Ethics, Justice & Political Economy
Objectives
- D09.S1.10.01 Apply ethical reasoning to a question about technology or the environment, weighing benefits and harms for people and the planet.
- D09.S1.10.02 Critique a moral argument for hidden assumptions or bias, and rebuild it more fairly.
- D09.S2.10.01 Analyze global justice questions, such as who bears responsibility for climate harm or poverty, and weigh competing answers.
- D09.S2.10.02 Evaluate how technology and data can expand or limit rights, such as privacy, and argue for protections.
- D09.S3.10.01 Design a plan for collective action on a real community or global issue, including goals, allies, and steps, and evaluate its likely effects.
- D09.S3.10.02 Analyze the ethics of civic technology and digital citizenship, including misinformation, surveillance, and who is included or excluded.
- D09.S4.10.01 Design a restorative process for a specific harm, including who should be heard, how responsibility is taken, and how repair is made.
- D09.S4.10.02 Analyze peacebuilding (preventing and transforming conflict nonviolently) and weigh its strategies across different settings.
Essential questions
- How do I apply ethical reasoning to technology and the environment, and critique a moral argument for hidden assumptions before rebuilding it fairly?
- Who bears responsibility for global harms such as climate change and poverty, and how do technology and data expand or limit rights such as privacy?
- How do I design collective action and a restorative process for real harm, and how does peacebuilding transform conflict nonviolently?
Big ideas
- Ethical reasoning weighs benefits and harms for people and the planet, and moral arguments are critiqued for hidden assumptions and rebuilt more fairly.
- Global justice asks who bears responsibility for shared harms, and technology and data can expand or limit rights such as privacy.
- Collective action, restorative process, and peacebuilding are how fairness and repair become real in community and global life.
Lessons
- 1 Ethics as Reasoned Weighing 50 minutes
- 2 Weighing a Technology: The Phone in My Hand 55 minutes
- 3 Weighing an Environment: Energy and Trade-Offs 55 minutes
- 4 Hidden Assumptions: Reading the Unsaid 55 minutes
- 5 Rebuilding More Fairly 55 minutes
- 6 Who Bears the Climate Burden? 55 minutes
- 7 Poverty and Responsibility: Competing Answers 55 minutes
- 8 Data and the Shape of Privacy 55 minutes
- 9 Arguing for Protections 55 minutes
- 10 Designing Collective Action: Goals, Allies, Steps 55 minutes
- 11 Evaluating the Plan: Effects and Ripples 55 minutes
- 12 Civic Technology and Digital Citizenship 55 minutes
- 13 Designing a Restorative Process 55 minutes
- 14 Peacebuilding: Transforming Conflict Nonviolently 55 minutes
Assessment plan
An ethical-reasoning analysis of a technology or environment question; a critique and fair rebuilding of a moral argument; a global-justice analysis of climate harm or poverty; a technology-and-rights evaluation with a privacy argument; a designed collective-action plan with goals, allies, and steps; a civic-technology and digital-citizenship ethics analysis; a designed restorative process; and a peacebuilding analysis, gathered as portfolio artifacts.
Unit 10 — Ethics, Justice & Political Economy
Overview
This unit deepens Grade 9’s reasoning across frameworks into critique and action, building on the analysis of moral questions, systemic injustice, power, and reconciliation. Learners apply ethical reasoning to a question about technology or the environment, weighing benefits and harms for people and the planet, and critique a moral argument for hidden assumptions or bias, rebuilding it more fairly. They analyze global justice questions, such as who bears responsibility for climate harm or poverty, and weigh competing answers, and evaluate how technology and data can expand or limit rights, such as privacy, and argue for protections. They design a plan for collective action on a real community or global issue, including goals, allies, and steps, and evaluate its likely effects, and analyze the ethics of civic technology and digital citizenship, including misinformation, surveillance, and who is included or excluded. They design a restorative process for a specific harm, including who should be heard, how responsibility is taken, and how repair is made, and analyze peacebuilding — preventing and transforming conflict nonviolently — and weigh its strategies across different settings. Questions are held as questions, never answered as dogma.
Essential questions
- How do I apply ethical reasoning to technology and the environment, and critique a moral argument for hidden assumptions before rebuilding it fairly?
- Who bears responsibility for global harms such as climate change and poverty, and how do technology and data expand or limit rights such as privacy?
- How do I design collective action and a restorative process for real harm, and how does peacebuilding transform conflict nonviolently?
Lessons
| Lesson | Title | Standards |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Ethics as Reasoned Weighing | D09.S1.10.01 |
| 02 | Weighing a Technology: The Phone in My Hand | D09.S1.10.01 |
| 03 | Weighing an Environment: Energy and Trade-Offs | D09.S1.10.01 |
| 04 | Hidden Assumptions: Reading the Unsaid | D09.S1.10.02 |
| 05 | Rebuilding More Fairly | D09.S1.10.02 |
| 06 | Who Bears the Climate Burden? | D09.S2.10.01 |
| 07 | Poverty and Responsibility: Competing Answers | D09.S2.10.01 |
| 08 | Data and the Shape of Privacy | D09.S2.10.02 |
| 09 | Arguing for Protections | D09.S2.10.02 |
| 10 | Designing Collective Action: Goals, Allies, Steps | D09.S3.10.01 |
| 11 | Evaluating the Plan: Effects and Ripples | D09.S3.10.01 |
| 12 | Civic Technology and Digital Citizenship | D09.S3.10.02 |
| 13 | Designing a Restorative Process | D09.S4.10.01 |
| 14 | Peacebuilding: Transforming Conflict Nonviolently | D09.S4.10.02 |