Moral imagination in education: A Deweyan proposal for teachers responding to hate speech

Abstract

This article is about moments when teachers experience hate speech in education and need to act. Based on John Dewey’s work on moral philosophy and examples from teaching practice, I would like to contribute to the discussion about moral education by emphasizing the following: (1) the importance of experience, (2) the problem with prescribed morals and (3) the need for moral imagination in education. My Deweyan proposal for teachers responding to hate speech in education is to use moral imagination in education and take contextual elements into consideration when deciding how to act. Doing this would facilitate work related to doing morals and help to prevent prescribing morals as something that has already been done and that teachers (and students) have to adjust to in schools without being part of the process.

Keywords:

• moral education
• John Dewey
• hate speech
• teachers
• moral imagination

Notes

1. All the quotations from the interview with Hanna have been translated by the author from Swedish into English.

2. Despite the context of moral imagination it can never be understood as an isolated process, even if the thoughts we think are a result of habits and meanings in interaction.