Pedro Ortega Ruiz

The Role of Compassion in Moral Education.

We propose compassion as a new model for moral education. The insufficiency of Kohlbergs cognitive model for such education is shown, as is the absence of compassion in dialogical ethics. We review briefly some authors who have treated the theme of compassion and propose the development of empathy as a foundation for educating for compassion. Specifically, we propose emotional guidance and observation-based tasks. Socio-affective experiences, the acquisition of social skills and the awakening of moral awareness are resources which enable the development of empathy. To put oneself in someone elses place, feel for them, sympathize with them, is not merely the result of an exclusive intellectual exercise; rather it is linked to a moral sensibility. A moral engagement, a moral stance in the face of tragedy, requires compassion for the commitment to be effective. To educate in compassion is to educate for a moral life.

Moral education as pedagogy of alterity

In this paper the author states that education could be better defined as reception and responsibility and that this ethical relationship between educator and pupil is the root or essential element of education. The author proposes a new paradigm, the pedagogy of alterity, inspired by Le´vinas, as a different model for educational praxis and research. Education as reception and responsibility facilitates the learning of values and a moral environment in the classroom and it is a fundamental support for the pupils in the current crisis of education. In this model, education is also political complaint and commitment. Being responsible for the other, taking responsibility for the other, means accepting the socio‐historical conditions of the pupil. Otherwise, we would not be referring to human beings of flesh and blood, but to spiritual entities.In this paper the author states that education could be better defined as reception and responsibility and that this ethical relationship between educator and pupil is the root or essential element of education. The author proposes a new paradigm, the pedagogy of alterity, inspired by Le´vinas, as a different model for educational praxis and research. Education as reception and responsibility facilitates the learning of values and a moral environment in the classroom and it is a fundamental support for the pupils in the current crisis of education. In this model, education is also political complaint and commitment. Being responsible for the other, taking responsibility for the other, means accepting the socio‐historical conditions of the pupil. Otherwise, we would not be referring to human beings of flesh and blood, but to spiritual entities.

Global Inequality and the Need for Compassion: Issues in moral and political education

The present paper is intended as an analysis of North-South relationships from the perspective of globalisation, an economic system that generates the dependency and exploitation of the South out of necessity. This phenomenon is conditioning the life of individuals and peoples and as a result local approaches to current problems are no longer viable. As an alternative to this state of affairs, the ethic of compassion, understood as a political compromise demanding a new paradigm in economic, political and cultural relationships, is posited as the moral instrument through which human beings may be liberated from misery and suffering. Finally, the educational implications of such an approach are discussed. These basically include the need to place the learning of values at the core of the educational process as an alternative to those conceptions that reduce education to a mere acquisition of knowledge.

Intercultural Education and Migration: Educational Proposals

This paper tackles the difficult problem that immigration poses for developed Western European societies and the need of a new model of intercultural education which puts the emphasis of educational activity not so much on “intellectual understanding” as on the acceptance and welcoming of the person who is different, on account of his/her culture or ethnic group. Educational proposals are put forward that are materialized in a change of the intercultural education model, the involvement of the family and of society in changing attitudes towards immigrants, the need not to attribute a metahistorical or essentialist meaning to cultural identity, and the restoring of an ethical and political dimension of educational activity.