Exploring the Moral Dimension of Professors ’ Folk Pedagogy

Abstract

This study explores the intersection of two major conceptions in higher education: professors ’ folk pedagogies and teaching’s moral dimension. Folk pedagogy is the accumulated set of beliefs, conceptions and assumptions that professors personally hold about the practice of teaching (Bruner, 1996). When these beliefs and conceptions are enacted as a teaching practice, they are conceivably undertaken on behalf of students as the means to a good end. Professors, in the course of enacting their folk pedagogies, make educational decisions-- value determinations in essence-- about what they believe are in the best interests of their students. In so doing they have entered moral territory. To make these decisions, issues related to moral perception, moral imagination, and moral responsiveness are present. This moral dimension of teaching was found in this study to be an inherent feature of the participants ’ folk pedagogy. Pursuing tangible exemplars of these ideas, this study accomplished three key objectives. First, it explored and described some key features of professors ’ folk pedagogies. Second, it examines the discourse that emerged from the folk pedagogy