Varieties of Ethical Competences in Pupils’ Responses to National Tests in ethics – Narratives about Victimization and Possible Solutions

• This paper takes as its point of reference a task designed for 12 year olds asking them to describe a situation of victimization, give reasons for why it should be understood as such and give examples of acts that could improve the situation. In this paper a sample of 50 pupils’ responses about victimization, a central concern for young people (Tirri, 2003), is studied. Methodologically, the paper draws on a previous analysis, conducted in two steps, of responses to a task about forgiveness (Osbeck, in press). The first step draws closely on the empirical material and a hermeneutical reading of how the pupils solve the task: What kinds of situations and motives do they describe and what sorts of qualities can be identified in the descriptions and motives? What kinds of suggestions for improvements are given and what sorts of qualities can be identified in these descriptions? In the second step, the analyses focus on ethical competences that might be present in pupils’ responses but not stated in the curriculum. Consequently attention is paid to both qualities that are absent in the curriculum and qualities mentioned in curriculum but in an overly general sense. Findings of tentative analyses strengthen earlier results pointing at both ethical insights/ existential understandings and normative differentiating skills as competences that can be identified in the responses though not stressed in the curriculum. An existential understanding concerning victimization is shown when one problematizes and makes complex descriptions of the phenomenon, its context and meaning. A normative competence shows itself as being of different kinds when one notices how some suggestions concern symptoms and others concern causes and some responses also differentiate between these. Another finding is that the competence ‘to discuss’ mentioned in the curriculum has more specific forms, shown, for example, when the author works with definitions and specifies suggestions and conditions for improvements. The paper makes use of Løgstrup’s ethics of proximity in order to interpret and discuss the findings, especially the possibility of existential understanding as an ethical competence. Løgstrup’s idea that you may know better than your neighbour what is best for him/her is also interesting to relate to the findings about the ability to distinguish between suggestions concerning symptoms and causes. Can closeness but also distance be an advantage in ethics? Løgstrup’s philosophy can also be used as a resource for critical discussions of general national tests in ethics. References Løgstrup, K.E. (1997). The ethical demand. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Osbeck, C. (in press). Ethical competences in pupils’ texts – Existential understandings and ethical insights as central but tacit in the curriculum. In O. Franck,& A. Lindskog (eds.). Assessment in Ethics Education – Perspectives with Special regard to National Tests in Religious Education in Sweden. Dordrecht: Springer. Tirri, K. (2003). The Moral Concerns and Orientations of Sixth- and Ninth-Grade Students. Educational Research And Evaluation: An International Journal On Theory And Practice, 9(1), 93-108.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)