Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The duty to care should be higher education’s fifth mission

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Some good thinking here. "In a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jonathan Haidt declares unequivocally: 'When truth and social justice collide, choose truth.' He seems to ignore fierce contestations over the epistemological and ontological conceptions of 'truth' and the simple fact that universities are deeply immersed in their times and contexts and reproduce conceptions of truth that are questionable in other times and contexts. This is not an argument for relativism, but for comprehensiveness."

And that brings us to the duty to care, which in this context means something like this: "universities have a responsibility to lead the global charge in climate research, mitigation and adaptation efforts by engaging governments, business, civil society and other stakeholders, as well as modelling sustainable environmental stewardship in their own institutions." I'm not sure if that's care, exactly, but I'm not going to disagree with the sentiment.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 10:27 a.m.

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