Search

Snapshot: A teacher in a charter school must decide how to respond when she witnesses a colleague harshly reprimanding a student in class; while her colleague’s behavior isn’t out of line with the school’s strict discipline code, she herself relies more...

Sometimes a small spark can ignite a big conversation. Use our micro cases as a way to seed discussion when participants don’t have time for more thorough preparation. Adam is making wisecracks and asking obscure questions while his teacher, Mrs. Wilson...

Snapshot: A group of teachers and administrators grapple with how to discipline a student who posted a nasty meme on a classmates social media feed. Should sharing a violent meme be treated differently than other violent speech?

Challenges of Mandated Reporting A teacher grapples with when corporal punishment crosses the line into child abuse and whether or not reporting her suspicions is the right decision in either case. Gender Identity and Student Support A student in a...

Snapshot: A pair of seventh graders in Madrid take a topless photo of a female classmate using WhatsApp and forward it to the rest of the class. This case asks teachers and families to think about dilemmas that arise when underage students at home misuse...

Justice in Schools began in 2012, and will likely be actively under development until at least 2017. It is organized around a set of intensively-researched, normative case studies of classroom-level, school-level, and district-level decisions about...

While normative case studies are valuable discussion resources, they can also be equally useful as writing prompts. Writing case commentaries allows students to dive deeper into the ethical issues raised by the cases, learning how to engage in careful...

One of the goals of Justice in Schools is to promote the use of normative case studies as a powerful tool for teaching about and reflecting on challenge ethical dilemmas in the practice of education. The following collection of syllabi come from...

Snapshot: Should a student who skipped school be allowed to make up missing work? This case explores dilemmas that arise when academic consequences are linked to behavioral infractions. How can schools discourage dangerous behavior without endangering...