Ethics in context

Abstract

The delivery of ethical instruction within formal educational contexts is a task that is fraught with difficulties. Real world situations and examples of misconduct abound, but sourcing sufficient material within the constraints associated with developing course materials can be time-consuming. The availability of resources to illustrate relevant aspects may not be available, or may not fully emphasize the issues that educators wish to incorporate into their discussion of the material. At best, such an approach can only highlight in isolation - larger, overarching connections are rarely available. The provision of ethical instruction is now a core aspect of many undergraduate and postgraduate courses across a variety of disciplines, and accreditation bodies often include meeting the need for instruction in ethical and professional issues as a pre-requisite. In this paper we present a wide-ranging ethical case study called 'A Scandal in Academia'. It is a spiritual successor to the Case of the Killer Robot first published in the very early 1990s. The Scandal in Academia study has been trialed with students at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum and has been very effective in offering a coherent jumping-off point for a discussion of the implications of ethical and unethical activity. It is hoped that the provision of this study will be a useful tool for educators and others looking to investigate and present issues of professional responsibility within formal and informal contexts.