The ethic of community

Abstract

This article proposes the concept of an ethic of community to complement and extend other ethical frames used in education (e.g. the ethics of justice, critique, and care). Proceeding from the traditional definition of ethics as the study of moral duty and obligation, ethic of community is defined as the moral responsibility to engage in communal processes as educators pursue the moral purposes of their work and address the ongoing challenges of daily life and work in schools. The ethic of community thus centers the communal over the individual as the primary locus of moral agency in schools. The usefulness of the ethic of community in regard to achieving the moral purposes of schooling is illustrated with the example of social justice. The author concludes that the ethic of community is a vehicle that can synthesize much of the current work on leadership practices related to social justice and other moral purposes of educational leadership.

Impacto del practicum en las creencias de los maestros en formación sobre la relación familia-escuela

“…Desde hace décadas se viene relatando que la implicación y participación de las familias en la escuela incrementa los resultados escolares del alumnado, su desarrollo personal y social (Brookmeyer, Fanti y Henrich, 2006;Cross y Barnes, 2014;Epstein, 2001), mejora la competencia autopercibida de las familias, incide en el desarrollo de una parentalidad positiva (García-Bacete, 2003;Olmsted, 1991) y favorece que la escuela se convierta en un contexto más dinámico, participativo y democrático (Batanova y Loukas, 2014;Furman 2004), en el que, por lo tanto, las relaciones entre los diferentes miembros de la comunidad educativa tienen un valor indiscutible en diferentes ámbitos. Dichas relaciones son sustancialmente singulares en función del tipo de participación que se establezca, y que según los autores ya citados pueden definirse en tres modalidades singulares y complementarias en su desarrollo:…”

An ethic of connectedness: enacting moral school leadership through people and programs

“…A community perspective, or what has been referred to in the literature and practice within the profession as an 'ethic of community', is clearly expressed in the work of Furman (2003aFurman ( , 2003bFurman ( , 2004 and Bellah et al (1985). According to this viewpoint, moral choices are best made in communitarian settings rather than a traditional focus on the experiences internal to an individual agent.…”

An Analysis of U.S. Student Drug and Alcohol Policies through the Lens of a Professional Ethic for School Leadership

“…The prominent ethical themes, standpoints, or "paradigms" consist of justice (Rawls, 1993;Strike, Haller & Soltis, 1998), care (Beck, 1994;Noddings, 1988), critique (Apple, 1982;Foster, 1986;Giroux, 1992), community (Dewey, 1909(Dewey, /1975Furman, 2004), virtue (Begley, 2005;Starratt, 2004), and profession (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016;Stefkovich 2013). These moral perspectives, typically articulated as theories of duty, guidance for individual ethical decisionmaking, expressions of relational morality, or guidance for establishing moral school environments, provide a backdrop for understanding an ethic for the profession.…”