Transfer and transformation of ethics knowledge in continuing professional development

This chapter presents an empirical study of continuing education in ethics among carers at an assisted living facility. The chapter sets out with a brief survey of approaches to knowledge of ethics in the philosophical literature, exploring two main categories: particularism and generalism. Generalism stresses the importance of principles and rules when analysing knowledge of morality. On that background, the approach to teaching ethics that informed the teaching of the carers, carried out by a boutique consultancy, is identified as one that seeks to strengthen the ability to articulate such principles. The study then describes and analyses interviews that were carried out subsequent to the ethics teaching. While the carers displayed a clear understanding of moral principles in the setting of being taught, little articulation of relevance to their practice seemed to be achieved as a result of the teaching. The chapter concludes by discussing the value of teaching moral principles and theories, in spite of the challenge to generalism that the study offers. Based on the interviews, it is argued that the main strength of working with ethical theories is that they encourage one to attain to a new perspective on one’s practice.