Print

Cernosia, Jennifer F.

College of Education and Social Services

2004

Ed. D.

The concept of duty of care is familiar to many of us in the student affairs profession. It is an abiding ethical principle that informs not only what we do but how we are to accomplish our very important work as educators. I believe duty of care to be less a legal standard than a moral imperative, however, particularly for those of us who work at institutions that provide college education "in light of the Catholic faith." In this scholarly personal narrative I research, duty of care both philosophically and theologically. I explore the theories and systems of Immanuel Kant, delve into Soren Kierkegaard's Works of Love, and probe the theological wisdom of both Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. My personal narrative as mother, Catholic, and educator is woven through the moral, intellectual, and social traditions of the Catholic Church by way of the Edmundite Learning Traditions embedded in the mission of Saint Michael's College. I flesh out the concept of Imago Dei to characterize human dignity.
I reflect on how the Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities known as Ex Corde Ecclesiae constructively guides Catholic educators towards excellence in the search for Truth and I distinguish Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modem World, as the seminal teaching for how Catholics are to express their duties of care in community. My dissertation ultimately demonstrates how the exploration of one's heart (love); engagement of one's head (reason); and extension of one's hand (care) in service of and for one's neighbor is symbolic of my personal narrative and characterizes my professional raison d 'etre. It is how I bear witness to my own duty of care and how I animate the special institutional mission of Saint Michael's College, a place I have called my professional home for over twenty-five years.