Ginger Shafer asked me to explain further my concrete examples on the
ends/means dilemma posed for society in the case of AIDS policy.
You'll recall, Rochefort & Cobb (1994) "The Politics of Problem
Definition: ...ask:
Should we...
exchange needles?
distribute condoms in public schools?
While some say--in either case--the ends justifies the means; others
disagree. Rochefort & Cobb say neither the "instrumental/ expressive"
orientation prevails.
At first it seems like it's a politics/science dichotomy. Yet, according
to Rochefort & Cobb, one can't divide groups up that way or by liberal /
conservative or any other non-nuanced way.
For instance, the same people have been known to say the end justifies the
means for the first but not the second strategy, or vice versa.
And people mix up ends/means sorts of arguments when they argue for one or
the other side.
And some arguments are (at first) surprising, providing twists on the
traditional social and ideological cleavages that otherwise might seem to
prevail.
R&C say that successful US (national, state, and local) policies will only
be those widely perceived as doing "what's right" *and* "what will work."
The learning org was talking about a different venue, but these ideas may
enlighten.
Personally, I find that in education sometimes the means justifies the
end--even if the end is not what you would have chosen. If you teach like
you believe one should teach and you end up not satisfying those who think
they agree with you and/or those who don't, you've still accomplished
something that might be called education.
Hope that helps.
Mary Apodaca
mapodaca@carbon.cudenver.edu
--"Mary E. Apodaca" <mapodaca@carbon.cudenver.edu>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>