Developing as an ethical English teacher: Valuing the personal and poetic in professional learning

Abstract

This article draws upon virtue ethics to illustrate the importance of English teachers as ethical professionals. In doing so it focuses attention on the significance of the personal and poetic in professional learning. It is suggested that eschewing the personal and poetic in professional learning may contribute to the de‐professionalisation of English teachers and the commodification of the children they teach. Conversely, acknowledging the personal and poetic liberates teachers of English to develop as ethical professionals who teach for social justice and foster the ethical learning of their students. The article moves from a consideration of the importance of personal values to the value of poetry in professional learning.

Key words:

• Professional
• learning
• personal
• virtue
• ethics
• English
• teachers
• social justice

Acknowledgements

I should like to express my thanks to the anonymous reviewers of a previous version of this article whose ethical engagement led to its improvement here.