PANEL 1 | OVERVIEW

What are some key questions in educational ethics that parents, policymakers, school and district leaders, university leaders and faculty, and/or teachers have been contending with?  Why aren’t they (yet) sufficiently answered by more general moral and political philosophy, by extant philosophy of education, or by codes of professional ethics? What would be helpful?

PANELISTS

Ana Carolina Brito

Principal, Rafael Hernández Dual Language K-8 School, Boston

Terri Wilson

Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder

Natasha Warikoo

Lenore Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Tufts University

MODERATOR

Lauren Bialystok

Associate Professor, Department of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto 

PANEL 2 | OVERVIEW

How should we think about educational ethics in relation to other (perhaps broader, perhaps more narrow) ethical quandaries related to caring for and supporting children in their development? To what extent are schools simply one of many places in which ethical questions about paternalism, rights to child rearing, and the goals of human development play out? Is it even possible to theorize about educational ethics prior to having a well-developed ethics of childhood? 

Alternatively, are there some kinds of questions—say, focused on the aims of education, policies around inclusion, or institutional design in higher education—that are either specific to educational ethics or at least not confined to/entailed by childhood ethics? How do changing notions of childhood itself impact our framing of and answers to these questions?

PANELISTS

Harry Brighouse

Mildred Fish Harnack Professor of Philosophy and Carol Dickson Bascom Professor of the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Paula Fass

Margaret Byrne Professor of History Emerita, UC-Berkeley

Fikile Nxumalo

Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto

MODERATOR

Richard Weissbourd

Senior Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Faculty Director, Making Caring Common

PANEL 3 | OVERVIEW

How should we think about educational ethics in relation to other social institutions such as politics or economics, and in relation to the historical and cultural context in which educational institutions are constructed and sit? When and how is it appropriate to take the larger context for granted (as much as we may wish it were different) and figure out the ethical demands for educators, schools, educational systems, etc. within that context? 

Alternatively, when and how should we challenge or question the context itself in considering questions of educational ethics? Relatedly, what defines an ethical question as “educational” rather than economic, political, sociological, or more broadly one of social justice? 

PANELISTS

Jarvis Givens

Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Faculty Affiliate, African & African American Studies, Harvard University 

Jal Mehta

Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Gina Schouten

Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University 

MODERATOR

Randall Curren

Professor of Philosophy and Co-Chair of the Department, University of Rochester

PANEL 4 | OVERVIEW

Under what circumstances, if any, have professional ethics in other fields been powerful and positive levers for change? Under what circumstances, if any, have professional ethics in other fields made those fields worse? What impediments should educational ethicists be aware of, and what opportunities should they seize? Should we reconceive the relationship between ethics and the professions altogether—and if so, what would that look like? 

PANELISTS

Howard Gardner

Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

David Wilkins

Lester Kissel Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School 

Ashley Lee

Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Technology and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University 

Katherine Peeler

Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School 

MODERATOR

Ben Kotzee

Reader in Philosophy of Education, University of Birmingham