F. Antonio Pinilla T.
An Interpretive Framework and Hereustic Model for Ethics Education
My PhD research is concerned with ethics education. ‘Ethics education’ refers to the diverse phenomena in formal educational settings united by their thematic or explicit interest in or direction toward ethics, morals, values, etc. This means that my research is concerned, for example, with such things as courses on “Ethics and Values,” modules about morality or norms as part of courses in philosophy, religion, civics, etc., or projects like “character education” aimed at ethical flourishing. With regard to this wide variety of phenomena, my research poses two fundamental or basic questions: “why do we have (to do) this?” and “how do we do this in the most ‘educational’ way?” In other words, my research addresses, on the one hand, the question concerning the educational justification of ethics education, and, on the other, the question concerning its educational enactment.
Why this topic matters to me
This work matters to me because I have found ethical meaning in my life in and through education. Ethics education, then, is the ultimate question that I am called to address if I want to be able to fight the senselessness that always threatens our common world.
Why I believe it is important to society
I believe this work is important to society as a whole because we live in a world that seems to be burning or breaking down: ecological catastrophe, accelerated technological advancements, discrimination, racism, fascism on the rise, a genocide happening – again – in front of our own very eyes. In this context, we confront and are confronted by a ‘crisis’ which we are forced to ‘attend to’ and ‘think through’. Indeed, everything that is ‘ethics’ and ‘education’ seems to have failed (us) everywhere. So, in the face of the certainty about the importance of ethics (and) education, we must ask: what can that really achieve? What do we want to achieve with ethics education? And how are we going to set about achieving it? The hope of repairing the ruins of our world and sharing it meaningfully must be verified in our treatment of these questions.
Impact of the Ladies of Bethany Chair on my life and career
Receiving this opportunity with the Ladies of Bethany Chair has impacted my life and career by allowing me to have the time and space to dedicate my attention to these questions and participate of communities of researchers and practitioners with similar concerns.
The difference I hope my work will make in the world
I hope my work makes a difference in the world in terms of elaborating perennial educational questions in the face of our current state of emergency, thus strenghtening the educational understanding that supports our educational efforts toward a more humane world.
Publications