Inculcation of Ethics Through Education and Globalization
Effects on Ethics
INTRODUCTION
‘The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government’………….. Thomas Jefferson.
‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist’……………..Dom Helder Camara.
Now we are living in the technological modern world. Science and Technology have a prominent role in the development of the any nation in the world. India is a developing county in the world. Indian economy is the fourth largest economy in the world. According to 2001 census the literacy rate of India is 64.84%. It is very less when compared to developed county in the world. The Planning Commission made a survey for finding out the number of persons below poverty line and estimated that 18.96% of the total peoples live below poverty line as of the year 1993-94. It is necessary to take care about poor and illiteracy.
ETHICS
Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is “the good life”, the life worth living or life that is satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct. The major problem is the discovery of the summum bonum, the greatest good.
Ethics are related to institutions and rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and human rights accordingly stem from ethics even if no moral grounds can be adduced. Yet moral grounds are to be found everywhere, including science. From the point where, in the name of ethics, science itself does not fall outside this domain, morals, similarly, do not lie outside the realm of ethics as ethics are a profoundly human, secular construction in so far as they represent a conscious choice or plan and a legal endeavour in terms of the law. The confusion that exists between rights and values on the one hand and between morals and ethics on the other lie at the heart of the debate on universal ethics, that is to say, universal ethics based on recognition of human rights.
Morals are linked to the very definition of ethics. Moral principles are extremely diverse. As it happens, morals, historically speaking, have come to be increasingly connected with religion as human society has developed. Therefore, the moral debate has also become a religious one and, as many religious phenomena do not lie beyond the scope of laws, between majorities and minorities, nor the ideological choices involved, it may be difficult to find the same moral values for all societies. Moral values are very diverse. A number of values are universal.
In generally, values may be classified as;
? Personal Values
? Social Values
? Moral Values
? Spiritual Values and
? Behavioural values.
All these values are necessary for all types of persons in the society.
Why Ethics?
To enable young people to appreciate themselves and others, and to take greater responsibility for their actions and for the world around them.
ETHICS AND ECONOMICS
There are three ways in which ethics enters economics. First, economists have ethical values that help shape the way they do economics. This builds into the core of economic theory a particular view of how the economy does work and how it should work. Second, economic actors (consumers, workers, business owners) have ethical values that help shape their behavior. Third, economic institutions and policies impact people differentially and thus ethical evaluations, in addition to economic evaluations, are important.
Economists have Ethical Values
The issue of ethical value judgments in economics is at least as old as the John Neville Keynes argument which divided economics into three areas: positive (economic theory), normative (welfare economics), and practical (economic policy). The first deals with ‘what is’, the second with ‘what ought to be’, and the third with how to get from one to the other. Although the majority of economists admit that ethical values permeate welfare economics and economic policy, they proceed with some confidence in the belief that their work in pure and applied economic theory is ethically neutral. Methodologists studying the question are more cautious.
Ethics in the relationship between developed and less developed countries dictates that the developedcountries treat the less developed countries fairly, aware of their disadvantaged economic position, andacknowledging that taking advantage of one’s own economic power inevitably will hurt the poor withindeveloping countries.
What is unethical?
Economic institutions, rules, practices which disadvantage the poor will be viewed as unethical
Ethical behavior requires “progressivity”: the poor should benefit disproportionately
Hypocritical behavior viewed as unethical
Advisers who are not “fully honest” viewed as unethical
ETHICS AND GLOBALIZATION
The world has been utterly transformed in recent years by a phenomenon affecting us all, what we call globalization. Although there was a time when it was possible for citizens of one country to think of themselves as owing no obligation to the people of other nations, admittedly that was long ago. Today national borders have less meaning as issues of trade, environment, and health, along with incredible technological advances of the last century, have left us with a legacy of connectedness we cannot ignore.
