Lietiska etika uz personibu orienteta profesionalaja darbiba

Applied ethics in person oriented professional work
In this article I focus on pedagogical practice in a broad sense. I intend having a double perspective – a focus on education and on the practice where the professionals are working. I see the question of applied ethics relating to pedagogical practice as existing in a field colored by several interests and values, each of them having an influence on this practice and each of them with different demands and values.
Professional work focused on the citizen and the individual can be understood as on one hand colored by ideals as ethics, communication and recognition – and on the other hand you see a development influenced by economic rationalization and efficiency, New Public Management with measurements, documentation and control, evidence, new technologies, new concepts, methods and “tools”.
In the educational field we also see economical cuts, and as a teacher and practitioner in the field for many years it is quite natural to see a certain non-simultaneity between values and views of the teacher and those of the students. I therefore see some cross-pressures exposing education to even more dilemmas related to applied ethics, and I try to illustrate these cross-pressures in this article, and at the end of the article I illustrate it with a figure. The question is among others to what degree education plays a role in developing what I consider as necessary professional ethics.
My motivation for this article is my experience as a teacher trying to maintain an ethical perspective related to education. Not just as part of education but also as part of the consciousness and awareness of the graduates. My background is not as a philosopher, even if I found great inspiration in philosophy myself. As a start I shall sketch some areas exemplified with concrete dilemmas where ethics are at stake – both in the theoretical part of the education and in the part that takes place in pedagogical practice. Central inspiration will be introduced, and through examples I will try to show which ethical considerations pedagogues (social educators, teachers and others ) experience: They reflect on future practice and they reflect on existing experiences from both their theoretical education and from their practice. Reflections play an important role and must be both qualified and qualifying.
KEYWORDS: ethics, pedagogical and practical dilemmas, inclusion, recognition, values, legislation as framework