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Towards a more perspicuous understanding of social responsibility

University of British Columbia

This thesis is about the concept of social responsibility in moral education. I deal primarily with presenting a conceptualization of social responsibility as a moral tradition but I neither claim to decisively resolve the tensions surrounding the conceptual status of social responsibility nor articulate the precise definition of a moral tradition. Instead, I will present one way" of conceptualizing social responsibility and moral traditions in moral education that works for some very good reasons. This conceptual examination is both topical and important in British Columbia as The Ministry of Education has implemented an assessment program based upon developing social responsibility in its students. I begin examining the Ministry document, The British Columbia Performance Standards for Social Responsibility, (2000) in light of its ability to provide a basic theoretical framework for moral education toward social responsibility. My purpose in relation to understanding social responsibility is to emphasise the importance of three dimensions of social responsibility in moral education. They are: • Understanding the essential role of reasoning about moral concerns and participating in moral dialogue in learning to be socially responsible. • Coming to realize that social responsibility is itself a moral tradition into which students ought to be initiated. • Realizing the importance of students developing critical appreciation of themselves as moral agents and the virtues related to it. We stand to benefit from a comprehensive definition of social responsibility which recognizes students' potential as moral agents in these three areas. Again, this is not to claim that I have resolved the intellectual tensions related to the conceptual status of social responsibility. However, my intent is to open up the discussion in such a way that encourages future researchers and policy makers to take seriously the importance of adequately defining social responsibility. Furthermore, to connect the practice of teaching students social responsibility with the conceptual task of describing it, I also include an example of my ideas about social responsibility as they look in practice.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-10-29

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/14367

Educational Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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