- Wed, Mar 26, 2025
Ethics at Noon
Tina Ta, In Conversation with the Self and Others: The Ethical Dilemmas, Discussions, and Decision-Making of Elementary Language Arts Teachers in Ontario
► To stay informed about other upcoming events at the Centre for Ethics, opportunities, and more, please sign up for our newsletter.In Conversation with the Self and Others: The Ethical Dilemmas, Discussions, and Decision-Making of Elementary Language Arts Teachers in Ontario
K–12 teachers are required to make numerous, challenging decisions in their daily work. Many of these decisions leave teachers with ethical dilemmas where they must make a reasonable decision between competing sets of principles in complex, value-laden, and uncertain environments (Börü, 2020; Ehrich et al., 2011; Levinson & Fay, 2016). Education reforms can cause major changes in teachers’ working conditions and can exacerbate ethical dilemmas (Fransson & Grannäs, 2013; Pinto, 2015; Shelton & Altwerger, 2015). Some of these ethical dilemmas, for example, include questions of how to navigate standardized testing policies that do not accommodate individual students’ needs and how to adapt new pedagogical practices that are contrary to holistic teaching strategies or culturally responsive teaching (Avalos et al., 2020).
Given this research context, my study explores the ethical implications of education policy in practice with a particular focus on the experiences of a group of Ontario K–8 teachers working during a time when Language Arts education is undergoing reform. Grounded in theoretical perspectives that position teaching as a moral activity (Fenstermacher, 1990; Hansen, 1998; Jackson et al., 1993; Osguthorpe, 2008), this study draws upon the educational goods framework developed by Brighouse et al., (2016) to unpack how teachers enact their values in their work and how this process is complicated by institutional demands. I argue that teachers’ moral concerns should be recognized as moral in nature and should be taken seriously, especially as teacher absenteeism and shortages continue to rise in Ontario. Following the methodological traditions of empirically engaged philosophy, I collected both qualitative and quantitative data from five teacher participants to explore philosophically driven research questions. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was conducted using data from surveys, interviews, and five normative case study focus group discussions held over 10 weeks.
► This event is in-person. Join in person at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin Building room 200).
Tina TaCurriculum, Teaching and Learning OISE
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
University of Toronto
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Mon, Mar 31, 2025
Nikolas Kompridis, The Catastrophic Sublime: Thinking With and Beyond Kant in the Anthropocene
► To stay informed about other upcoming events at the Centre for Ethics, opportunities, and more, please sign up for our newsletter.The Catastrophic Sublime: Thinking With and Beyond Kant in the Anthropocene
Among the many overwhelming challenges posed by the emergent Anthropocene era, there is one that calls rather loudly for a meaningful philosophical response: to fundamentally reconceive the relation between human and nonhuman life in terms which eschew assumptions of anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism. Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment may be the most philosophically significant attempt to conceptualize the human/non-human relationship as an affective experience, especially his analysis of the sublime, which is why it demands critical reassessment, today. Why should we be thinking about the sublime now? Because it was the threatening power of wild and unruly nature which prompted Kant to take up the sublime as an urgent philosophical question. The threatening powers of a destabilized climate – wildfires, floods, heat domes, atmospheric rivers, and other terrifying manifestations of extreme weather – are far more urgent and far more threatening than Kant could have ever imagined in the 18th century. We can better make sense of our sublime condition – the catastrophic sublime – if we can learn from Kant’s discussion, especially from his analysis of our aesthetic attunement to nonhuman nature, and why we must go beyond it – well beyond it.
► This event is in-person. Join in person at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin Building room 200).
Nikolas KompridisUniversity of Toronto
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Centre for Ethics
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin - Fri, Apr 11, 2025
Public Event: Charting Ethical Paths on a Divided Campus
► To stay informed about other upcoming events at the Centre for Ethics, opportunities, and more, please sign up for our newsletter.Public Event: Charting Ethical Paths on a Divided Campus
Panelists:
Lisa Shapiro
Samantha Brennan
Randy BoyagodaPanelists will address questions such as: the role and limitations of protests on campus; the duties of university administration in balancing safe and proper functioning of campus with allowing/encouraging freedom of expression for students, staff, and faculty; whether the university and the specific departments must abide by principles of neutrally in making public pronouncements.
Register here to secure your spot!
Please feel free to send questions in advance for the panelists. Send your questions to ethics@utoronto.ca with the subject: “Question(s) for April 11 event”.
► This event is in-person. Join us at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin Building room 200).
Lisa Shapiro
Dean of Faculty of Arts
McGIll University
Samantha Brennan
Dean of the College of Arts
University of Guelph
Randy Boyagoda
Provostial Advisor on Civil Discourse
05:00 PM - 07:00 PM
University of Toronto
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Where conversations about ethics happen.
