The 12 articles (including an index) of this theme issue are devoted to documenting and critiquing the American Evaluation Association's "Guiding Principles for Evaluators," a code of ethics and standards. The development of these principles is traced, and their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed at general and specific levels. (SLD)

Notes that responses to moral conflict often lead to reciprocated diatribe and the use of violence. Describes a potentially more constructive approach, called transcendent eloquence, in which interveners or the conflicting parties themselves develop a new framework for understanding and comparing such conflicts. Discusses a number of case studies,…

The Personal Responsibility Education Process (PREP) is a grass-roots approach to character education that seeks to strengthen student responsibility. Instead of promoting one set of values, it helps schools rediscover their own values and reinforce them. A sampling of several Missouri school districts illustrates the diversity of the process and…

Discussion of ethics focuses on the role of human performance technology professionals in helping corporate ethicists. Highlights include definitions of ethics, morals, values, and business ethics; ethics in academia and in business; and application of the knowledge of ethics to decision-making. (Contains 18 references.) (LRW)

A study of youths (n=38) placed at a rural boys' ranch examined the relationship between their background and level of moral reasoning. Although no demonstrated relationships were noted among factors evaluated, documentation for the need of moral education resulted. (Author/JOW)

Notes that the 1995 American Counseling Association convention presents a moral dilemma for members who support the use of antidiscrimination legislation to protect the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexual individuals. Uses historic metaphor, based on symbols used during Nazi extermination, to explore strategic symbolic acts in support of a…

Reviews the four basic principles of an ethical framework as outlined by the Code of Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans in light of the requirements of a participatory action research approach. Discusses the ethics of participatory action research in regard to care and concern. Argues that the ethics of morality and justice are…

Introduces a special issue containing a series of articles on the relation of social interaction and morality. The articles analyze actual instances of moral discourse, elucidating the nature and dynamics of the relationship. This introduction discusses morality, discourse, and social science; proto-mortality as a substructure of discourse;…

Explores issues concerning the accountability of conduct and the moral work that may be managed through accounts of actions, in the context of naturally occurring telephone conversations. Distinguishes between the implicit and explicit moral work of accounts, considering cases in which speakers appear implicitly to be doing defensive moral work in…

Examines whether the human world is threatened by a decline in respect for life, questioning some of the convictions and assumptions which underlie this diagnosis and the concomitant demand for an education in the value of life. The paper discusses the meaning of life, human existence, the sacredness of life, and the question of meaning and…

Compared the moral reasoning of 1,230 Finnish adolescents with that of 428 adolescents of the same age who grew up in Estonia during Soviet socialism with collectivist educational practices. Two levels of moral reasoning, a set of universal standards and a set for personal applications, were more likely to be found among Estonians. (SLD)

In discussing the work of teachers, this paper highlights two books, William Ayers's "To Become a Teacher" and David Hansen's "The Call to Teach," examining the philosophical roots of their analyses; how they define and characterize teaching and its place in public and private spheres; and what metaphors shape and define their…

Comparison of responses from 38 U.S. and 27 British preservice teachers on the Ethics Position Questionnaire indicated that both groups had high idealism. U.S. teachers had lower relativism scores. (SK)

Argues that the decline of informal systems of restraint and the rise of political correctness suggest a new moral order that bodes ill for Western civilization. Describes historical restraint systems within English society, discussing what Anglophones inherited from the past (a dynamic system capable of development as it responded to changes in…

Shows how a philosophical analysis of the moral value of information can help librarians rethink some aspects of their professional values, especially their commitment to neutrality. Discusses the historical background of allowing fiction into library collections; the impact of technology; the moral character of information; and information,…