Ethical Dilemmas in Schools: Collaborative Inquiry, Decision-Making, and Action by Douglas J. Simpson and Donal M. Sacken, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020

Simpson and Sacken achieve their goal of speaking to professors of education and their practitioner students through the book’s unique structure. The bulk of each chapter is textual analysis that synthesizes Dewey’s thoughts on the chapter’s theme. In each chapter, the authors interweave vignettes about ethical dilemmas facing Maria, the Academy, and their district (“Harbor”). The vignettes tease out their analysis and often include Maria demonstrating Dewey’s recommended mode of inquiry. Each chapter ends with a separate, stand-alone case study presented with discussion questions instead of analysis. Where audience is concerned, philosophers of education and Dewey scholars will most appreciate the textual analysis component of each chapter. The authors go beyond their aim of providing an “introduction to democratic ethical inquiry and reflection” (p. xiii) by synthesizing Dewey’s works and other authors’ contributions on the chapters’ themes. Teacher educators will appreciate the pedagogical tools Simpson and Sacken have crafted. The authors present strategic “stop and think” questions to the reader throughout each chapter (“since schools usually focus on daily teaching responsibilities, how can they reasonably be expected to engage in research regarding the outcomes of their ethical interventions?” p. 15). Each chapter closes with a set of discussion questions that range from the analytical (“How do Dewey’s thoughts about the principle of regard for people help identify professional education responsibilities?” p. 87) to the personal and practical (“How would you describe the ethical forum of your own mind? Which cultural traditions and fields of creativity and inquiry most influence your thinking?” p. 60), and were some of my favourite moments while reading. Students will especially appreciate the annotated bibliographies the authors present at the end of each chapter under the heading “Related Readings.” And practitioners – including pre-service teachers, administrators returning to graduate school for licensure, and educators looking for texts for professional development – will recognize themselves and benefit from discussing the case studies that end each chapter and the vignettes embedded in the chapter text. In the following section, I’ll review how the elements come together in each chapter before discussing how this structure helps us understand Dewey’s approach and its relevance for school decision-making. A summary of each chapter should also help those interested in using the book for teaching make quick decisions about which sections and cases are most helpful. Chapter 1 gives an overview of how ethical study can be of practical service to educators and introduces Dewey’s vision for ethical inquiry. For our introductory vignette, we learn about Irene, a teacher accused of yelling at her third graders. As Maria carries out Dewey’s inquiry process for this situation, she learns details of the situation that complicate an initial read. Readers are then asked to put the inquiry process to use in a case study about an Academy teacher who is providing food to students during a standardized test and the administrator attempting to sanction him for violating testing protocol. Chapter 2 analyzes the role of sympathy and empathy in Dewey’s approach to ethics. The vignettes explore Maria’s reactions and relationships with characters who represent or inspire different aspects of sympathy in ethical inquiry. This chapter’s case study is about a soccer coach who resigns just before the season starts, which sets off several ethical dilemmas, culminating in the question of whether Maria herself should resign. Chapter 3 discusses the utility of ethical principles in the Deweyan framework and the importance of the “forum of one’s mind” in ethical decision-making. Readers learn about the importance of personal knowledge in decision-making through a reconsideration of the vignette about the teacher who screamed at her students. The …