On a recent Wednesday night, Joan Poliner Shapiro’s “Analytical Studies in Ethics” class filed into the Tuttleman Learning Center and got ready to expand their ethical vocabularies and understandings.

During the class, these master’s and doctoral students, many of whom already work in education in some capacity, would learn from the ethical dilemmas educators face, such as how to handle a crisis like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a way that keeps children from becoming frightened while allowing parents to tend to their families as well.

Through her ability to communicate, Shapiro, a professor of educational administration in the College of Education, connects with her students, said Karen Williams, a doctoral candidate who is taking her third class with the professor.

“She cares about what she’s teaching,” Williams said of Shapiro. “She tries to apply the concepts she’s teaching us to real-life situations. I like her overall approach. She brings who she is as a woman and a teacher to class.”

Her approach, her passion, and her desire to help educators understand the importance of ethics in what they do are just some of the reasons that Shapiro is a winner of this year’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Shapiro became fascinated with ethics when she was the co-director of the women’s studies program at the University of Pennsylvania. She developed and team-taught an ethics class there, she said.

The class, “Women and Men and the Ethical Crisis of the 1980s,” became popular with both sexes, attracting a high enrollment, she said. It also led to her current calling: bringing ethics back into the educational process.

Toward that end, she and her colleague, Associate Professor of Education Steven Jay Gross, have created the New DEEL (Democratic, Ethical, Educational Leadership) conference to give teachers the best information on ethical teaching available.

“I’m exceedingly worried about the educational system in this country,” Shapiro said. “There’s too much emphasis on high-stakes testing and accountability while our values are disappearing. I want to bring them back so that we can develop wise, intelligent and democratic citizens who are ethical.”

Nominating Shapiro for the Lindback Award was an easy decision for James Byrnes, associate dean for the College of Education, because of her approach to teaching and the benefits that students have gotten from it.

“Joan is a very engaging person,” he said. “She’s very entertaining and enthusiastic, and I’m sure it comes across when she’s dealing with students.”

Shapiro received her bachelor’s degree in history and education from Simmons College and her master’s and doctoral degrees in education from the University of Pennsylvania. She was also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of London’s Institute of Education and did some teaching in London.

Shapiro’s thrilled to be among the educators who can be called Lindback winners — especially since, for her, it’s a family affair.

“My husband, Irving, when he was a biochemistry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, won it in 1985. We’re a two-Lindback family now. It’s very exciting.”