Handbook of Moral and Character Education

Larry Nucci, Tobias Krettenauer, Larry Nucci, Darcia Narvaez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781136293115
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Curricula

There is widespread agreement that schools should contribute to the moral development and character formation of their students. In fact, 80% of US states currently have mandates regarding character education. However, the pervasiveness of the support for moral and character education masks a high degree of controversy surrounding its meaning and methods. The purpose of this handbook is to supplant the prevalent ideological rhetoric of the field with a comprehensive, research-oriented volume that both describes the extensive changes that have occurred over the last fifteen years and points forward to the future. Now in its second edition, this book includes the latest applications of developmental and cognitive psychology to moral and character education from preschool to college settings, and much more.

1

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

Larry Nucci, Darcia Narvaez, and Tobias Krettenauer

The first edition of the Handbook of Moral and Character Education published in 2008 responded to a need for a single volume resource that would present the work of leading researchers and scholars in the growing field of moral and character education. The interest in moral education has not subsided since publication of the handbook. There remains widespread agreement that schools should contribute to students’ moral development and character formation. As was the case in 2008, 80% of states have mandates regarding character education. Internationally, many nations such as Canada, Korea, Japan, and China mandate moral/character education as part of their national curriculum. Within Europe the interest in moral education is often subsumed under the broader topic of citizenship education where basic concerns for developing compassionate and morally engaged children and youth are at the heart of these efforts. The broad international scope of interest in moral and character education is evidenced by the fact that the Association of Moral Education, which held its 2011 meeting in China, includes members from more than 35 countries around the globe.

With publication of the first edition, we began the process of moving beyond the controversies and debates that have plagued moral and character education by bringing together a collection of chapters by the top researchers and scholars that reflect the state of the art in the field. Since the publication of the first edition, new work has opened up additional approaches to moral education, and has expanded the connections to related areas such as citizenship education. This second edition includes updates of the foundational chapters from the first volume along with new chapters that address emerging work in areas of social and emotional development, applications of mindfulness to moral education, sport as a context for moral growth, moral development and ecology education, and a new section on citizenship education. In addition, the new edition responds to the growing international scope of moral and character education by including authors from Europe and Asia who are addressing issues of moral philosophy, moral development, character, and citizenship within democratic societies. More than half of the chapters in the second edition are covering topics or include authors not within the first edition of the handbook. All of the chapters that appeared in the first volume have been edited and updated. In many cases these changes have been substantial.

PART I: DEFINING THE FIELD: HISTORICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

In broad terms the debates over moral and character education divide along three dimensions. One broad distinction is between those who view character formation and morality as centered on the cultivation of virtues and those who argue that morality is ultimately a function of judgments made in context. The former, who often trace their ideas within Western culture back to Aristotle, emphasize the importance of early dispositional formation and the influence of the social group. Often these virtue-based approaches to character education incorporate an emphasis on the attachment to groups and the role of society in forming the young as described by Emile Durkheim (1925/1961). Traditional character educators generally fall within this perspective. On the other hand, those who emphasize the role of reason and judgment draw their philosophical arguments from rationalist ethics with its emphasis on autonomous justification for moral actions based on principles of justice or fairness (Rawls, 2001). The focus is upon the development of moral reasoning drawing from the seminal work of Piaget (1932), and the Socratic approach to education. A third broad dimension is the degree to which educators place an emphasis upon the role of emotion. Traditional and developmental approaches address in different ways the role of emotion in moral and character development. However, the foregrounding of emotion is best seen in approaches that fall within the category of attachment theory, social emotional learning and mindfulness education. These latter approaches are discussed in detail in chapters in Parts II and III of the book.

In Part I authors address the basic philosophical, historical and theoretical issues undergirding contemporary moral and character education. The first chapter of this section (Chapter 2) by Thomas Wren “Philosophical Moorings” takes us through the Western philosophical schools of thought that buttress traditionalist and developmental approaches to moral education. His is not a “cliff notes” reading of these philosophical positions, but rather a critical analysis of their relative adequacy as bases for moral education. In Chapter 3, Gouzhen Cen and Jun Yu expand the attention to philosophical underpinnings by providing an overview of traditional Eastern philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism that have informed moral and character education in Asian societies as well as current applications of contemplative practices through mindfulness education in the West.

