Ethical knowledge and learning in the new economy

Ethics is commonly and popularly lamented to be a casualty of contemporary constructions of workplace knowledge and value. That assessment is here argued to be seriously misinformed, although it is certainly true that ethical learning is not a feature of contemporarily dominant approaches to vocational education. An exploration of the nature of practical ethical knowledge in contemporary workplaces shows it to be a strong ethic of social connectedness, the skilled practice of which is educationally very demanding. Ethical action in contemporary workplaces draws upon a wide range and considerable depth of knowledge. The extent to which action is ethical is a matter of degree. Ethicality (or morality) is potentially a dimension or feature of any action, rather than being a particular type of action. It is not, therefore, evidently a form of knowledge in itself. It is, however, educationally helpful to see it as a distinctive dimension of workplace action. Through doing so, it may be made the focus of educational attention. Such attention to date indicates that ethically informed action is developed through experiential engagement - whether direct, simulated or vicarious. Unfortunately, the currently dominant competency-based ideology in Australian vocational education and training cannot serve as an adequate framework for teaching and assessing practical ethics. Experience-based approaches to vocational education must be used if the present neglect of practical ethics in the sector is to be redressed.