Promoting Powerful Ethical Engagement with Normative Case Studies: An Online Course

Course Registration:

Course: Promoting Powerful Ethical Engagement with Normative Case Studies (NCS)

Dates: Email justice@gse.harvard.edu to learn more about upcoming course sessions. 

Cost:

Early Bird Pricing: $900 (individual); $750 (team, per person)

Regular Pricing: $1,050 (individual); $900 (team, per person)

*Please email justice@gse.harvard.edu if you plan to register as a team

 

Course Overview

As teachers, administrators, policy makers, and educational researchers, we are regularly confronted with ethical dilemmas. To support ethical deliberation of these hard issues, Dr. Meira Levinson (course instructor) and the broader EdEthics community have developed normative case studies—short, accessible, empirically-researched cases built around everyday ethical dilemmas in education.

This course offers you the opportunity to learn how to write your own normative case study that can be used to think through ethical dilemmas in your specific educational context. We will also spend time learning about the normative case study method, reading published normative case studies developed by Dr. Levinson and the teaching team, and analyzing and participating in case discussions.

In addition to writing your own normative case study,  you are helping to build a global network of practitioners and scholars engaged with the normative case study method. Together, we’re building the field of educational ethics to make schools more just places for all students.

 

Course Structure

Unit 1: Introduction to Normative Case Studies
Unit 2: Developing a Dilemma
Unit 3: Structure & Process
Unit 4: Writing Your Case
Unit 5: From Computer to Classroom

 

Instructional Details

  • Asynchronous learning (readings, videos, reflection prompts)
  • Class-wide discussion forum
  • 6 1-hr synchronous learning pod meetings
  • 5 30-minute synchronous meetings with Writing Fellow
  • Optional synchronous case discussion
  • Assignments with time-delimited deadlines (research memo, structure memo, normative case study draft & final product)
  • 3-5 hours per/week, including time to work on assignments and meet with peers/WF

 

Who Should Enroll?

  • Educators, state and district leaders, policymakers, students, and scholars interested in educational ethics, diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • Graduate students and university faculty
  • Case writers
  • Teacher educators

 

Course Instructors:

Meira Levinson: Dr. Levinson is a normative political philosopher who works at the intersection of civic education, youth empowerment, racial justice, and educational ethics. In doing so, she draws upon scholarship from multiple disciplines as well as her eight years of experience teaching in the Atlanta and Boston Public Schools. She is currently working to start a global field of educational ethics, modeled in some ways after bioethics, that is philosophically rigorous, disciplinarily and experientially inclusive, and both relevant to and informed by educational policy and practice.

Ellis Reid: Dr. Reid holds a PhD in Education from Harvard University, USA, and is currently an Associate Program Officer at The Spencer Foundation. His primary areas of scholarship lie in democratic theory, practical ethics, and education policy. In particular, his work focuses on the normative dimensions of school governance. Ellis has served as an Ethics Pedagogy Fellow at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics and as the Co-Chair for the Editorial Board of the Harvard Educational Review. Before coming to Harvard, Ellis was the Associate Director for Next Generation Scholars, a college-access program in Northern California.

Course Writing Fellow:

Justin Hauver: Justin Hauver is a former teacher and current PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He aims to use research to support liberatory pedagogies, study how teachers and students give life to their values in every decision, and understand how our ways of being are shaped by school. He has conducted ethnographic research in the US and Colombia to explore how schools and educators cultivate democracy, learning, and joy. He has also facilitated Youth Participatory Action Research with middle schoolers in Boston. Currently, he is working on projects that study how teacher education programs cultivate a teaching ethos as well as how teachers build relationships and culture in the first weeks of school. Prior to his doctoral studies, Justin taught history for eight years in Louisiana and California. Alongside teaching, he served in a variety of leadership roles, including instructional coach, cooperating teacher, curriculum developer, and professional development facilitator. In 2020, he earned a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Fellowship. He holds a BA in philosophy and German from UC Berkeley and an Ed.M in Specialized Studies from HGSE.

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