We know globalization involves complete economic liberalization, i.e., opening doors to big businesses. Multinational corporations are at the forefront. Globalization wants the governments around the world to create an environment that is as conducive as possible to its growth of business. Regional groupings like APEC, GATT and WTO are totally committed to the same goal. The connection between big businesses, governments and regional and international institutions to create an environment for globalization is not an accident. It has historic roots in colonization, and as such, the dominant forces behind globalization are based in the developed world. Nonetheless, it would be wrong to describe globalization today as a replica of the Western colonial experience only. This is because one of the centres of power is based in Japan. Other centres of control in Northeast and Southeast Asia are emerging.
In reflecting on the good and bad sides of globalization we find that whatever good has come out of it is actually a by-product. The very motive, maximizing profit is responsible for its bad sides. So, globalization may well be one of the most serious challenges ever to the integrity of human civilization. Since society and culture hold some positive aspects it is important that it is not completely rejected. Ethics and moral standards should be injected into some economic activities as a short-term and medium-term strategy. The market should be regulated by ethical principles. The challenge is to devise ethical economically-sound policies built into the globalization process that are in keeping with values. I mean, the economic dimensions of globalization are not the only factors that need reconsidering. Culture should be guided by moral universal values whereby a strong ethic of restraint is within one culture is applied to prevent the dominance of another culture. The internationalization of the ethical values within the consciousness of the individual and the community could be the only hope for humanity. It is almost impossible to effectively censor all information through the Internet, satellite, etc. The individual who derives his/her value-system should be guided by time-honoured principles of what is right and wrong. Such individuals are the real antidotes to the bad effects of globalization.
Positive aspects of Globalization
Ø Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has helped to reduce poverty by creating jobs and improving incomes.
Ø The expansion of trade and foreign investment has accelerated social mobility and strengthened the middle class.
Ø New communications and information technology have helped disseminate knowledge in many fields of study and disciplines.
Ø Communication is cheaper and easier. Costs of telephone calls as well as travel have fallen. This makes it easier to understand one another. Communities although heterogeneous, can be more cooperative now that are more means of understanding each other.
Ø Globalization makes it possible for humanity to have compassion for each other when calamities, natural or man-made, affect others.
Ø Issues such as human rights and public accountability are brought to the fore.
Ø The rights of women are highlighted and the problems many women face are now addressed.
Negative aspects of Globalization
v Environmental degradation due to unrestrained activities of multinational corporations whose sole aim is to multiply profits.
v Although poverty has been reduced to a certain extent, new economic disparities have been created. There are stark regional disparities in poverty.
v Basic necessities in life are set aside in favour of profits. Many developing countries have been occupied with facilitating foreign investment in industries that are lucrative to foreign markets and discarding the most fundamental needs of the people.
v Globalization aids the removal of national controls over cross-border financial flows. Dramatic outflows of capital from one country to another have caused havoc in some currencies, particularly in Southeast, and South Asia including Bangladesh.
v Advances in technology aggravated by the outflow of capital to low cost production sites in the developing countries has caused growing unemployment in the developed countries, which is an cause offence to human dignity.
v Globalization has popularized the consumer culture. Consumerism has given birth to materialism where people are more interested in what they have rather than the essential aspects of humanity.
v Global consumerism is now forming a homogeneous global culture where rich indigenous cultures of many developing countries are being replaced by cultures with vibrant economies.
v Formal education systems are emphasizing technical and managerial skills responding to market demands and leaving aside traditional academic subjects. This means that education is nothing more than acquiring specific skills and techniques to do business and less emphasis on development of social or basic sciences.
v Although the IT boom has given rise to an expanse of information there is a lot of information that is useless and meaningless causing people to be pre-occupied with unimportant things.
v Double standards are present in the human rights aspect of the present world where they are used as part of many governments’ policy but only when it suits them.
Because of globalization we have some advantages and disadvantages. We are human beings. Take good things and leave bad things. The policies of some developed countries are not good for developing countries. The ethical value decreases day by day. The business person gives more important for profit only. Organizational ethics is very important.
