Justice or Care? Ethical Reasoning of Preservice Social Studies Teachers

Abstract

The authors explored the ethical reasoning of 27 preservice teachers in the first course of a 4-course social studies education program. The students discussed 2 historically analogous cases that focused on 1 of 4 value problem areas: consent of the governed, general welfare, property, and morality. The authors were interested in exploring whether the students used an ethic of justice or care in their reasoning, particularly if gender was a factor in the ethic used. The results indicated that it was the nature of the case, rather than student gender, that influenced the ethic used and that students of both genders were able to use both ethics. However, the most prevalent ethic was the ethic of justice.

Keywords:

• moral development
• civic education
• controversial issues
• deliberation
• preservice teacher education