‘Call it what you want’: Ethical value in the lyrics of Taylor Swift and its educational application for betterment

This article explores Taylor Swift’s lyrics, showing how they can be used as a gateway to engage students in poetry, in other literature and in concepts of emotion, virtue, vice and the human condition. In showing lyrics that reflect themes prevalent in canonised poems, so educators can show where contemporary songwriters find inspiration to express themes and emotions. Where themes of emotion and ethical dilemmas exist, so we can identify the ethical value of the lyric. Doing so can encourage students to consider the process of moral betterment. We use ‘betterment’ to move beyond contested definitions of terms such as ‘virtue literacy’ in moral education and to socialise a term intended to define virtue comprehension, emotional regulation and moral growth in an easy to understand and palatable way for practitioners. This article showcases Swift as an artist whose lyrics are ripe for literary analysis, finding links to themes prevalent in canonised, traditional poetry, but also identifying ethical value within lyrics and using them to explore application to one’s own moral development.