Centre for Globalization
The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization uses a variety of means to explore globalization and promote the flow of ideas pertinent to our core issues. The activities organized by the YCSG are designed to interconnect in ways that will further the Center’s mission and enable us to achieve our goals. It is necessary to establish this type of centre in our university also. In the modern generation also computer literacy is very low in our community. It is very sad thing that our students have no interest to learn computer education. It is very necessary in the scientific and technological world.
INCULCATION ETHICS THOUGH EDUCATION
Value education means inculcating in the children a sense of humanism, a deep concern for the well being of others and the nation. This can be accomplished only when we instill in the children a deep feeling of commitment to values that would build this country and bring back to the people pride in work that brings order, security and assured progress.
Value education has the capacity to transform a diseased mind into a very young, fresh, healthy, natural and attentive mind. The transformed mind is capable of higher sensitivity and a heightened level of perception this leads to fulfillment of the evolutionary role in man and in life
By saying autobiography of good persons like Gandiji, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramananda, Tagore and Sathya Sai Baba; we can easily inculcate values in the students and in the people.
Thinking with love is truth
Feeling with love is peace
Acting with love is right conduct
Understanding with love is non-violence
-Sathya Sai
According the Sathya Sai Baba the following five values are necessary for students.
v Right Conduct
v Peace
v Truth
v Love
v Non-Violence
Gandhi’s Values:
In order to create new social order Gandhiji introduced Nai Talim in the year 1937, which is popularly known as Basic Education.
1. Truth
2. Non-violence
3. Freedom
4. Democracy
5. Sarva Dharma Samabhava
6. Equality
7. Self-realization
8. Purity of ends and means
9. Self-discipline
10. Suddhi
If there is no place for values education in the curriculum, we can inculcate values through other subjects like Social Sciences & Technology. Learning takes place through lesson plans based on practical, meaningful and fun activities using the five components of:
Stories – about life, identity & relationships;
Quotations, poems and prayers;
Songs and music;
Silent sitting – exercises leading to inner calm and peace;
Activities e.g. drama, discussion, games, role play, community service, etc.
CONCLUSIONS
Swamy Vivekananda said “We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet”. It is true. It is our Government duty to give such type of education for each and every student in the country. Through education only we can solve all types of problems. Through education it is easy to motivate people about Ethical value and Moral values and human rights. Education gives knowledge, strength and creativity. India is a fourth largest economy in the world. The youth population is also very high. By proper using of science & technology and human & natural resources India will become developed country in the world.
We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.
References:
Peter Singer. ‘One World-The Ethics of Globalization’, 2004.
Amrtya Sen. ‘On Ethics and Economics’.
3. Value Education, Dr. Venkataiah, Editor, APH Publishing Corporation, 5, Ansari Road, Daryaganji, New Delhi – 110 002, First Edition, 1998.
4. Value Education in India, Usha Rai Negi, Editor, Published by association of Indian Universities, AIU House, 16 Kotla Mark, New Delhi – 110 002, 2000.
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By: naraginti amareswaran
Posts Tagged ‘Philosophers’
Inculcation of Ethics Through Education and Globalization Effects on Ethics
December 11th, 2009Innovations in Education – Knowledge Management
November 24th, 2009
INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATION – KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to identify knowledge management concepts that relate to the implementation of Knowledge management Practices in education and also in collaborative arrangements. It also discusses about the challenges facing in higher education in India and the concept of Knowledge management in education and the new trends of education. It also explains about the Knowledge management and types of Knowledge management and their trends and new innovations of Knowledge management in current education scenario. Educational trends and tasks are towards more learner- centered materials. In response to these trends, colleges and universities are offering new courses at a distance and forms traditional delivery. The effort to share the most recent understandings about Knowledge management in education is the changing roles and challenges for higher education. The increased productivity required by faculty are driving forces for the development of more diverse and efficient teaching method.
