Abstract
“Ethical understanding” has been included as one of seven general capabilities that teachers are charged to incorporate in their teaching across all subject areas within an inclusive Australian Curriculum. In this chapter, we explore the dilemmas and challenges this will present to teachers of mathematics. We draw on ideas from psychology and philosophy to argue that moral development is not simply an internal, automatic process, nor is it a by-product of general intellectual development. Successful moral development only occurs under particular conditions. We demonstrate how selected contexts associated with some mathematical concepts, and the social issues related to them (e.g., economics, sustainability, and equity), are value-laden and ethically problematic. If all students are to develop the capacities for moral reasoning and informed decision-making, and apply them in relevant contexts, we argue that teachers must create and actively foster learning experiences which stimulate ethical inquiry and discussion in contextualised mathematical problems.
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However, it should be noted that Kohlberg seemingly overlooked some fundamental differences between his ideas and those of Dewey. In particular, Kohlberg suggested that Dewey held a stage theory of development. However, Dewey would not have agreed with either Kohlberg’s notion of universal, sequential stages of development or with the different types thinking that Kohlberg described as characterising each stage.
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Forgasz, H., Bleazby, J., Sawatzki, C. (2015). Ethics and the Challenges for Inclusive Mathematics Teaching. In: Bishop, A., Tan, H., Barkatsas, T. (eds) Diversity in Mathematics Education. Mathematics Education Library. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05978-5_9
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