Module 7: Moral Education in Holistic Education
“Certitude divides and diversity unifies…..We have to elevate religion above politics…..” H.R.H. Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal BBC Newsnight 9th Feb 2006
Module description:
In relation to a working definition of the process of holistic development this module looks at the nature of, and use of, the idea of ‘moral development’ by the teacher, or other practitioner, so as to encourage learning, professional development and/or personal growth.
What is needed for moral development to take place? What is needed for moral bankruptcy to develop?
“Perhaps the most frequently raised challenge to proposed moral education programs is “Whose values?”. Polls consistently reveal that the vast majority of Americans support (in abstraction) moral education in the public schools, but when a specific proposal is made in a specific community, it invariably raises concerns about the content of the intervention. Some mistake moral education for sex education. Others fear it will be a form of religious education, while still others fear it will not. Some fear moral education will be a form of totalitarian mind control. All of these concerns, and others, center around what will be taught; i.e., the content of the proposed moral education curriculum.
Three basic approaches have been identified in dealing with this issue (Kohlberg & Mayer, 1972). First, there is the Indoctrinative approach which presupposes a justified content (e.g., code of ethical behavior, list of values or character traits) and proposes to teach that content by a variety of methods. Traditional character education approaches tend to fall in this category (e.g., Wynne & Ryan, 1993). The second approach is the Romanticist approach. The individual is assumed to have an innate tendency to develop into a moral agent; the role of education is to provide the nurturant context in which this natural “flowering” can occur. Imposing a specific content is anathema to the Romanticist approach. An example would be the values clarification approach (Raths, Harmin, & Simon, 1966). The third approach is the Cognitive-structural approach. It focuses on the construction of moral reasoning capacities, which are understood to be a product of the interaction of one’s genetic, developmental, and biological endowments with one’s experience with the physical and social worlds. Content is largely ignored as the focus is on reasoning structures and decision-making processes. Proposed curricula do not endorse specific content; rather they provide the opportunity to apply one’s reasoning to a variety of contents. Here content is used as a catalyst for producing development. Kohlberg’s Just Community schools are examples of this approach (Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1989).” SEE http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/articles/berkowitzintegrating.html
Introductory reading/s to get started:
The Moral Situation in the Philosophy of John Dewey by Gordon L. Ziniewicz http://www.fred.net/tzaka/moral.html
http://www.infed.org/biblio/communitarianism.htm
A sense of the field can be obtained from Roger Stack’s ‘Map’ of Holistic Education see also his blog