INTRODUCTION:
Knowledge management in education is the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination and utilization of knowledge. In one form or another, knowledge management has been around for a very long time. Practitioners have included philosophers, priests, teachers, politicians, scribes, Liberians etc., Knowledge management is not “A technology thing” or a “Computer thing” if we accept the premise that Knowledge management is concerned with the entire process of discovery and creation of knowledge then we are strongly driven to accept that Knowledge management is much more than a “Technology thing” and that elements of it exist in each of one Jobs. Knowledge management comprises a range of practices used by organizations to identify, create, represent and distribute knowledge. It has been an established discipline since 1995 with a body of university courses and both professional and academic journals dedicated to it. Knowledge management is frequently linked to the idea of the learning organization .Knowledge management refers to a range of practices used by organizations to identify the higher levels of innovations in education. The sharing of knowledge in industry, colleges , universities and, almost any institution in this country will make reference to the capturing of knowledge.
DEFINITION
“Knowledge management is the discipline of enabling individuals, team and entire organizations to collectively and systematically create, share and apply knowledge to better achieve their objectives”
Knowledge management education is the process of constructivity using the information and knowledge that is inherent to any organisation –be it a school, university or multinational company. In order to enhance its performance, its management and its operations. This process of learning to know what we know is one that has brought great benefits. Particularly to many commercial organizations.
MAARTEN SIERCHUIS: -
Knowledge analysis: In knowledge analysis we model a knowledge source in such away that we can analyse its usefulness, its weakness and its appropriateness within the organization. Knowledge analysis is a necessary step for the ability to manager knowledge. Within knowledge Analysis we can use knowledge modeling and knowledge acquisition techniques.
ROBERT TAYLOR:-
The vital importance of knowledge in business has always been recognised but, up until now, organisations haven’t felt able to manage it because they understood neither the problems and the opportunities nor the strategies and solutions. This picture is gradually changing as models, methods, tools and techniques for effective knowledge management are becoming available and as organisations realise the importance of knowledge and thinking to their capacity to adapt to the changing world.
WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT? : –
A proposition that responsiveness and innovation can be improved through the leveraging of collective wisdom and experience.
“Knowledge Management (KM) is an effort to increase useful knowledge within the organization. Ways to do this include encouraging communication, offering opportunities to learn, and promoting the sharing of appropriate knowledge artifacts.”
This proposition is supported by:
New process specific to the management of knowledge Organizational structures that create accountability for km Applications that support km processes Enabling technologies
THE CHALLENGES FACING HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA : –
Expansion of Higher Education in India :
The success stories of ‘green revolution’, ‘space technology’, ‘nuclear energy’ and ‘information technology superiority India has achieved’ - we owe these all to the higher education system as it evolved during 60 years of India’s independence. It can not be denied that it is Indian higher education system that to a significant extent has contributed to India rising to become the World’s second fastest growing economy, the World’s third largest economy, fastest growing mobile phone market, owner of the largest bandwidth capacity and contributing second largest portion of scientists and engineers in the world.
Expansion with Equity :
India has experienced appreciable growth in the number of institutions of higher education during last six decades and particularly since 1990. This growth has already been because of expansion of number of State Universities and institutions deemed to be Universities. The period since 1990 has also seen the emergence of private Universities. The expansion of central universities has rather been slow and skewed in terms of regional distribution. It also mentioned that a significant majority of Universities, particularly managed by the state governments ate affiliating in nature. Given the current number of universities in the country the burden of affiliating colleges per University is unmanageably high and incongruous, in some cases the number of colleges affiliated to a University runs as high as many hundreds. Thus despite appreciable growth in number of universities there is scope rather need for further expansion in the number of universities and also colleges.
Inclusiveness and Equality :
The participants in the Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Inequality track represented a great deal of diversity themselves and included faculty and students from a rich variety of research institutions, private liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. While participants engaged issues and strategies in each of the three substantive area—diversity, inclusiveness, and inequality in education (DIIE)—the bulk of our conversations focused on diversity and inequality.
