Zammit, Lucianne;
(2023)
Teaching Ethics in the Age of Technology: Promoting the Ethical Use of Technology in Maltese Secondary Schools.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Technology has become ubiquitous in young people’s lives. However, being online does not always bring benefits. Social media platforms have become notorious for facilitating digital sexual abuse, cyberbullying, online hate speech and radicalisation, with young people being both the victims and the perpetrators of such harms. Although they have been brought up with digital technologies, they do not always know how to use them ethically. Thus, through the teaching of digital citizenship, schools often try to help students acquire the necessary skills and values that will enable them to use technology in an ethical manner. This study explores an under researched topic: how Maltese secondary schools promote the ethical use of technology. Focusing on Maltese secondary schools, this study is based on a qualitative evaluative case-study. It employs semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten policy makers and experts, three heads or assistant heads of schools and eight teachers, as well as document analysis to analyse the secondary school curriculum and relevant school policies. The study draws on constructivism as a philosophical framework and employs the Braun and Clarke method of thematic analysis. The study demonstrates that the participants were concerned about students’ unethical use of technology and believed that schools have an important role to play in the teaching of digital citizenship. However, it also shows significant gaps in the school curriculum and school policies. Although some subjects (such as Personal, Social and Career Development and Ethics) attempt to address topics such as cyberbullying, sexting, revenge porn, online pornography, hate speech and radicalisation, there is not enough time allocated to such topics to do so in a satisfactory manner. Also, school polices often fail to take into account the ways that students use technology to communicate with each other, resulting in a failure to tackle complex issues such as cyberbullying, sexting and radicalisation. Keywords: digital citizenship, moral education, ethics, curriculum, policy.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Teaching Ethics in the Age of Technology: Promoting the Ethical Use of Technology in Maltese Secondary Schools |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10167592 |
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