The new director of Diocesan’s Centre for Ethics, Rebecca Berry Eden, is keen to encourage students to think critically about ethical issues and align them to topics taught in everyday teaching.
As director of the country’s only school-based ethics centre, Rebecca has taken over from Nina Blumenfeld, who retired last year after being in the role for 11 years.
For the last decade, Rebecca has taught Religious Studies at Dio, a subject that includes World Religions, Philosophy and Ethics. Prior to that, Rebecca – who studied German and European Studies at the University of Auckland – taught at Baradene and Pakuranga Colleges.
Different ways of engaging with the world
Rebecca is a keen traveller, who’s been able to experience diverse places and cultures, including Europe, the Middle East, South America and the Pacific. She says that this has allowed her to encounter and reflect on the ways in which different people engage, often through a religious lens. This curiosity inspired her to open up this world to students through Religious Studies.
Rebecca values diversity and believes in the importance of being open minded. She actively participates in community events such as ecumenical and interfaith gatherings. Engaging with others, she often discovers shared hopes and aspirations that resonate across our humanity.
“In our fast-paced world, where resources are limited, and where convenience often gives way to what we know to be right, it’s easy to lose sight of our ethical compass,” says Rebecca.
“My aim at school is to bring ethics to the front of students’ minds so when they’re faced with different situations, they’re empowered to consider and communicate their own viewpoint.”
Rebecca also oversees the school’s student-led Ethics Council which co-ordinates ethics events and encourages conversation within the school community.
Centre for Ethics a unique facility
Dio’s Centre for Ethics was launched in 2012 by patron and alumna, Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, to give students the opportunity to explore the values, issues and beliefs that underpin decision making. It provides a space to explore cultural and social influences, the concepts of fairness, justice and legality and perceptions of right and wrong.
“By having a Centre for Ethics we are highlighting important ethical issues and allowing students to consider these, not just within the walls of the classroom, but across curriculum areas and in their own lives,” says Rebecca.
This is an area that Rebecca is keen to keep developing.
“Our students make important decisions every day, so by providing them with core values and principles for life, they can go on to develop successful relationships and strong foundations for decision-making that will inspire the respect of others around them,” she adds.
Encouraging respectful dialogue
The Centre for Ethics runs various programmes, including the annual Soapbox competition which gives students the opportunity to present their own views on an ethical topic. It also regularly invites guest speakers from ethics-related fields, such as academics, scientists and journalists, helping shape students’ perceptions of the world and others around them.
Guest speakers are often invited to facilitate discussions and debates about ethical issues, including fast fashion and the ethics of sport, at parent and community evenings.
In addition, the Centre participates in the nationwide Love Me Not programme, designed to prevent abusive behaviour in relationships. The programme is targeted at Year 12 students as the appropriate age to discuss relationship abuse and to start to take action for change, and is facilitated by police officers. It involves students learning how to identify relationship problems, how to deal with them and where to seek help.
Dio has also enjoyed success in the annual Ethics Olympiad, where students work as a team to respond to questions and critique their own and others’ arguments. The medals are awarded on the quality of students’ moral reasoning and their ability to engage with each other in a framework that encourages careful, respectful, considered responses to important ethical issues.
Emphasis is placed on the respectful dialogue between the two teams and students’ abilities to engage with other people’s ideas civilly. Students are also judged on their critical thinking skills, particularly their ability to construct arguments, assess validity within arguments, defend or modify a position, consider issues from multiple perspectives and test arguments when faced with new questions or new information.
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