ABSTRACT
In recent years educators have been trying to open up a neglected theme in the curriculum of teacher education for critical scrutiny and reconsideration; to identify issues in a relevant educational context that might be the focus for others to analyse and debate. The theme in question is how the moral gesture of teaching – which implies that not only what is taught, but how it is taught has to carry values assurances – might be transposed into an ethical orientation worthy of a democratic profession. 1 Because teachers will stand as gatekeepers to increasingly powerful forms of knowledge and to the powers of discrimination required to use them wisely and for the good of others, many foresee an increasing emphasis on ethics in the teacher's role. In what follows, I have written to provoke questions and thought about the ‘state we're in’ and to make a tentative proposal rather than to attempt a definitive analysis. However, by seeking to set forth a case for a teaching orientation process involving an ethical focus, I hope to press for a realistic but visionary strategy.
