2 - Ethical Relationships in Schools

Summary

Chapter 2 argues that relationships are integral to a person’s life and constituted in human’s well-being. As both human life and well-being have non-instrumental values, relationships cannot be instrumentalised. Thus in our relationships with others, we connect to the intrinsic value of them as persons. Insofar as we appreciate other people as such, that value and other people become part of our own life. In this way, human relationships can enlarge our horizons and enrich our lives. These interpersonal relationships are ethical because they involve a form of caring. An awareness of ethical relationships in one’s well-being can determine an openness and attentiveness to others. In this sense, others must be regarded as whole beings, not as assemblage of their identity labels or roles. This commitment to being-with and to ‘we’-ness is transformative and transcendent, and such ethical relationships can be nurtured through caring education and radical love. This includes learning to be directed at cultivating human qualities; curriculum to offer unmediated experiences of others through humanities subjects and activities within the humanities domains; and pedagogy to feature listening and dialogue. Most importantly, schools should be set up as caring communities where members can collaborate and develop a sense of ‘we’.