The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice

The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice......Page 5
Contents......Page 7
Foreword by Richard Smith......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 11
Saints and scoundrels......Page 13
A brief for teacherly self-cultivation......Page 14
From the terrain of teaching to the definition of professional ethics......Page 21
Outline of the argument......Page 22
Part I: The Virtues of Vocation: From Moral professionalism to Practical Ethics......Page 31
1: Work and Flourishing: Williams\' Critique of Morality and its Implications for Professional Ethics......Page 33
Retrieving Socrates\' question......Page 34
Modern moral myopia......Page 37
What do moral agents want?......Page 43
From moral professionalism to professional ethics......Page 47
2: Worlds of Practice: MacIntyre\'s Challenge to Applied Ethics......Page 59
The architecture of MacIntyre\'s moral theory......Page 60
A closer look at internal goods......Page 67
The practicality of ethical reflection......Page 73
What counts as a practice: The proof, the pudding, and the recipe......Page 75
Boundary conditions: Practitioners, managers, interpreters, and fans......Page 81
3: Labour, Work, and Action: Arendt\'s Phenomenology of Practical Life......Page 97
Arendt\'s singular project......Page 99
Defining the deed......Page 104
Hierarchy and interdependence in the vita activa......Page 111
Praxis in the professions......Page 113
4: A Question of Experience: Dewey and Gadamer on Practical Wisdom......Page 123
The constant gardener......Page 125
The existential and aesthetic dimensions of vocation......Page 131
Our dominant vocation......Page 137
Practical wisdom and the circle of experience......Page 142
The open question......Page 146
Part II: A Virtue Ethics for Teachers: Problems and prospects......Page 155
A blind spot in the educational imagination......Page 157
The hunger artist......Page 166
The very idea of a helping profession......Page 173
This ripeness of self......Page 182
6: Working Conditions: The Practice of Teaching and the Institution of School......Page 189
A prima facie case for teaching as a practice......Page 190
MacIntyre\'s objection......Page 202
Schools as surroundings......Page 210
7: The Classroom Drama: Teaching as Endless Rehearsal and Cultural Elaboration......Page 217
Education as the drama of cultural renewal......Page 220
A false lead......Page 226
Teaching as labour, work, and action......Page 229
Education, shelter, and mediation......Page 235
Teaching as endless rehearsal......Page 239
Teaching as cultural elaboration......Page 245
Teaching as vocational environment......Page 253
Batch processing, kitsch culture, and other obstacles to teacher vocation......Page 260
The syntax of educational claims......Page 266
The shape of humanistic conversation......Page 270
Horizons of educational inquiry......Page 278
Teacher education for practical wisdom......Page 285
References......Page 295
Index......Page 317