Abstract:
In this study I ask, ‘How do teachers experience ethical uncertainty in their relationships with children?’. To answer this question, I used hermeneutic phenomenology as an empirical social science methodology. I created anecdotes using teachers’ lived experience descriptions of ethical uncertainty. These anecdotes became the basis of my philosophical reflections that I present in this thesis. I describe how the dominant perspective in educational research is that experiences of uncertainty are primitive states that we should overcome and move beyond. Conversely, I argue that such an approach can lead us to evade the contingency and ambiguity that conditions what is important in our lives with children. Educational research needs to remind us that good teaching requires caring about those things that are risky, unpredictable and unknowable. We should not attempt to structure our lives to protect ourselves from uncertainty. Instead, good teaching means making ourselves vulnerable to uncertainty. Regarding the ethical experience of teachers, I argue that proper ethical understanding is not a matter of being certain about the right course of action or being confident in how to resolve situations of moral conflict. Instead, uncertainty is an essential part of ethical experience because it can demonstrate our sensitivity to the complexity and challenges of our ethical entanglements with children.
