Values clarification exercises are often used to enable people together to work through complex issues in which differing, contradictory, unexplicated or hidden values may influence beliefs, principles and behaviours, including decisions. Such exercises allow us to become more aware of the ways in which values relate to our geoethical principles and behaviours. Values include such things as truth, discipline, fairness, integrity and openness.
It is difficult to help people learn about geoethics. This is partly because it concerns such a wide range of circumstances, from specific instances, such as the effect of mining on child labour, through our personal geoscientific behaviour, to the way in which humans treat the Earth’s natural resources. It is also not easy, particularly in schools and universities, because the concepts are so wide-ranging and young people are still exploring and getting to grips with their personal values, values that underlie their principles and behaviours, especially in regard to the Earth.
Practical geoethical values clarification exercises can help people:
• to compare their values with others and thus to modify their and others’ values;
• to clarify the relationship between geoethical principles and their underlying values; and
• to understand how their values and principles influence their behaviours, in regard to fellow geoscientists and to the Earth’s natural resources.
This Short Course will be conducted in a fully participatory, workshop format:
a. starting with short overviews of geoethics and of clarification exercises;
b. followed by a series of hands-on, small-group activities; and
c. ending with a debriefing session and a discussion.
Both experts and novices in geoethics and values/principles are welcome in this Short Course; teachers, researchers and students will benefit. For novices, especially, a little preparation before the course will help.
• If possible, please read:
https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP508-2020-191, or
https://presentations.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-604_presentation.pdf
• Think about your own personal and professional values.
• Please bring some blank paper, a pen and an internet-enabled laptop or telephone (with QR code capability).
Please note that materials will allow up to 20 participants, on a first-come basis. Additional people will be invited to do guided observation in silence during the exercise, and then contribute actively during the debriefing and discussion.
- Some important information to read before you come to our workshop. Thank you.
We will have much to do during the SC, which takes the form of a hands-on, participatory workshop. This means that people depend on your work and you on theirs. It is not a lecture, where you can pop in and out at will.
The SC will therefore start promptly at 10h45 (EGU time).
If you have not yet figured out the location of room 0.55, please do so well ahead of time. We have had people arriving ten minutes late, declaring “I could not find the room”! This makes them look silly and disturbs the work already in progress.
We encourage you to arrive some five minutes before the official starting time so we can make a prompt start. If you have not finished your mid-morning coffee, please bring it to the room.
Thank you for your ethical respect for fellow workshop participants. If you arrive too late to integrate into a group, we will ask you to be an active observer.
The SC will last longer than time block two (TB2). It will continue during the lunch break, ending at about 13h30. Without the extra hour, we will not be able to work through the whole exercise.
So, please bring some sustenance with you, to keep up your energy level until the end! We suggest something that is easy to eat, such as a sandwich, and that does not need much space on a table, as much of the time you will be using cards spread out on your small-group table.
Also, we ask you to plan your morning so that you are able to stay until the end of the SC. Your fellow participants may not feel too happy if you suddenly leave and dump them in the middle. If you plan to leave early, please let us know when you arrive, and we will ask you to be an active observer.
The workshop is planned approximately as follows, but times may of course depart from this as things develop.
10h45 – People get settled into groups
10h47 – Intros, overview & rationale
11h00 – Clarification exercise – Geoethical values
11h45 – Clarification exercise – Geoethical principles
12h30 – Diagrams, presentations, elements of geoethics, debrief, feedback
13h30 - End
Come with a clear head, an open heart and a twinkle in your eye.