The Call to Teach: Various Ways of Understanding the Ethics of Teaching

Although most teacher training focuses on mastering a subject matter and mastering methods of teacher instruction and assessment, classical and contemporary scholars of education have argued that teaching is a calling. In this discussion, we will consider similarities and differences about the call to teach from figures like Plato, Socrates, St. Augustine, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, John Dewey, Paolo Freire, Jacques Maritain, Luigi Giussani, David Hansen, and Chris Higgins on questions such as: Is the call to teach a public or a private vocation, or both? How does a teacher’s personality get formed by teaching? How do teachers’ motivations or desires express themselves in teaching? Do teachers have an ethical responsibility to change themselves somehow because of their teaching? Are there ways that the call to teach requires sacrificing of one’s self or renouncing one’s desires? The aim of this discussion is to connect these philosophical questions to larger questions in teacher training and create educational institutions that enhance teachers’ intrinsic motivation and personal development.

This event is private, but will be recorded and distributed on Scala’s YouTube channel.