The Road To "Mediocre"

The concept "banality of evil" is constantly concerned by modern moral philosophy.It profoundly points out without reflective ability,man has an universal possibility to be involved in immoral actions.Mediocre man take "banality " as a mask to shirk moral conscience,evade condemnation of conscience and scrutiny of morality." The banality of evil" is heavy for people,for they are desiring to avoid it but having to face.Teachers as novice in the field of educational practice,their teaching life is composed by growing and striving,adapting and transcending,wandering and struggling,joy and pain.Facing the career life of educators,this study focuses on exploring "the banality of evil" the operating logic of the school system,analyzing how the teachers' personal career life relates to the banality of evil,through a close observation of their daily life,and understanding the general state of their hearts,spirit and morality.Regarding new teachers as moral subjects,this study adopts the method of case study,interviews and observations,and focuses on two clues from the new teacher Z's primary school environment and her daily educational practice.One is the "external environment line",namely the school system environment of Z and the humanistic atmosphere in the school,including the power culture of leaders and the office culture of colleagues,through which to explore the practical problems in the operation of the school system and examine the moral situation of teachers in the school system.The other is the"individual action line",namely in the specific institutional environment and humanistic atmosphere,how the new teachers making choices and acting when facing the problems regarding to banality and evil,and what is the conscious motivation and behaving logic behind their actions.This paper includes an introduction and five chapters.The introduction explains and introduces the origin and significance of the research,research review,definition of core concepts and research designation.The first three chapters present the present situation of the evil of mediocrity among teachers in actual situations.They describe the experience of Z who is initially employed as a teacher in his educational practice from an objective perspective,as well as Z's complex reactions and choices in the face of the evil of mediocrity in specific educational situations.The fourth chapter analyzes the reasons leading to Z's moral retirement from the actual situation.Chapter five tries to explore the way for teachers to get out of the banality of evil from the aspects of the remolding of institutional ethics and the awakening of individual morality.Through researching in and tracing out the life of Z,the author found that banality and lack of thinking weakened the personal moral integrity and basic consciousness of Z.There are two reasons for Z's banality of evil.On one hand,it was influenced by the institutional environment,and the barriers in the system increased the difficulty of Z's active reflection.On the other hand,there are also personal reasons for Z to give up moral reflection by relying on the system.The retreat of morality makes Z self-degrade in front of the system and feel that individuals are powerless in front of the system.In many cases,Z often attributs all the responsibility to the system.Therefore,to find a way out of the"the banality of evil " requires the reform of the foreign education system on the one hand,and the awakening of teachers' inner morality on the other hand.