Indeed, even the psychological novel is a distraction. Moral truths are self-evident. They are always simple. They are expressed by the humble. They are known by the meek. To become good, all we need to do is peel back the layers of hypocrisy and deceit that have overwrought us. Moral truths are known all over the world, but they are forgotten or covered up. There is nothing like a folktale, a pithy aphorism, or the words of a farm laborer or child to point this out. We may be surprised by what we already know and how deceived we were. All Tolstoy's varied endeavors, his literature, pedagogic theory and philosophy, center on moral conversion and its only legitimate motivation: love. Tolstoy's affront on modern civilization, documented vehemently in his later works sought to teach this lesson. This was a view of character development that had wide ranging impact all over the world, influencing many of the most famous thinkers, educators, and activists of the twentieth century. Tolstoy's stories continue to enthrall and inspire moral transformation. In this article Daniel Moulin explains why.

This symposium engages the important question of how exemplars might shape the character of learners, focusing on the pedagogical potential of exemplar narratives. In recent years there has been growing interest in the topic of moral exemplars, from educational, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. The pedagogical potential of learning by example has been known since antiquity, though the respect accorded to emulating heroes or saints waned in modernity, where it was deemed antithetical to autonomous reasoning, proof of the “herd mentality,” or even “self-suicide.” Since the turn of the last century, however, learning by example, particularly when it comes to moral education, has once again risen to prominence. This renewed interest has been spurred on in no small measure by the work of two key individuals whose contributions we review as an essential backdrop to this issue: Bryan Warnick and Linda Zagzebski.¹

While there are many historical insights concerning the educational importance of exemplars, returning to an interest in the transformative power of moral exemplars in the twenty-first century has brought new insights, critiques, methodologies, and challenges to the fore. Empirical research in psychology and education has shed light on the qualities of role models, and the features of the narratives in which these exemplars are embedded. The focus on narrative is central to consideration of how exemplars might be used in education. Across cultures and throughout history, narratives have been the primary place of encounter between real or imagined heroes and the listeners or readers who might be inspired by their example. As Zagzebski puts it, the “socially recognized procedure” for picking out exemplars is the “telling and re-telling of narratives.”²

Through this symposium we promote two key areas for developing the field going forward. First, while recent work has drawn attention to the importance of exemplars, there has been little direct examination of how exemplar stories influence their readership in terms of moral formation. Second, there is a great deal more scope for promoting our understanding of how exemplar narratives can be used, with appropriate critical reflection, in educational settings.

This introduction reviews recent work relating to exemplarist moral education, with sections covering the philosophical contribution of Linda Zagzebski's exemplarist moral theory (EMT), recent work in psychology on dynamics of admiration and emulation, and the important work of Bryan Warnick in the philosophy of education. It will consider the importance of attending to dynamics of narrativity and how exemplar stories function in terms of language, structure, and plot. Finally, we will summarize the contribution of the articles that follow by identifying common themes across the papers in this collection.

Recent academic interest in moral exemplars has undoubtedly gaine