Jarosław Horowski - Etyka powinności czy etyka cnoty w przygotowaniu zawodowym nauczycieli?
Ethics of Duty vs. Ethics of Virtue in Teacher Training?
Given the assumption that a modern teacher’s role cannot just be narrowed down to being an instruc-tor, but that he should also carry out the role of a form tutor providing all necessary care, advice, assis-tance and support for a maturing person, the naturally following question to raise is what ethical atti-tude a prospective educator should be suggested to adopt towards his occupation as part of a teacher training programme. Two approaches can be singled out in modern studies: the ethics of duty and the ethics of moral virtues. The author makes no attempt at judging either of them nor does he provide an answer to the question, but he tries to indicate the advantages and drawbacks behind the two concep-tions. He points out that the ethics of duty, whose nature is object-related, is bound up with the percep-tion of a teaching occupation in terms of professionalism. On the other hand, the ethics of virtue em-phasizes subject-related facets of moral actions since its principles lead to understanding of a teaching occupation in terms of vocation. While it can easily be asserted that under the ethics of virtue a greater stress is laid on a teacher’s moral excellence, one should notice that such an attitude cannot be incul-cated through a series of university lectures because it develops as a lengthy process where personal experience plays a significant role. The dilemma presented in the title can be resolved by stating that both the ethics of duty as well as the ethics of virtue constitute a value which contributes to the profes-sional development of a teacher and affects this process across its successive stages.