Toward a Cosmopolitan Minded Post-Secondary Ethics Education

• Author / Creator

  Schmaus, David L

• Tools to think about and interact with the emergence of new levels of interconnectivity and complexity in the post-secondary ethics classroom are necessary. The question explored in this study concerns what relevance cosmopolitanism has as an educational response to this need. Contemporary criticisms of classical cosmopolitanism are used to analyze ethics education in a Canadian polytechnic. One goal of cosmopolitan minded education is to help students struggle with the balance between obligations that result from particular circumstances and moral responsibility to the larger global community. A cosmopolitan theoretical framework is applied as both a research and pedagogical tool to be engaged in efforts to fulfill this goal.
  A qualitative case study method was used to examine how a cosmopolitan minded approach can be used to transform the learning contexts of ethics education in a Canadian polytechnic institute. Analysis of institutional, program, and course level documentation provided context and was enriched by data gathered through student focus groups as well as interviews with faculty and administration. General recommendations include the application of a pluriversal, dialogical process of learning that sees students engage in agonistic dialogue regarding the ethical question of what it means to live a good life and the moral question of what responsibilities this entails. The study reveals the regulatory nature of much applied ethics education and offers an alternative process as imagined through a cosmopolitan vantage point.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Higher Education
  • Moral Education
  • Ethics Education
  • Cosmopolitanism
  • Applied Ethics

• Graduation date

  Spring 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R34T1R

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.