Teaching, Preaching, and Practicing Ethics

Richard J. Cox, AERI 1

TEACHING, PREACHING, AND PRACTICING ETHICS

Or, My Life of Crime

7/11/09


What follows. . .

Basic Definitions Nature of Records & Ethical Issues Ethics Within the Academy Challenging Students

7/11/09


Defining the basics. . .

7/11/09


What Do We Mean by Ethics? “Workplace ethics require diligence, excellence, pride of

accomplishment, and integrity. The kind of integrity required begins with honesty, respect for the person and property of others, and self-control.” Anita Allen

Ethical thinking, understanding that “human behavior has consequences for the welfare of others,” and that there is a “common core of general ethical principles” whereby they acknowledge that it is “morally wrong to cheat, deceive, exploit, abuse, harm, or steal from others, that everyone has an ethical responsibility to respect the rights of others, including their freedom and well-being, to help those most in need of help, to seek the common good and not merely their own self-interest and egocentric pleasures, to strive in some way to make the world more just and humane.” Richard Paul and Linda Elder

7/11/09


More About Ethics

What we should or should not do Standard approaches

Descriptive Normative Applied Metaethics

Information ethics Archival ethics – is this a distinct

area from information ethics?7/11/09


Ethics May Be the Greatest Archival Challenge Today “If we accept the importance of information,

the power of information, then, we, as information professionals, are dealing with enormous power on a daily basis. We should know the value of what we’ve dealing wuth and be able to defend our actions and positions within these positions of power.” Elizabeth Buchanan and Kathrine Henderson

IT and digital recordkeeping has long been seen to be the greatest challenge, but IT is creating ethical issues on an unprecedented scale.

7/11/09


Potential Ethical Issues in the Digital Age Intellectual Freedom Privacy, Secrecy, Confidentiality Intellectual Property Professional Ethics Intercultural Information Ethics Information Economics Information Access

7/11/09


Real Cases – Too Many, In Fact, Just in Archives Historians in Trouble (Ambrose, Bellisiles,

Ellis, Goodwin) NARA Issues – Sandy Berger,

reclassification, Anthony Clark SAA & Weak Ethics Codes – “aspirational”? Native American Archives Protocols Film “Restoration” Cases Freud Papers Enola Gay

7/11/09


My Life of Crime

NARA, Philip Morris, & Bill of Rights, 1989 NARA, Don Wilson, & SAA, 1992 David Wallace, Archives & the Public Good, 2002 SAA, American Archivist, & RaisinGate, 2005 Ethics, Accountability and Recordkeeping in a Dangerous

World (2006) Addition of “ethics” to “Archival Access & Advocacy course

(2007) “Archival Insecurities,” Library & Archival Security special

issue (2009) NARA OPL, SAA, Code of Ethics, & Anthony Clark, 2009 “Teaching Unpleasant Things,” Interactions, 2009 “Archival Ethics: New Voices,” Journal of Information Ethics,

forthcoming Spring 20107/11/09


The Knowledge We Convey

“Commodity knowledge” is “knowledge that has a use for the world of

work, professional and preprofessional training, policy development, inventions, and patents”

“Symbolic knowledge” is “knowledge that deals with value judgments,

ethical, cultural, aesthetic, and philosophical argument, and speculative science.” Eric Gould

Can we assume that archivists contend we both sorts of knowledge?

7/11/09


Records . . . Breeding ethical issues

7/11/09


Records and Power

“Was my documentary instinct my craft, or was it my way of avoiding being present? Was it my way of defending myself? I knew what it was like to have people deny my experience. Was I documenting events, or was I buttressing my experience of them in order to control the narrative? . . . Looking for records in the Harrison County Courthouse had shown me how white people made the rules, kept the records, and wrote the history. There was power in being someone who knew how to use that system. I could see that. Now I was beginning to see the lens of whiteness that I was wearing, beginning to feel the glasses on my own nose, becoming aware of this distortion.” China Galland

Inherent in the nature of records are complex notions of control, power, and the use of evidence. How can we avoid facing ethical issues?

7/11/09


Records as a Two-Edged Sword “I firmly believe that knowing about your ancestors is a

grounding experience. It can bring tremendous peace, especially to African Americans, as we have had so much of our past systemically stolen from us. But, of course, the process can also open old wounds.” Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Archival paradigms of the past have dictated that archivists assume records were created as impartial products of a business or organization’s work. The contemporary appraisal paradigm questions the infallibility of not only records, but also the records’ creators.” John Ridener

In such ideas we can ascertain the many potential conflicts posed by records in general and the records that become archives. Archives are not just about positive personal, community, and societal memory, but they reveal the warts and all of our pasts.

7/11/09


Archival Ethics & . . .

Accountability Evidence Public Memory Law Intellectual Property Access Advocacy Ethical issues permeate nearly every

aspect of archival work – how can we not teach about or speak out about them?

7/11/09


An example . . .

“Internet databases should be held accountable for the information they provide. If they rely on public records, then they should be required to keep up with the changes in these records. They should also provide mechanisms for filing complaints in the online data are erroneous, and they should make proper corrections in a timely fashion, the way those who keep tabs on credit records are expected to do.” Amitai Etzioni with Radhika Bhat

Archival educators should be held accountable for teaching their students about such matters (whether or not their students want to hear about issues!).

