Querying The Place and Shape of Ethics in Education: Models and Methods

The idea of integrating an exploration of ethics and other forms of philosophical thinking into the P-12 curriculum has been defined and explored both locally and globally over the last four decades. Yet the local movements to incorporate ethics into education have stalled and need to be reinvigorated. My perspective as the discussant is shaped by my study and teaching of feminist care ethics (Noddings, 2005) and the way the notion of caring has been applied by critical Latino/a studies researchers in the study of Latino/a urban education (Valenzuela,1999; De Jesus, 2003; De Jesus & Antrop-Gonzalez , 2006; Antrop-Gonzalez & De Jesus, 2006). In my response to these papers I propose that we advance our discussion by adding the lens offered by critical educational studies which can move us toward a discussion of a critical ethics for children, youth and educators