Hi Karin,

Many thanks for you interest and encouragement. I would love to have a
conversation.
My own course (descriptor attached) is designed to give a critical
overview of the the Christian Moral tradition from within the
perspective of the Christian community. The general model of ethics
that I follow is MacIntyre's virtue based ethics. MacIntyre argues
that moral discourse only has meaning within the context of a moral
tradition with a concept of a supreme good and a hierarchy of virtues
and practices supporting that idea of the Good - teleological rather
than a deontological approach. Viewed from this framework your
question becomes more interesting, especially, in the light of the
recent assertion by a British philosopher than if you are religious
you can't really be moral! Being coherently 'moral' means that you
need to stand inside and participate in a tradition bound moral
discourse. Part of the difficulty of contemporary moral debate is that
some moral philosophers and advocates do not acknowledge that their
discourse is tradition bound and assert that their moral decisions are
somehow universal and 'objective'. The inference is that they are
therefore 'superior' to those speaking from a faith-based perspective.
A point that is often overlooked in the discussion about religion and
morality is that those whose moral thinking and discourse is framed by
a clear moral tradition, of which they are living representatives, are
aware of their supreme good - usually the divine. Those whose morality
is defined by secular traditions, usually following a Kantian model of
universal moral rationality, often do not have or do articulate a
clear understanding of their supreme good. This can result a in a lack
of coherence in moral discourse and decision, making it appear to
those who so have more defined traditions that those speaking have no
morality. In other words you may need need to be 'religious' to be
moral but, like religious believers, you do need to have a fundamental
moral commitment (supreme good) or 'ultimate concern' (Tillich).
MacIntyre's book 'Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry' is very good
reading on this point.

Many thanks for your syllabus and article which I will read with interest.

Best regards,

Brian

On 20/03/2014, Karin Murris <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks Brian- I read your work with great interest! I would love to have a
> conversation with you. What I do with ethics in the context of the training
> of student teachers is similar but there are also important differences. For
> example, one of the things that I explore is the question whether you have
> to be religious in order to be ethical (Rachels is useful there). My
> assessment is the application of a thinking tool on a professional dilemma
> from teaching practice. It has generated the most amazing and also
> disturbing learning. See one of my papers about it attached and I have also
> attached last year's course outline fyi.
> Very best wishes
> Karin
>
> A/Prof Karin Murris (PhD)
> School of Education
> University of Cape Town
> Tel 021 650 2358
> Cell 0795762456
> Email [log in to unmask]
> Website www.karinmurris.com
>
> My articles for download on: https://uct.academia.edu/KarinMurris/
> Book: Haynes, J. & Murris, K. (2012) 'Picturebooks, Pedagogy & Philosophy'.
> New York, Routledge.
> http://www.mindboggles.org.za/index.php/book-picturebooks-pedagogy-and-philosophy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Action Research Africa Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Brian K Jennings
> Sent: 19 March 2014 09:53 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Sharing explanations of your influence
>
> Dear Jack,
>
> I have long term project that I'm working on around a strengths /
> solution-focused approach to quality review by teams defining and building
> their own good practice. This is an institution wide project and will take
> some time to implement and then to evaluate the extent of my educational
> influence in this programme.
> Having said this I have suddenly realised that I have all the elements of a
> 'small' living theory practice project to hand. My main teaching
> responsibility in the institution where I work is in the area of an
> introductory course in Christian ethics. Over the last few years I've been
> making incremental changes, especially in the area of assessment. The main
> innovation that I have made in recent years is what I originally called a
> 'case-study' but which I now realise is really a 'critical incident'
> assignment in which students are asked to make a ethical commentary using
> scholarly resources on a real-life moral dilemma. I developed this to try
> and 'design out' plagiarism from my course but I realised that it really
> captured my concern that (Christian) virtues be put to work in real life
> situations. A number of assignments made very sensitive explorations of
> moral challenges in faith-communities, families, and workplaces. Ethics is
> not about abstract principles and standards but about acting virtuously and
> compassionately in real life situations. I have module descriptors, samples
> of assignments and evaluations, notes from student presentations (I required
> them to make a presentation before their peers before writing their final
> draft) and because this is a third year class (in a four year degree) I have
> two cohorts of students (and some graduates) from whom I could gain
> 'influence' feedback. I can also gain feedback from my colleague who was the
> second marker for the course and some external examiner comment. I can give
> a narrative of the development of the assignment that includes my
> educational values, because of a another reflective learning project that
> I'm currently involved with I have a body of literature on the use of
> critical incident technique to provide a commentary on my practice and
> learners and colleagues to provide qualitative data on my educational
> influence.
> Is this the kind of research that would be considered for publication?
> What kind of permissions would I need, for example, from students to quote
> from their work and to use their feedback that I gather using (open-ended)
> questionnaires or interviews?
>
> Best regards,
> Brian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Action Research Africa Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of Jack Whitehead
> Sent: 19 March 2014 11:09
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Sharing explanations of your influence
>
> As a member of the Action Research Africa Network, I'm hoping that you will
> be interested in evaluating your influence in your professional practice and
> in SHARING your evaluations with others as you live as fully as possible the
> values that give meaning and purpose to your life. I'm thinking of your
> educational influence in your own learning, in the learning of others and in
> the learning of the social formations in which we live, work and research.
> Other colleagues of mine are connecting through the Educational Journal of
> Living Theories (EJOLTS) and you can access their stories at:
> http://ejolts.net
>
> If any of the pages of EJOLTS require you to login with a password you can
> obtain these from Branko Bognar at: [log in to unmask] .
>
> Prof. Moira Laidlaw has created a Facebook page for EJOLTS and you can
> access this at:   https://www.facebook.com/ejolts
>
> Dr. Jacqueline Delong has created a Linkedin Page for EJOLTS and you can
> request an invitation to join from:
> http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=7464392&trk=anet_ug_hm
>
> Love Jack.
>
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