INAUGURAL NICHOLS FELLOW 2009-2011
Stephen J. Schmidt, Professor of Economics
The Fellowship enabled me to address a number of ethical issues related to economic and social policies. For example, students wrote papers on the propriety of affirmative action, protecting interns from exploitation in the workplace (to which many could relate personally), whether the World Bank should encourage activities that create pollution in developing countries, and whether school vouchers are morally acceptable. I assigned a variety of readings dealing with these issues to the students and required them to state and justify their own positions on the topics, which were then the basis for classroom discussion of the issues. In these discussions, I was able to create an environment where students took the risk of committing to a public view on a controversial topic, explained their views to their peers, and engaged in a civil discourse about the merits of their views where those differed.
Best Practices:
Require students to write a short paper explaining their position on an issue and their reasoning, due on the day of the discussion of that issue. This raises the quality of the discussion by allowing students to present a variety of different justifications for positions. From there, the discussion can move to questions about which justifications are more compelling, and what assumptions about the nature of justice underlie each position and its reasoning. This brings students to a much deeper understanding about how policies can be evaluated as “right” or “wrong” choices for society.
