Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants

Critical Self-reflection as a means to Discover Personal Ethical Values: A Composition Instructor

Department

Writing Department

College

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Date Range

2013-2014

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities

Abstract

Critical self-reflection is an ethical responsibility that composition instructors have to their profession. Critical self-reflection allows an instructor to have insight into themselves, their personal values, and how those values either mesh or clash with those of their students, colleagues, and community. In this presentation, I will present the narrative of a composition instructor I call Melanie. Melanie had faced an ethical dilemma regarding her professional relationship with a student that escalated into conflict between Melanie and members of her department and school. Through a guided process of critical self-reflection, Melanie created a narrative of her personal and professional life and discovered what implicit values she held, where those values had come from, and how those values had come into conflict with the ethical values of others. I will share this narrative as a way to discuss a moral heuristic that I have created that is intended to help guide composition instructors to work through a period of critical self-reflection.

Conference Name

Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters Conference

Conference Location

Oakland University, Rochester, MI

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