Overview
The ethics of teaching and learning inform the way that we conceptualize and construct our courses. Our values and goals guide how we grade, how we set up assignments, how we interact with students, and how our students interact with each other. While instructors often consider and discuss the ethics of education with their colleagues, precarity, burnout, and lack of time do not lend to an educational environment where instructors are able to implement ethical practices in their course design. Unfortunately, this results in the adoption of top-down, institutionally mandated standards and policies.
This module works through four ethical concerns: colonialism, policing, surveillance, and accessibility. Many of us think about these interrelated concepts but often don’t have time to flesh them out for our courses. It serves as a guide and a resource for exploring these topics without requiring in-depth external research for those who are otherwise unable to perform it. This module also encourages instructors to apply these concepts to their own courses through activities and reflection.