Bridging ‘as is’ and ‘as if’ by reading fiction in ethics education

ABSTRACT The overarching aim is to explore what teachers perceive as the opportunities provided by using literature in ethics education in compulsory school. When being interviewed, in what ways do the teachers express views on the potential of fiction to encourage students to accept certain human conditions as imaginable, or to create motivation for ethical change, by means of the capacity of fiction to evoke feelings? Also, in what ways do the teachers interviewed consider fiction to be useful for evoking thoughts about how something could have turned out, in situations that are morally complex? What makes compassion grow within human beings are linked in this article to the concepts as is and as if in play research (cf). Analytical tools are developed and used to explain how, and why, the use of literature is suitable for work with ethics in compulsory school.

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