The Good Life of Teaching extends the recent revival ofvirtue ethics to professional ethics and the philosophy ofteaching. It connects long-standing philosophical questions aboutwork and human growth to questions about teacher motivation,identity, and development.* Makes a significant contribution to the philosophy of teachingand also offers new insights into virtue theory and professionalethics* Offers fresh and detailed readings of major figures in ethics,including Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Bernard Williamsand the practical philosophies of Hannah Arendt, John Dewey andHans-Georg Gadamer* Provides illustrations to assist the reader in visualizingmajor points, and integrates sources such as film, literature, andteaching memoirs to exemplify arguments in an engaging andaccessible way* Presents a compelling vision of teaching as a reflectivepractice showing how this requires us to prepare teachersdifferently

Foreword by Richard Smith viiAcknowledgements ixIntroduction: Why We Need a Virtue Ethics of Teaching 1Saints and scoundrels 1A brief for teacherly self-cultivation 2From the terrain of teaching to the definition of professional ethics 9Outline of the argument 10Part I The Virtues of Vocation: From Moral Professionalism to Practical Ethics1 Work and Flourishing: Williams' Critique of Morality and its Implications for Professional Ethics 21Retrieving Socrates' question 22Modern moral myopia 25What do moral agents want? 31From moral professionalism to professional ethics 352 Worlds of Practice: MacIntyre's Challenge to Applied Ethics 47The architecture of MacIntyre's moral theory 48A closer look at internal goods 55The practicality of ethical reflection 61What counts as a practice: The proof, the pudding, and the recipe 63Boundary conditions: Practitioners, managers, interpreters, and fans 693 Labour, Work, and Action: Arendt's Phenomenology of Practical Life 85Arendt's singular project 87Defining the deed 92Hierarchy and interdependence in the vita activa 99Praxis in the professions 1014 A Question of Experience: Dewey and Gadamer on Practical Wisdom 111The constant gardener 113The existential and aesthetic dimensions of vocation 119Our dominant vocation 125Practical wisdom and the circle of experience 130The open question 134Part II a Virtue Ethics for Teachers: Problems and Prospects5 The Hunger Artist: Pedagogy and the Paradox of Self-Interest 145A blind spot in the educational imagination 145The hunger artist 154The very idea of a helping profession 161This ripeness of self 1706 Working Conditions: The Practice of Teaching and the Institution of School 177A prima facie case for teaching as a practice 178MacIntyre's objection 190Schools as surroundings 1987 The Classroom Drama: Teaching as Endless Rehearsal and Cultural Elaboration 205Education as the drama of cultural renewal 208A false lead 214Teaching as labour, work, and action 217Education, shelter, and mediation 223Teaching as endless rehearsal 227Teaching as cultural elaboration 2338 Teaching as Experience: Toward a Hermeneutics of Teaching and Teacher Education 241Teaching as vocational environment 241Batch processing, kitsch culture, and other obstacles to teacher vocation 248The syntax of educational claims 254The shape of humanistic conversation 258Horizons of educational inquiry 266Teacher education for practical wisdom 273References 283Index 305