Ethical Foreground and Background in Adult Educator Work

ABSTRACT Adult educators work in a complex ethical environment. The very act of contributing to the learning of another is fraught with moral overtones. In this paper we consider the ethical dimensions of adult educator practice by distinguishing the ethical features of the context or ‘background’ of practice from the ethical capabilities and decision making of individual educators in the foreground. We draw on the framework developed by Bagnall and Hodge to argue that contemporary educational practice exhibits tensions of an ethical nature due to the variety of purposes and traditions that can be mixed together in the settings of adult education. We distinguish the ethical background of adult education from the lived experience of educators’ decision making. We then set out three principles that can inform adult educators’ ethical reflection, illustrate them and identify the professional learning and organizational supports through which the capability we call ethical resilience might be developed.