James Arthur picks up the thread in the discussion of philosophical positions that stress the promotion of virtue through his vigorous defense in Chapter 4 of traditional approaches to character education. His chapter provides a contemporary rebuttal to Kohlberg’s analysis of the limits of virtue-based moral theories, and attempts to recover the role of traditional educational practices that have had a long history in the Anglo-Saxon approach to character education.

In Chapter 5 “Lawrence Kohlberg’s Revolutionary Ideas: Moral Education in the Cognitive-Developmental Tradition,” John Snarey and Peter Samuelson provide an historical overview of the work of Lawrence Kohlberg that spawned the re-awakening of interest in moral education in the 1970s and formed the starting point for all subsequent developmentally-based approaches to moral education. They offer insights into the history and personal motivations for Kohlberg’s efforts and his later struggle to reconcile the fundamental insights from his own work with Durkheim’s sociological perspective on moral education.

Daniel Lapsley and Paul Stey extend the discourse on virtue and reason opened by Wren in Chapter 2 by extending it to contemporary philosophical and psychological considerations of the connections between morality and the self. In Chapter 6 “Moral Self-Identity as the Aim of Education,” these authors explore whether the developmentalist emphasis on reason can suffice as a basis for moral education in the absence of an effort to also impact the development of the “self.” They review some of the struggles associated with Kohlberg’s initial approach to moral education with its absence of a connection to the student as a moral person (issues that Snarey and Samuelson touch on in Chapter 5). However, Lapsley and Stey do not dwell on that historical debate, but endeavor to place the issue squarely within the philosophical and theoretical nexus that is at the heart of the dialogue represented in the handbook.

Part I concludes with Elizabeth Campbell’s thoughtful analysis in Chapter 7 of the ethical dimensions of teaching, and the ethical dimensions of what it is to be a teacher. Her plea for moral autonomy and responsibility within the teaching profession is one that must be heeded if any of the ideas presented in this handbook are to reach fruition.

PART II: THEORY-BASED APPROACHES TO MORAL AND CHARACTER EDUCATION

Much of the forward looking work in moral and character education is taking place at the level of theory development and theory testing. These efforts employ advances in developmental and cognitive psychology in a reciprocal process to inform research and theory for teacher preparation and classroom practices in the area of moral education. Larry Nucci and Deborah Powers lead off this section with Chapter 8, “Social Cognitive Domain Theory and Moral Education.” This updated chapter outlines the basic premises of social cognitive domain theory and reviews research that has demonstrated that concepts of morality (fairness, human welfare) are universal and form a conceptual system distinct from convention, religious prescription, and personal issues. The chapter presents recent work on developmental patterns within domains, and presents research on the applications of domain theory to classroom practices. The revised chapter provides a table with examples matching up development within each domain with illustrative connections to the regular academic curriculum. The chapter concludes with recent work at two universities employing social cognitive domain theory in the preparation of pre-service teachers to engage in moral education.

In Chapter 9 “Developing Ethical Expertise and Moral Personalities” Darcia Narvaez and Tonia Bock bring together several cognitive and neurobiological lines of research to make recommendations for moral character development. They suggest that the traditionalist and cognitive developmental approaches to moral character development can be unified in instruction for moral expertise development. The Integrative Ethical Education model spells out a five-step, empirically-derived approach for intentional character education that moves from caring relationships to self-authorship. Attention to the neurobiology of moral development occurs when classroom practices foster engagement and communal imagination over self-protective concerns.

Marilyn Watson (Chapter 10) focuses the lens of moral education on the role that classroom structure and affective relationships have for meeting the developmental needs of elementary school children. Watson employs attachment theory and self-determination theory (SDT) to generate an approach to classroom structure and behavioral management called “Developmental Discipline” that engages the child’s intrinsic motivations for autonomy, belongingness, and competence. Developmental discipline comprised a central element in the approach to moral and character education formulated by the Developmental Studies Center. The revised chapter includes a discussion of Watson’s ongoing work to infuse developmental discipline within teacher education.