Quality and Excellence :
Ensuring quality education demands structural and institutional reforms in addition to committing enhanced financial resources. Imparting quality education would entail better infrastructure; greater use of ICT; teaching and learning in smaller groups; granting autonomy to the faculty, department and individual teachers. But more than that, imparting quality education requires ‘faculty development’ or what many call ‘faculty recharge programmes’ so that the faculty does not go stale, it retains its vibrancy and dynamism in doing research, in learning, and innovating and in devising new methods of teaching.
In the modern technological world quality education has become a necessity. Governments all over the world are appointing committees and commissions to bring in excellence in education. Curricular are being revised and improved to include more and more relevant knowledge in the curricula of schools and colleges.
Funding of Higher Education :
The importance and need of setting up these new institutions of higher and professional education can hardly be ignored, but investing in existing facilities and institutions should be no less a priority.
Fee hike suggested by many can hardly bring the required resources. We by no means are suggesting that fee need not be rationalized. In addition it is suggested that there is need for building a robust and strong private – public partnership for funding and improving the quality of higher education. We have no hesitation in endorsing the suggestion as we see the practical and mutual advantages to private houses, industries on one hand and the higher education institutions and recipients of higher education on the other. For example, the Universities and research institutions can do the research and innovations which may provide competitive edge to Indian industry and industry may provide on the site based experience to students.
Academic and Administrative Reforms :
Unlike expansion, equity/inclusiveness and quality/excellence, where efforts are in making, the policies concerning reforms in the arena of academics, administration and governance are already well formulated and publicity announced.
While these recommendations about credit system, semester system, more of international assessment and less written examination component, teachers evaluation by students, inter-institutional mobility etc have been generally accepted, quite a few of them have not been implemented and operationalised as yet. Some of these have been tried and failed while some others have been implemented on selective basis. As a result there is a lot of institutional variations in admission, examination, faculty and governance related practices.
Role of Private Education :
The spread of higher education was achieved through active state support whereby public funding was considered necessary in order to provide equitable opportunities of higher education to all. It has, however, been a proclaimed policy of the country to also encourage private investment in higher education so long as they are driven by charitable and non-profit motives. While universities have largely been in the public domain, India has had a history of having large number of colleges established and maintained by private management. In recent times, the private self-financing institutions colleges and other degree awarding institutions have gained prominence. At the same time, there has also been witnessed a tendency among the public funded institutions to start and run courses on self-financing basis. More recently, the private universities, either under state legislature or through the deemed university mode have also come to be established.
Internationalization of Education :
The issues concerning internationalization of higher education can be discussed into two broad heads, which represent two broad dimensions of the issue. The first aspect deals with the demand for opening Indian higher education for international service providers while the second aspect deal with the internationalization of Indian higher education. Going abroad for higher education has long been the most cherished goal for students of underdeveloped and developing countries. While most foreign students were known for their diligence and dedication and were often a source of pride for their universities, they were seldom seen as a source of revenue. But things have changed a great deal in the post WTO/GATS regime.
Developing countries are now seen as a market for higher education and foreign universities from other countries are competing each other to increase their market share. As the demand for opening the higher education sector in India for international service providers is increasing, the issue of providing appropriate regulatory framework for international education providers is under consideration of the government. Effective regulatory mechanism is required to ensure quality higher education with equity and accountability. It was also felt that Indian universities and colleges should be permitted to form strategic alliances with international universities and other institutions of repute and that universities in India should be permitted to take up collaborative research with foreign universities but the arrangements should be such where Indian counter parts share Pattern Rights and copyrights.
CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION: –
Education for Knowledge Education for Information Education for Skills Education for Employment Education for Livelihood Education for Empowerment Education for Social and National Development
KEY TASKS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION FOR:
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
A. MICRO-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF TASKS:
Course structuring and study material preparation Distribution and presentation of study materials Communication between educational actors (student-faculty, student-student) Performing instructional assignments, either alone or group-based Performance assessment
B. MACRO-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF TASKS:
Organisation of the whole educational process Organising and managing information and knowledge flows within the educational organisation Keeping track of performance of students, faculty, courses, curriculum, and of the (allocation of) available knowledge resources Monitoring results in terms of goals and standards Dynamic changing of the educational program as feedback to discrepancies between goals and standards and obtained performance results.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOCUS :
“The focus on knowledge management is on ‘doing the right thing’ instead of doing things right’. It provides a framework within which the organization views all its processes as knowledge processes and all business processes involve creation, dissemination and application of knowledge towards organizational sustenance and survival”.
KNOWLEDGE TYPES:
It contains two types they are ;
Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge
EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
Objective, rational, technical Easily documented Easily transferred / taught / learned
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Subjective, cognitive, experiential learning Hard to document Hard to transfer / teach / learn Involves a lot of human interpretation
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS : -
The process of Knowledge Management applicable to schools, colleges and universities. Some would argue that sharing knowledge is their reason of being. If that is the case, then the higher education sector should be replete with examples of institutions that leverage knowledge to spur innovation, improve services, or achieve operational excellence. However, although some examples exist, they are the exception rather than the rule. Knowledge Management is not a new field, and experiments are beginning to mature in higher education.
I believe there is tremendous value to higher education institutions that develop initiatives to share knowledge to achieve business or organizational objectives. What are the basic concepts of knowledge management, how the trends, and how it might be applied in higher education and whether higher education is ready to embrace it or not, we will know through this article.
NEW TRENDS IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: -
Several trends will shape the field of knowledge management in the not-too distant future (even now):
Emerging technology solutions The convergence of knowledge management with e-business The movement from limited knowledge management projects to more enterprise wide projects Increasing use of knowledge management to enhance innovation Increasing use of tacit knowledge (rather than explicit knowledge)
INNOVATIVE SKILLS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN CURRENT EDUCATION SCENARIO: -
Using knowledge management techniques and technologies in higher education is as vital as it is in the corporate sector. If done effectively, it can lead to better decision-making capabilities, reduced “product” development cycle time (for example, curriculum development and research), improved academic and administrative services, and reduced costs. Consider the number of faculty and staff who possess institutional knowledge. For example, what institution does not have a faculty member who has led successful curriculum revision task forces? Or a departmental secretary who knows how to navigate the complex proposal development or procurement processes? Or a researcher who has informal connections to the National Science Foundation? Or a special assistant to the president who has uncovered (or generated) useful reports that individual deans or department chairs could use to develop their own strategic plans?
Relying on the institutional knowledge of unique individuals can hamper the flexibility and responsiveness of any organization. The challenge is to convert the information that currently resides in those individuals and make it widely and easily available to any faculty member, staff person, or other constituent. An institution wide approach to knowledge management can lead to exponential improvements in sharing knowledge—both explicit and tacit—and the subsequent surge benefits.
Is higher education ready to embrace knowledge management? A key ingredient in an institution’s readiness to embrace knowledge management is its culture—the beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors that are unique to an organization. Informally, it is the unwritten rules or “how things really get done.” Higher education is moving from the old culture that considers, What’s in it for me?” to a new culture that says, “What’s in it for our peoples?” And it is developing a culture that is ready to embrace knowledge management.
CONCLUSION: -
Innovations in knowledge management will improve the standards of all the institutions, develop the performance of students in all faculties and by which the progress of a nation can be viewed nakedly. Knowledge management refers to a range of practices used by organizations to identify the higher levels of innovations in education. The sharing of knowledge in industry, colleges, universities and, almost any institution in this country will make reference to the capturing of knowledge. By developing the knowledge management, the nation’s economy increases and can compete in the global scenario.
Article by:
X.Queen Shanthana Mary
M. Phil Scholar,
Department of management studies & research,
Karpagam University,
By: X. Queen Shanthana Mary
