The University as an Ethical Academy?

This book examines the importance, possibilities, and complexities of the university as an ethical academy. Universities may be seen as an evolving network of ethical systems that govern teaching, research, service, and administration. However, the university system is changing: adding new rules, new ways of working, and new ideas to its repertoire of operations. The theories that we have traditionally employed may be now put up for questioning and examination. Universities now comprise a spectacularly large body of regulations and policies, both internal and external, that cover issues from cheating, human subject research, academic integrity, research on animals, environmental ethics, and the ethics of sexual harassment. These interconnected ecological systems of ethics have not emerged in one rational process but rather reflect the ongoing historical and dynamic development of law and ethics in relation to the creation of new values. This has played out in a particular political and ideological environment, which has produced the university as a set of practices and beliefs and a particular set of rationalities. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Marek Tesar is Professor, Head of School and Associate Dean at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the President of PESA, Editor-in-Chief of Policy Futures in Education and Deputy Editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory. He edits numerous book series. His research is focused on methodological and philosophical thinking around ontologies and the ethics related to childhoods and early years education.

Michael A. Peters is currently Distinguished Professor at Beijing Normal University, China, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. Michael is Editor-in Chief of Educational Philosophy and Theory and Beijing International Review of Education (Brill) and sits on the board of many other journals and book series. Michael has written over 100 books and many journal articles on a wide range of topics and has worked with and mentored many younger scholars.

Liz Jackson is Professor and Head of Department of International Education at the Education University of Hong Kong and Fellow and Past President of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia. Liz is an editor of the book series New Directions in the Philosophy of Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory: Editor’s Choice, and Deputy Editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Her recent books include Questioning Allegiance: Resituating Civic Education (Routledge, 2019) and Beyond Virtue: The Politics of Educating Emotions (2020).