The morality of student futures at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College, 1890s-1910s
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Elizabeth Ortel (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Tad Skotnicki
Abstract: This study utilizes Abend’s (2014) conceptual framework for the sociological study of morality to investigate historical patterns of vocational reasoning—ways of thinking and making decisions about work and career—at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College at the turn of the twentieth century. An analysis of public-facing discourses directed at students uncovers two patterns: the “spirit of service” and the “labor market decider.” In terms of surface-level (or in Abend’s terms, “first-order”) normative prescriptions and morally sanctioned behaviors, both patterns make similar recommendations: that each student has a duty to engage in forms of work and activity (paid or unpaid) that would aspire to improving some aspect of social life. Analysis of the “moral background,” however, reveals important differences in the underlying understandings, arguments, concepts and cultural logics that enable expressions of first-order morality. Where the spirit of service grounds its vocational recommendations in the Christian-derived metaphysics of the “calling,” the labor market decider emphasizes an incipient concept of labor market fairness and the need for students to become informed decision-makers in the face of contemporary socioeconomic change. At the same time, both moral backgrounds share certain similarities, and actors in the case demonstrate instances of borrowing background components across vocational reasoning patterns. These findings contribute to the study of the role of morality in career decision-making and in constituting working subjects in capitalist society, applications of Abend’s moral background framework and manifestations of the Protestant ethic and its secular variations.
The morality of student futures at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College, 1890s-1910s
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Created on 5/1/2023
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2023
- Keywords
- History, Morality, North Carolina, Protestant Ethic, Vocation, Work Ethic
- Subjects
- North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College
- Teachers colleges $z North Carolina $x History
- Women $x Education (Higher) $z North Carolina $x History
- Education, Higher $x Moral and ethical aspects $z North Carolina $x History