Comparative Education Bulletin - Faculty of Education - The ...

human freedom. For example, if we did not value life, we would not
be showing respect for others. Respect for each other implies therefore
that we value life. Again, respect for each other is not a necessary
condition for the valuing of life, but it is a sufficient condition. A similar
argument can be made for each of the other four principles posited by
Thiroux.
A counter-argument that can potentially challenge these conclusions
has to do with the meaning of terms like justice and respect.
I have used them here in a sense that is fairly abstract and universal,
while the interpretation of these terms within local contexts might of
course differ across cultures. My response to this counter-argument
would have to be offered on a case-by-case basis. For example, if an
opponent wished to defend the view that just and respectful treatment
of girls in his culture required excluding them from school, such as in
the case with which I introduced this article, then I would attempt to
respond to his conclusion by examining systematically the truth of his
premises and the validity of his arguments, looking not least for claims
that might unjustifiably reflect patriarchal interests in that culture.
The ethics of integrity enable us to derive further basic moral
principles that may form the foundations for moral responsibility
in comparative education research. It is clear from our derivation of
the ethics of integrity in the most basic of assumptions, that of our
human moral capacity, that these ethics are not only foundational,
but universal. We can expect of all researchers that they take moral
responsibility for their practice as professionals by virtue of the
foundational and universal attributes of the ethics of integrity. And
since in the professional practice of research we seek standards
of ethical practice that are publicly available, in terms of which
researchers may be guided in their practice, and in terms of which they
may be held accountable, such codes of practice may and should be
derived from the ethics of integrity. The ethics of integrity are, I hope
I have shown, an essential foundation not only for a code of ethics
in comparative education research, but for any professional code of
ethics.
References
Bauman, Z. (1993). Postmodern Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mason, M. (2001). “The Ethics of Integrity: Educational Values Beyond Postmodern
Ethics”. Journal of Philosophy of Education 35 (1), pp.47-69.
Moore, G. E. (1903). Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, C. (1991).The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Thiroux, J. (1986). Ethics: Theory and Practice. New York: Macmillan.
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