To Whom Are We Responsible?

That's one of the issues that will be explored with Rangi Ruru students tomorrow as part of seminars being led by the University of Otago’s Dr. Deborah Stevens.

The seminars will be framed within an exploration of contemporary bioethical issues and will be designed to explore a number of questions including To whom are we responsible? What is the nature and degree of personal responsibility? and What are my responsibilities to other people?

Dr. Stevens will be working alongside Years 9 and 10 from 9am-12.45 and with Years 7 and 8 between 1.35pm-3.30pm with the underlying theme in the seminars will be Responsibility.

"I will use developments in human reproductive technology and how these are changing the face of the family, and consumer/business ethics as the anchor issues for the Year 9-10s. The session with the Year 7-8s will be more generally themed with a couple of specific case studies used to explore the concept of responsibility. In both sessions, the exploration of these broader issues can then be used to progressively focus on more immediately relevant situations to the students including for example, responsible use of technology (bullying)," she says.

The seminars are an extension of the 2013 Year 7-10’s Global Day where students were introduced to a range of global issues. This year the focus is on global thinking as it relates to bioethics and personal responsibility. The learnings will help the Global Project student committee formulate a focus for next year’s project.

Dr. Deborah Stevens, University of Otago Bioethics Centre - bio:
A leading researcher and educator in the field of bioethics, Deborah is a consultant in secondary school and public bioethics education. Deborah designs and delivers professional development seminars for teachers across New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Author of New Zealand's first stand-alone bioethics curriculum, Deborah provides expert advice on implementing the values and key competency/capability aspects of the New Zealand and Australian curricula.

Deborah's knowledge of the impact of contemporary culture on citizens' values development, decision making, behaviour and wellbeing is grounded in her background in science, psychology, education and public medicine. Her research shows that bioethics education provides an effective forum for students to critique the origin and structure of their personal worldview and to understand the worldviews of others.
Deborah's latest educational initiative is a national Bioethics Roadshow for secondary schools in which students are encouraged to critically engage with bioethical issues through short live dramas and follow up interactive teaching and learning sessions, including THE bioethX FACTOR, The Soap Box and the Bioethics court.

www.rangiruru.school.nz