Examining Zambian High Schoolers’ Ethical Reasoning in a Task for Vaccine Distribution

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the changes in Zambian students’ ethical reasoning concerning a vaccine distribution task, a typical social problem with multiple solutions, and to explore the relationship between ethical and mathematical reasoning. This study’s theoretical framework includes four ethical perspectives: deontological ethics, virtue ethics, consequentialist ethics, and the ethics of care. Students’ ethical reasoning was conducted based on these perspectives. A 100-minute teaching experiment was conducted with 43 grade 10 students at a public secondary school in Lusaka District, Lusaka Province, Zambia. Data from students’ worksheets were analysed using a mixed-methods approach. Consequentialist ethics, especially utilitarianism, predominated; however, the analysis revealed that students demonstrated ethical reasoning by intricately integrating multiple ethical perspectives. While reasoning ethically, some students simultaneously integrated mathematical reasoning. Furthermore, group work resulted in some students altering the content of their ethical reasoning. These findings indicate that judgments were formulated not through reliance on a singular ethical framework, but through an integrative analysis incorporating multiple ethical perspectives. Furthermore, group discussions facilitated the exploration and exchange of diverse ethical reasoning, which subsequently influenced students’ reflective processes and cognitive transformation.