IMPACT Ethics Schedule

Week 0 - Introductions, review of syllabus and readings for the semester.

Week 1  - The link between learning theory and moral development & Exploring ethical dilemmas


Week 2 - Components of effective moral reasoning & Developing ethical self awareness as a leader 


Week 3 - The role of normative ethics in thinking about moral development.   


Week 4 - Conditions of, and obstacles to, moral courage & the judgment-action gap  

Some thoughts on your journal : Think of 3 or more difficult decision you made that you would change if you had to make it again - A moral failure where some part of you (if even a small part) knew a better path but you made another choice. Identify different examples than you used in class to explore this idea of moral failure further. This does not need to be a formally written response to the prompt but for your own reflection free write your memories of what was going on as you wrestled with your decisions. How did you feel, what else was going on, how did other people react, and so on. For each of the moral failures you identified respond to the following:


Week 5 - Framing the context of moral problems and shaping a culture of ethics 

Post your thoughts on the Forsaking Honor case in your journal today. I want you to consider Bolman and Deal's frames and the case study "Forsaking Honor" together - This is a judgment-action gap case in many respects so the primary question I want you to consider is: why did the president, institution and others stumble as they worked through the issues before them? You should also comment on how you would have acted in Dr. Whitehall's position. Finally, what similar issues might come up in the k-12 environment (or other sectors you have experience with) - in other words: how does this higher ed case translate to what you may experience in a leadership position?
In many ways this case begins to bring together much of the work we have done so far including some we did not address explicitly but were assigned readings or videos. Issues like personal fudge factors, zero tolerance, ethical culture, frames and schema can all inform reflections on this case.


Week 6 - Prioritization of Values and Metacognition & Socio-cultural obstacles to ethical leadership: Incentives behind accountability

In the journal entry for today I want you to consider the learning from failure video (and in your followup the Monday readings and video). What are the barriers you see in learning from your personal failures (think of the 3 and others I had you think about at the end of last week) and how can leaders create organizational cultures that support a positive approach to processing failure, learning from it, and incorporating those lessons in to future behavior or decision making?


Week 7 - Shaping a Culture of Ethics, Conformity and Obedience 

Some thoughts for you to consider as you begin writing in your journal today - I think it is easy to make links between research on conformity and the work we do in schools. We see issues of conformity in the social lives of students, in the classroom, and we see it when staff are working together.
By thinking about norms in schools during our reading this week I ask you to consider real life examples of conformity (and many examples are present in the cases we have studied so far). Keeping that in mind will serve as an important backdrop to our thinking about obedience (another important theme at work in schools).
Let me explain what I mean by that a little: I think that people often oversimplify (and misrepresent) Asch's work by thinking of the subjects motivations as a dichotomy. Either they conform (sometimes called failures) or they are honest about what they see. Conformity is not that simple in real life, nor was it even in the context of the Asch studies. Asch intended his experimental situation to be a moral dilemma, one that pitted "truth" against "consensus“ (Asch, 1952), or "independence" against "submission“ (Asch, 1951).
It is also not a hierarchy where we simply create an order of rules to follow and that dictates how we respond to a conformity dilemma. Instead, think of it as a heterarchy of values. A heterarchy is an organization of equally important components of a system that mutually constrain one another, so that over time and situation they vary in which ones take the lead. For example, in driving a vehicle, accuracy (e.g., how close can I come to another car?) does not always take priority over safety (e.g., leaving adequate space between vehicles), or vice versa. Sometimes we "cut it close;" other times, we "err on the side of caution." Good driving involves jointly realizing values such as accuracy, safety, efficiency, and kindness, which requires shifting priorities over time and tasks.
Applied to the Asch dilemma, this understanding of values suggests that no rule-following procedure (e.g., when in doubt, trust yourself and ignore others) will be adequate to the task. Neither will some attempt to focus on a single value (e.g., truth) do justice to the complexity of the situation. If values are equally important (or comparably considered), but heterarchically related, which value or values should take the lead in an Asch-type situation? Specifically, which ones will be considered in the examples you encounter in your own life?
I always think it is interesting to cover Milgram after Asch back-to-back and to think about how the concepts of conformity and obedience are connected. In your response to recent discussion it was interesting to see how you started to explore the idea that conformity may not always be negative - that there are different motivations involved including some positive social implications of conforming. To start the dialogue this week I would like you to consider the following question:
How can schools effectively teach independent thinking, nurture individuation, and expect students to take a stand against their peers on issues of bullying and immoral behavior? Consider those tasks within the current (and traditional) social structure of schools which is hierarchical, and values (often explicitly teaching) conformity and obedience. What are the obstacles? How is it done well? Where does our traditional approach fail?

Week 8 - Building Towels and Raincoats