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9 - Normative Case Studies as Democratic Education

from Part Two - Philosophical and Normative Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2023

By
Ellis Reid  and
Meira Levinson
Edited by
Julian Culp ,
Johannes Drerup  and
Douglas Yacek
Julian Culp
Affiliation:
The American University of Paris, France
Johannes Drerup
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Douglas Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
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Summary

Education professionals regularly confront challenging ethical questions in the course of their work. Recently, education scholars and practitioners have embraced normative case studies – realistic accounts of the complex ethical dilemmas of educational practice and policy – as a key tool both for theorizing the ethical dimension of education work and for supporting the development of education professionals as moral agents. This chapter zooms in on the second, pedagogical aim of the normative case study and makes the case that this approach to professional education is best understood as a form of democratic education. Through careful facilitation and a structured discussion protocol, the normative case study approach: (i) allows participants to discuss ethical dilemmas that arise in their work in relations of democratic equality, fostering their development of moral sensitivity and moral agency; and (ii) supports participants in learning to sustain dialogue across reasonable disagreement.

Keywords

normative case studieseducational ethicsdemocratic educationdemocratic equalitymoral sensitivityethical disagreementmoral conflict
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Democratic Education , pp. 129 - 145
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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