Ethics in Your World: Civic Contestation in Global Education & Educational Equity in a Global Context

 

Meira Levinson, Ellis Reid, Sara O'Brien and Tatiana Geron discuss their recent books Civic Contestation in Global Education & Educational Equity in a Global Context with moderator Eric Beerbohm. In-person and via Zoom. A light lunch will be served. Registration required.

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The Books:

Civic Contestation in Global Education takes readers into classrooms and schools on the front lines of civic education in pluralistic and divided democracies. The book offers eight case studies of educators and policy makers wrestling with schools' civic and ethical responsibilities around the globe. Examples of the case studies include teaching critical consciousness in an Anti-CRT state, religiously sensitive satirical cartoons and radical extremism, and accommodating religion in schools. Each case is followed by a model conversation among diverse participants based in Australia, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the USA. The participants include scholars, activists, teachers, students, parents, and community leaders from across the political spectrum. Each chapter includes discussion questions and suggestions for further reading. Taken together, these cases and conversations provide readers critical resources both for deliberating about the ethical challenges facing schools in a time of civic disruption, and for charting a path toward a more just and democratic future worldwide.

Educational Equity in a Global Context presents eight case studies designed to guide readers through complex and nuanced conversations about dilemmas of educational equity and ethics around the world. The case studies include conversations on student grading in the Covid-19 pandemic, the risks and rewards of online learning, equitable homework policies and refugee education. Each case is followed by a model conversation among diverse participants based in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Mexico, the UK, and the USA. The participants include scholars, activists, teachers, students, parents, and community leaders from across the political spectrum. Each chapter includes discussion questions and suggestions for further reading. Readers will come away from this collection with the resources and capacities to deliberate about dilemmas of educational ethics in their own contexts and work towards a more equitable future for students around the globe.

The Authors:

 

 Meira Levinson is Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society at Harvard Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the Design Studio at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. She is currently working to start a global field of educational ethics.

 

Tatiana Geron is currently the Design Studio Research and Evaluation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics. Her work examines how teachers resolve ethical dilemmas within the dynamic contexts of classrooms and schools.

 

Sara O’Brien is the Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy for the EdEthics initiative, which is housed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. In this role, she creates pedagogical tools that help educators, school and district leaders, and policy makers think through challenging ethical questions in education. She has written or co-written over a dozen normative case studies and co-edited two forthcoming international volumes of case studies and case conversations. Prior to her work with EdEthics, Sara taught in public and independent secondary schools in Massachusetts and California.

Ellis Reid is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work spans the philosophy and history of education. His research interrogates questions related to power and authority over and within schools and school systems. In particular, Ellis explores in his research ethical and policy disagreements about how public K-12 schools in the US should be governed, working to disclose the implicitly ethical assumptions underlying contemporary policy debates about school governance. Ellis also does work in the history of education focused on mid-twentieth century Black educational activism. His historical research focuses on the Black educational activists fighting for greater control over the educational institutions in their communities during the 1960s and 1970s. Ellis is also a longtime member of the EdEthics research team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Among other projects with EdEthics, Ellis has helped lead professional development sessions focused on promoting ethical reflection, dialogue, and practice for educators and other education professionals across the country. Ellisholds a PhD in Education from Harvard University. Prior to his transition into educational research, Ellis was the Associate Director for Next Generation Scholars, a college-access program in Northern California.