Ethical Principles and School Challenges: A Deweyan Analysis

Abstract:In this study, we examine Dewey’s understanding of ethical principles by identifying a number of his primary emphases, including how he thought principles may be reconstructed and employed in schools. We do this by (a) explicating how he understood the reconstruction of general, universal, and absolute ethical claims; (b) anticipating how some detractors of his view of practical certainty may question its serviceability; and (c) demonstrating how his ideas may be employed to address a problematic high school situation. In addition, we episodically embed in these primary emphases thoughts about how ethical principles play a part in Dewey’s more comprehensive ethical theory and illustrate how the principles may be used in specific problematic microsituations.