Educating for ethical know-how: Curriculum in a culture of participation and complicity

Abstract

In this paper, we point to an infamous example of cyber bullying (the "Star Wars Kid") to frame a consideration of the sort of situated ethics needed to mediate relationships in a seemingly infinitely and complexly connected communicative cyber world. We argue curriculum that educates for "ethical know-how" aims to provide students with meaningful opportunities to represent and refine their empathetic identifications with others in both real and virtual contexts, by drawing on both real and imagined experience. We begin with an overview of contemporary theories of human consciousness, and further explore the ways in which consciousness is inevitably entwined with emerging technologies. We then look at how this entanglement has been taken up by critical and complexivist conceptions of curriculum and pedagogy. We end on a tentative note by considering the daunting questions and yet-to-be-understood implications of a participatory understanding of consciousness and an emergent understanding of ethics.

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Citation
Sumara, D., Davis, B., & Iftody, T. (2008). Educating for ethical know-how: Curriculum in a culture of participation and complicity. Curriculum Matters, 4, 20–39. https://doi.org/10.18296/cm.0097
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