The formation of the professional ethos as a factor of integration through the virtues

Abstract

Although it is very common to hear about the professional ethos and to use this concept in the educational world, nonetheless there is a forgotten and proper idea given by the necessity of fitting the concept into its proper measurement and context. The professional task in education has an ethical dimension which is higher than technical. This task is focused on the idea that educational performance cannot separate teaching from formation. Teaching is not only instruction but mainly formation of persons fostered by the practice of habits and virtues. Therefore educational ethos has to be focused toward the development of virtues: justice, fortitude, temperance and prudence, in the teacher and the student. These virtues are not exclusive of the educational world. They have been considered all together, compatible with personal values, as an act coming from the teacher and going to the student, helping her to integrate her personal world as well as her relations with the rest of the students.