Basic Scenario:
The country school in which you teach serves a very stable, cohesive and mutually-supportive community with long-established friendship and family ties built on marriage, business, and recreation. You have tried hard to fit-in with the locals since your arrival at the start of this year - joining a couple of local sports teams and helping out at the community show-day - you are pleased to have made some progress, in spite, you believe, of lingering suspicions held by some towards your 'big-city' attitudes.
Of little consolation is the realisation that there are others in this community who are more on the outer than you. In particular, you think of the Abuddins, an African family that runs the general store on the highway. You have met them on a number of occasions as their oldest child, Akia, is in your class at school and the family live at the bottom of your street.
Islamist terrorism seems to be an ever-present threat to many people, even here, far away from the capital city. For you, this is reflected in a recent edition of the local paper which ran an editorial arguing that government policies on multiculturalism are flawed:
'while tolerance and respect for other cultures sounds good it can breed divisiveness and a ghetto mentality. Instead, we should encourage our schools to work towards assimilating all children and young people, regardless of their background, into the cultural mainstream'. (The Western Argus,
Although they have been in
At your school, Akia doesn't seem to fit-in very well, and in fact some students seem openly hostile - they resent the special treatment they claim Akia appears to be afforded. The Abuddins strictly adhere to the requirements of their minority religion, and these requirements are very different from what other students and the older teachers are used to. As well as the wearing of unusual apparel, by way of modifying the school uniform that everyone else is required to wear, the Abuddins insist that Akia be permitted to undertake religious rituals during the school day. A few of your colleagues have strongly argued, along the same lines as the newspaper editorial, that cultural diversity should not be encouraged in the interests of maintaining cultural cohesiveness. They claim that special pleading regarding Akia's religious practices is unfair and that these practices interfere with the normal school routine. They further claim that the only reason why the principal, Matt Dawson, hasn't acted is that the District Superintendent of Schools supports the government's policies on multiculturalism.
So far you have been tentative about engaging with anyone about these issues. You know enough to realise that the majority of the students, their parents, and your colleagues are resistant to any perceived attempts to support multiculturalism. Besides, you are not confident of your grounds - perhaps there is a point where multiculturalism becomes damaging to the fabric of society. And maybe the community resistance to this African family is justified, given how successful this small community has been in remaining so well integrated. Besides, what makes you particularly anxious is that you think that these older colleagues are relied on by the principal in many matters of judgment; and you have concerns that the opinions held about you by these more senior colleagues might affect, for good or ill, your future. Especially given that you would dearly like to obtain full teacher registration and permanent employment with your employing authority. In your favour is the fact that the oldest of the principal's three children, Coby Dawson, is in your class and is a star pupil. Given this, you feel that your success as a classroom teacher will be assured -but only so far as nothing else rocks the boat.
Akia seems to be lonely. At lunchtime you regularly see Akia sitting alone and away from everyone at the boundary of the school grounds, overlooking the creek bed. Rather than mixing with the other students, Akia generally seems to prefer talking to you if you are on playground supervision. However, of late, you have been pleased to notice on a number of occasions that off in the distance Coby has broken away from the usual lunchtime crowd and walked down to join Akia in the shade of the river gums bordering the creek.
Akia is a good conversationalist and you have found these talks to be very entertaining. So much so, that you and Akia have often continued these conversations over the walk home after school. You admit that you can't help but find these conversations rather more interesting than those you might have with other students and, to be quite frank, with many of your colleagues.
One afternoon, you are taking some of the older kids in a class on human relationships and personal development (as a recent graduate you were identified as perhaps the best-equipped for this task -although you have some doubts!). At one point you ask the students to get into pairs for the next activity. As Coby walks towards Akia's desk, one of the students calls out 'We know who Coby is on with'. Amidst the whistles and shouts of 'Woo-hoo!' Coby looks embarrassed turns and quickly pairs up with someone else. Meanwhile no one pairs up with Akia. You settle the class and then walk over to sit with Akia. Whereupon the whistles start up again and someone says, 'It looks like you've got some competition Coby.'
You then notice Bill, who teaches in the next classroom, watching from the doorway. He beckons you over and says quietly, 'Well, well, so you're a wog lover. Matt had his doubts about you but I convinced him that you were alright. I've seen you being very pally with that kid in the playground and after school too - you seem to prefer the company of blacks to us. Matt is going to be very interested in all of this. Shall you tell him or shall I?' Before you can respond, he turns and walks back to his classroom. The stray thought that the principal is away from town, and won't be back until the next afternoon, does little to settle your agitation.
Just then the bell goes and amidst the usual packing-up noise Akia goes over to Coby and says quietly, 'How could you' But other students close by hear this while looking on and they snigger. Akia then cries out 'I hate all Aussies', before running from the classroom with school bag in hand.
Additional Information:
In the exam you will be provided with additional information that extends the basic scenario.
Exam Question:
Write an essay that answers these questions:
- What are the ethical issues embedded in this exam scenario?
