Course in Ethical Pedagogy

This short course is an introductory overview of ethical pedagogical practices that support student learning for all students. The course includes research-based lessons, workshops, interactive coffee hours, reflective journal activities, and opportunities for developing materials like lesson plans and teaching philosophy statements. The course is intended to support advanced graduate students and post-docs who seek to diversify and deepen their pedagogy and teaching materials. Upon successful completion of the course, participants earn a certificate of completion.

The course will take place over a 5-week period and is expected to entail about 25 hours of work (total). The Course in Ethical Pedagogy is offered once in both the Spring and Fall semesters.

Course Objectives

Upon successfully completing the course, participants should be able to:

• Articulate a working definition of Ethical Pedagogy
• Explain what critical pedagogies are and evaluate which critical pedagogies are most appropriate for their teaching contexts and values
• Assess the role that emotion, value, and opinion play in how and what individuals learn
• Identify and reflect upon, in collaboration with other teachers, the connections between one’s own experience (as a student and as an instructor) and others’ experiences
• Prepare teaching materials such as lesson plans and a teaching philosophy statement that reflect one’s ethical pedagogy values and practices

Course Structure and Assignments

This is a synchronous course which will take place over a 5-week period and is expected to entail about 25 hours of work (total). The course will meet twice a week during the first 4 weeks of the course, once for a synchronous workshop and once for a smaller group discussion. Between the course meetings, participants will read from a selection of offerings to prepare for the small group discussion sessions. Participants will complete a weekly logbook with reflections from the course. The course includes a final assignment which participants complete during the final week of the 5-week course.

All course content is available online via the course Canvas site.

Topics covered are broken out by week and include: Introduction to Ethical Pedagogy; Introduction to Critical Pedagogy & Exploration of Critical Pedagogies; Considering Positionality When Navigating Teaching; and Into Practice & Mapping Your own Journey.

Course Structure and Assignments

Teaching experience and current enrollment at Pennsylvania State University (any location) as a graduate student or post-doc are required for this course. Participants must also be able to commit to attending all 4 required workshops and all 4 required small group discussion meetings.

Teaching experience is defined as developing instructional plans and/or materials and using those plans/materials to reach multiple learners at once.

The following are examples of teaching experience:

• Serving/served as a teaching assistant (as a graduate student or undergraduate student) responsible for planning and leading a lab or discussion section for a course (online, hybrid, or face-to-face)
• Serving/served as an instructor or co-instructor for a course, including college or K-12 courses (online, hybrid, or face-to-face)
• Providing/provided supplemental instruction for groups of students in which you conduct review or discussion activities (e.g., serving as a learning assistant or supplemental instruction facilitator)
• Developing/developed and delivering/delivered outreach programs for groups of learners (e.g., extension service, informal learning courses, serving as a docent)
• Successfully completed the Instructional Foundations Series

Professional Development Benefits

This course does not result in an official certification or credit. Participants, however, can earn a completion certificate that most participants list in their CVs, teaching portfolios, or annual reviews as evidence of instructional development. To earn the Course in Ethical Pedagogy completion certificate, participants must meet all of the requirements listed on the syllabus provided at the beginning of the course.

Successful completion of this course includes a final project, which participants can use in their teaching, to prepare to teach, and/or as job market materials. Participants can choose to write, for example, a Teaching Philosophy Statement, a Lesson Plan, or a teaching reflection as their final project, all of which are important activities and materials for professional development at the advanced-graduate and post-doc phase.

To Apply

The Course in Ethical Pedagogy is offered once in both the Fall and Spring semesters, respectively. The application link will appear here in Fall 2025. You can also check the Events page for the application link.

Questions?

Email site@psu.edu for more information about the Course in Ethical Pedagogy.

Links