Reclaiming ethics through “self”: A conceptual model of teaching practice

Higher education institutions have been accused of losing their moral orientation and failing to provide students with a meaningful educative experience. This paper exposes the roots of this problem within contradictions between two historical commitments of higher education: “serving science” and “know thyself”. The paper then develops a conceptual model of teaching practice as such. The model demonstrates the predominance of “serving science”, which leads to the compromising of ethics and meaning. It is then developed to show how “self” can be explicitly reclaimed by integrating the two epistemologies-ethics in teaching practice. Contemporary pedagogical examples are presented to demonstrate this approach.