- How should you act in this situation?
- How would you justify your actions if they were called into question?
What follows is my first hack at a response in light of the four ethical theories we studied, and which form the basis for most of the Western tradition: Consequentialism, non-Consequentialism, Virtue Ethics, and Care Ethics:
First, a consequentialist perspective. If we were to back the community and try to persuade Akia and the Abuddins to assimilate to their way of life, we might reduce the tension that exists if the Abuddins agree. Akia would start wearing the same uniform as the rest of the students, ignoring his religious practices, and whatever other customs that the community sees as alien. That would be an ideal consequence. However, given that the Abuddins insist on Akia performing those religious practices and wearing the clothes he does, this won’t be any easy path. In fact, it may very well increase the tension that exists if we push too hard. Still, it may very well be easier to try and get the minority (I’m using this in a general sense, not in the pejorative – do I sound like an oversensitive Canadian?) to tend toward the majority rather than the other way around; at least this seems to be the case given a casual glance of the numbers – 1 family versus an entire community.
However, even within a utilitarian perspective we need to keep in mind the maximum net benefit of all – it’s not just a matter of comparing the number of people on each side. If on the other hand we encouraged Akia and the Adbuddins to hang onto their cultural practices and gingerly tried to get the community to see that the Abuddins aren’t trying to subvert the local customs, but that instead, the Abuddins just the same are trying to keep up their customs, we could endow all with a great benefit inasmuch as they might feel more secure in their own right to branch out and do something a little different. Perhaps the community consists of many people who, for fear of being ridiculed, don’t want to do something that seems a little odd. To give some specific examples, perhaps some don’t want to share their interest in a certain type of music or art, maybe there are some unadmitted homosexuals amongst the group, or it’s conceivable that a few want the liberty to dress a certain way that is different from everyone else. The important aspect to keep in mind is that we should move from a position of caring and liberty. We actually don’t want anybody to do anything, except to respect the universal individual right of liberty – everyone is free to do as they wish so long as their liberty doesn’t infringe on another’s. Seen from this angle, we should ask: do Akia’s practices infringe on the rights of liberty of the rest of the community? I think the answer is ‘no’. By wearing an adapted uniform, Akia does not infringe on the right of the rest of the students to wear theirs ‘normally’. This could call into question the liberty of the other students to wear adapted uniforms as well, but that is another issue.
It’s difficult to predict the future so it’s hard to say what the consequences of our actions might be. However, we might be tempted to at least try and convince the community to relax their views on the differences in question since, given the overall trends of globalization and mass migration, sooner or later they will encounter other cultural and value differences. If we could be even partially successful in this regard it’s entirely possible we would be conferring at least as much benefit for all as we would by trying to convince the Abuddins to assimilate.
How could we view this situation from a non-consequentialist perspective? This brings into question, rights, duties, and Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
It’s important to note that in terms of natural rights, liberty is placed in front of all others – even equality. This is outlined on page 17 of our text. As such, the argument used above which highlights individual liberty is quite strong from a natural rights perspective. It should embolden us to argue for the Abuddin’s right to liberty, before considering their ‘equality’ or the case being made for their integration. As far as a deontological perspective goes, we have the duty to uphold the views of our school and the education system at large. However, we also have a duty to look out and care for our students. It seems that the views of our particular school are not favourable to accepting deviances from the norm – the principal and other teachers sound quite conservative. In this sense, we have a duty to ask Akia to assimilate himself with the community. However, the District Superintendent of Schools supports the government's policies on multiculturalism. In this way, we could argue that we should stand up to the school and represent the overarching views of the entire district and our elected government which supports people like the Abuddins coming to Australia, and presumably, bringing some of their culture with them.
The first criteria for Kant’s Categorical Imperative, that of universalizability, could be used also to argue against assimilating the Abuddins. Can we logically will that everyone who we meet should be made to conform to our standards of dress and customs? No, because if we did, there would be no diversity, but diversity is an inherent part of nature. You don’t have dolphins and birds evolving toward some common future species, rather they are all evolved from a common ancestor. Thus nature tends toward diversity. Not sure about this argument, but it sounds seductive. What do you guys think?
What if we consider Virtue Ethics. First we must consider what the pertinent virtues are. Ones we thought applied often to teachers were patience, tolerance, understanding and conscientiousness. Tolerance will certainly play a big role here. However, we must be able to be tolerant of both sides to some degree. It must be difficult for people who are not used to foreigners to have to suddenly accommodate different values and customs. Of course, at the same time, they need to at least try. Assuming that the Abuddins are not from a Commonwealth country, the fact that Akia can (presumably) speak English, already shows that he is making an enormous effort to adopt some of the rudimentary social norms of
Finally, Care Ethics. Here we need to act in the best interests of the people to whom we are closest. It seems that given our propensity for conversing and walking home with Akia, we are closer to him than the other students. In this manner, we should again try to encourage the others to allow Akia to carry on with his customs, while at the same time, highlighting that they are not in danger by his differences.