Whereas considerable attention has been given to moral and character education at the elementary school level, far less attention has been paid to other age groups. Chapter 11 by Carolyn Hildebrandt and Betty Zan, “Constructivist Approaches to Moral Education in Early Childhood,” presents the theoretical assumptions and research on classroom practices of a developmentally-based approach to moral development in early childhood settings. Their work builds from extensive research and experience in the application of Piagetian theory to classrooms in collaboration with their late colleague Rheta DeVries.

The most radical theory driven effort at transforming school culture to promote moral development has been the “Just Community Schools” initiated by Lawrence Kohlberg and his colleagues. Chapter 12 by Fritz Oser, “Toward a Theory of the Just Community Approach: Effects of Collective Moral, Civic, and Social Education,” updates the chapter on the just community from the first edition by Clark Power and Ann Higgins D’Alessandro. Oser’s chapter reviews the history of the development of the just community approach, and captures the European experience with this form of moral education. He provides an additional theoretical perspective that extends Kohlberg’s assumptions and develops the notion that a key element in moral development and the educational success of the just community is the confrontation of young people’s experiences with moral misconduct.

A new direction for moral education is the integration of contemplative educational practices through what is termed “mindfulness.” In Chapter 13, “Contemplative Education: Cultivating Positive Mental Skills and Social-Emotional Dispositions through Mindfulness Training,” Robert Roeser and his colleagues describe the underlying Buddhist assumptions behind mindfulness, and the current educational theory and research that supports the movement toward integrating the use of meditative mindfulness techniques to heightening students’ emotional sensibilities and awareness of their own motivations and desires, and to strive toward a more compassionate approach to social interaction. Roeser and colleagues’ chapter spells out the directions for future research in this emerging field.

This section of the handbook ends with Chapter 14, “Research-Based Fundamentals of the Effective Promotion of Character Development in Schools,” by Marvin Berkowitz and Melinda Bier in which they present a narrative summary of what has been learned regarding effective educational practices from the decades of research on character education.

PART III: SCHOOLS-BASED BEST PRACTICES

In Part III the emphasis shifts from current theory-based work on moral and character education to a focus on approaches that are grounded in school-based practices. This is not to say that these school-based approaches are not also connected to theory and research. The section starts off with Chapter 15 by Peter Brunn, “Pedagogy for the Whole Child: Developmental Studies Center’s Approach to Academic, Moral and Character Education,” that presents the current work of the Developmental Studies Center that began as a theory driven and heavily researched program. This chapter presents arguably the most successful effort to date to apply what has been learned from developmental psychology to the classroom. The thrust of Brunn’s chapter, however, is on how its approach has evolved over time to accommodate to the realities of classrooms and schools as it functions to address both the academic as well as social and emotional needs of children.

Brunn’s discussion of the schools-based work of the Developmental Studies Center is followed in Chapter 16 by a review of the current status of schools-based efforts to address students’ social and emotional learning (SEL), and how attending to SEL can complement efforts to address moral education and character formation. Maurice Elias and his colleagues, Sarah Parker, Megan Cash, and Roger Weissberg are among the leaders of the movement that led the Obama administration to place an emphasis upon issues of students’ emotional safety and social emotional learning as core educational goals for American schools.

In Chapter 17, Matthew Davidson and Thomas Lickona, “Smart & Good Schools: A New Paradigm for High School Character Education,” address factors that they argue serve to integrate the combined goals of high schools to produce students who attain high academic success while also fostering moral character. In this revised chapter they make the ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Educational Psychology Handbook Series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Notes on Editors
• Notes on Contributors
• Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview
• Part I Defining the Field Historical, Philosophical, and Theoretical Foundations
• Part II Theory-Based Approaches to Moral and Character Education
• Part III Schools-Based Best Practices
• Part IV Moral Education in Relation to Civic Engagement, Citizenship, and Democracy Education
• Part V Moral and Character Education Beyond the Classroom
• Name Index
• Subject Index