Om möjligheten att undervisa i etik : En undersökning av lärares resonemang om teknikutvecklingens etiska aspekter

Sammanfattning: This investigation aims to describe, reflect on and increase understanding of the possibilities open to teachers of ethical aspects of technological progress. This discussion involves three questions: about the import of certain kinds of vocabulary, knowledge and professional ethical responsibility. The investigation is based on an interview study of 15 teachers of ‘Technology, human, society’. The approach is inspired by the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein, according to which educational problems are solved through investigation of how our language works.This reminds us it seems unreasonable to believe we need any special words to pay attention to the ethical. Rather, that words may be used in any mode, ethical or non-ethical. The teachers give many examples of ethical problems and dilemmas that follow from progress in technology e.g. in warfare, the car industry and information technology. These cases do not involve a kind of knowledge: rather something similar to belief and faith. The teachers all agree that technicians and engineers need to take responsibility in their profession, though not as a role, but as a person. The possibility to act responsibly is, however, dependent on, or thwarted by the sur-rounding society; sometimes by a lack of knowledge and control. However, taking responsibility is not always to be in control. Discussions are important, the teachers say, but not everything is open for discussion. The teacher cannot act as an ethical expert: there is no such thing. She must act as a person using the foundation of her own experience. If the teacher is going to reach out to pupils, she must instil confidence, though not as a person who knows more professionally, but as someone who has something to say. The character of the education cannot be one of control, but of hope. A hope that one will awaken pupils’ consciences: to see the other, what the situation demands and what it would involve to do this or that.