7/11/09


Ethics Within the Academy

7/11/09


Teaching Teaching

“In the eyes of most faculty members in research universities, teaching is an art that is either too simple to require formal preparation, too personal to be taught to others, or too innate to be conveyed to anyone lacking the necessary gift. Lacking formal preparation, graduate students have learned to teach by modeling themselves after they admire who have taught them. This tradition introduces a profoundly conservative bias into faculty behavior that acts as an anchor to deter major changes in established forms of instruction and educational practice.” Derek Bok

In other words, we need to discuss more openly how we prepare others and ourselves for teaching, encompassing both approaches to how we teach and reviewing what we teach.

7/11/09


Freedom

“The only way to keep ourselves free is to speak, not to let ourselves be silenced, either by pernicious laws, or by mob screaming.” Sara Paretsky

Have archival educators been outspoken about anything? How is this possible given the nature of records and archival misdeeds we read about daily in our newspapers?

7/11/09


The Corporate University Threat The “corporate model fails to recognize that the public mission of

higher education implies that knowledge has a critical function; that intellectual inquiry that is unpopular or debunking should be safeguarded and treated as an important social asset; and that faculty in higher education are more than merely functionaries of the corporate order.” Henry A. Giroux and Susan Searls Giroux

"Temptations for ethical lapses are abetted by institutional factors that are untamed. The academic arms race giddily accelerates. In Ponzi-scheme fashion, it inflames the pursuit of money for constructing research facilities needed to attract high-salaried scientific superstars who can win government grants to perform research that will bring glory and more money to the university. Academe's pernicious enthrallment by the rating system of U.S. News & World Report is a disgrace of modern higher education." Daniel Greenberg

How are archival educators dealing with such threats?

7/11/09


Abandoning Values?

“Abandonment by higher education of the moral, character-related aspects of education, the widespread but, we believe, erroneous assumption on the part of administrators that it is possible to have a college or a university without having an opinion of what sort of people ought to be produced by that institution.” William H. Willimon and Thomas H. Naylor

“As some of the most insightful members of the tech world recognize, we are in a transitional phase in which computer literacy seems of paramount importance; that phase will soon pass.” “Content” is becoming “supreme.” “By content I don’t mean just ‘information’; rather, I mean knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.” Dinesh D’Souza

Are archival educators abandoning or ignoring values?

7/11/09


Challenging Students?

7/11/09


The Purpose of Education

“The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. Its proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or ‘accessing’ what we now call ‘information’ – which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.” Wendell Berry

Do archival educators agree that they should help their graduate students “put their lives in order,” at least so they understand the ethical implications of the archival mission?

7/11/09


Creeping Vocationalism

The idea that a “traditional liberal arts education is, by definition, not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation. Rather, the critical thinking, civic and historical knowledge and ethical reasoning that the humanities develop have a different purpose: They are prerequisites for personal growth and participation in a free democracy, regardless of career choice.”

But, we must “justify their existence to administrators, policy makers, students and parents. Technology executives, researchers and business leaders argue that producing enough trained engineers and scientists is essential to America’s economic vitality, national defense and health care. Some of the staunchest humanities advocates, however, admit that they have failed to make their case effectively.” Patricia Cohen

Can we teach about ethical issues when most students seem to be just interested in getting credentials?

7/11/09


Dealing with the World

“If there is to be lasting hope for the future of higher education, that hope can only be generated by confronting our desolate world and its urgent, threatening realities. The only way out is through.” Richard Miller

Are archival educators confronting the real issues within the professional community or the ones threatening the archival mission?

7/11/09


Make It Matter. . . .

"If there's one thing we must keep in mind about our current economic situation it is this: We are not failures and we are not alone. We have it within us -- every single one of us -- to fight back if we so choose. Don't just tentatively poke at the boundaries of how life might be. Bust through them with all the power you can muster."

Then this: "Be active. Be vocal. Be creative. Be radical. This is your life. Make it matter.” Nan Mooney

Good advice – is it relevant to archival educators?

7/11/09


In the Classroom

“The best classroom is one in which the student begins to think, speak, write, and act in new ways made possible by that classroom.” James J. O’Donnell

“There’s too much emphasis on matters related exclusively to the head and not enough attention given to nurturing the attitudes and faculties that make of knowledge something useful and good.” Jane Tompkins

What is going on in our classrooms? Are we willing to risk upsetting students?

7/11/09


Difference between students & ideas “It is important . . . to distinguish

between respect for person and respect for ideas. Faculty must respect students as persons, but they needn’t respect ideas, even ideas held by students. In higher education no idea is immune from potentially scathing criticism.” Matthew W. Finkin and Robert C. Post

And it is often difficult for students to understand this

7/11/09


Nearly Anything Can Be Taught “The art of writing cannot be taught, but the craft of writing can. No one can teach you how to tap inspiration, how to gain vision and sensibility, but you can be taught to write lucidity, to present what you say in the most articulate and forceful way. Vision itself is useless without the technical means to record it.” Noah Lukeman

Ok, so maybe we can not teach someone to be ethical, but we can teach them what being ethical entails. Does this make sense?

7/11/09


The Road Ahead . . .

7/11/09


Putting Everything In Perspective The “problem is that the charges against the

university are so hyperbolic, so angry, so conspiracy-minded, and so one-sided they can find almost nothing positive to say.”

“There is fragmentation in the United States; there is distrust; there is deep anger – and much of this is reflected in and acted out in universities, but none of it is caused by universities or by professors or by young people.” Lawrence Levine

So, what are we afraid of when it comes to embracing archival ethics as part of our curriculum?

7/11/09


Decisions We Face

Building Ethics Into the Curriculum (or not)

Researching Ethical Issues (or not) Speaking Out About Ethical Issues

(or not) Expanding Teaching Beyond Nuts &

Bolts (or not)

7/11/09

Documents

Teaching, Preaching, and Practicing Ethics