Education in Morality (Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of Education, 8)

284 Pages·1999·1.55 MB·English

by  J. Mark Halstead

EDUCATION IN MORALITY
Moral education is high on the agenda of most Western societies, but the
contemporary climate of moral confusion and sometimes panic is not necessarily
conducive to considered judgements about what teachers and schools should be
doing in this area, and about which forms of moral education deserve the support
of parents, citizens and governments.
This volume offers a collection of philosophical chapters that address various
aspects of moral education and seek to illuminate some of the central issues
arising in this area. The collection covers a broad range of fundamental questions
at the forefront of contemporary philosophical debate about moral education and
contains a range of contrasting points of view on many of the issues at stake.
Part I considers the nature of morality and moral education. In Part II a debate
is developed about citizenship and moral education in a liberal democracy, and
about the importance of wider social considerations. Part III examines the notion
of education in the virtues and offers a critique of the currently popular concept
of ‘character education’. Part IV focuses on pluralism and postmodernism, which
provide some of the most powerful challenges to familiar concepts of moral
education. Finally, Part V raises the question of moral motivation.
J.Mark Halstead is Reader in Moral Education at the University of Plymouth
and Director of the Centre for Research into Moral, Spiritual and Cultural
Understanding and Education (RIMSCUE Centre). A former school-teacher and
journalist, he has written several books on values in education.
Terence H.McLaughlin is University Lecturer in Education at the University
of Cambridge and Fellow of St Edmund’s College Cambridge, where he is
Director of Studies of Philosophy. He has written on many areas of the
philosophy of education, and is currently the Vice-Chair of the Philosophy of
Education Society of Great Britain.
ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN THE
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
1 EDUCATION AND WORK IN GREAT BRITAIN, GERMANY AND ITALY
Edited by A.Jobert, C.Marry, L.Tanguy and H.Rainbird
2 EDUCATION, AUTONOMY AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP
Philosophy in a changing world
Edited by David Bridges
3 THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN LEARNING
Christopher Winch
4 EDUCATION, KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH
Beyond the postmodern impasse
Edited by David Carr
5 VIRTUE ETHICS AND MORAL EDUCATION
Edited by David Carr and jan Steutel
6 DURKHEIM AND MODERN EDUCATION
Edited by Geoffrey Walford and W.S.F.Pickering
7 THE AIMS OF EDUCATION
Edited by Roger Marples
8 EDUCATION IN MORALITY
Edited by J.Mark Halstead and Terence H.McLaughlin
EDUCATION IN MORALITY
Edited by J.Mark Halstead
and Terence H.McLaughlin
London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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© 1999 selection and editorial matter,
J.Mark Halstead and Terence H.McLaughlin;
individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Education in morality/{edited by} J.Mark Halstead and
Terence H.McLaughlin.
p. cm. — (Routledge international studies in the
philosophy of education: 8)
Includes bibliographical references
1. Moral education. I. Halstead, J.Mark.
II. McLaughlin, Terence. III. Series
LC268.E357 1999
370.11′4–dc21 98–44183 CIP
ISBN 0-203-98118-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-41-5-15364-4 (Print Edition)
CONTENTS
Contributors vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
PART I The nature of morality and moral education 5
1 Morality as an educational institution 7
AMÉLIE OKSENBERG RORTY
2 Cross questions and crooked answers: contemporary 23
problems of moral education
DAVID CARR
PART II Rationality, society and the morally educated person 43
3 Moral education in a pluralist liberal democracy 45
BRIAN CRITTENDEN
4 Agency and contingency in moral development and 59
education
RUTH JONATHAN
5 Education for citizenship 77
WILL KYMLICKA
PART III Virtues, practices and the education of character 101
6 The demands of moral education: reasons, virtues, 103
practices
PAUL H.HIRST
7 How to seem virtuous without actually being so 117
ALASDAIR MACINTYRE
8 Education in character and virtue 131
TERENCE H.McLAUGHLINJ.MARK HALSTEAD
vi
PART IV Pluralism, postmodernism and moral education 163
9 Pluralism, moral imagination and moral education 165
JOHN KEKES
10 Postmodernism and the education of character 183
MICHAEL LUNTLEY
11 Against relativism 205
MARIANNE TALBOT
12 The arts, morality and postmodernism 217
DAVID BEST
PART V Moral motivation 239
13 ‘Behaving morally as a point of principle’: a proper aim of 241
moral education?
GRAHAM HAYDON
14 Weakness, wants and the will 257
ROGER STRAUGHAN
Index 267
CONTRIBUTORS
David Best is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Wales
at Swansea.
David Carr is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of
Edinburgh.
Brian Crittenden was Professor of Education at La Trobe University Victoria,
and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
J.Mark Halstead is Reader in Moral Education at the University of
Plymouth.
Graham Haydon is Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of
London Institute of Education.
Paul H.Hirst is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of
Cambridge.
Ruth Jonathan is Professor of Education at the University of Edinburgh.
John Kekes is Professor of Philosophy at University at Albany, State
University of New York.
Will Kymlicka is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa.
Michael Luntley is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of
Warwick.
Alasdair MacIntyre is Arts and Sciences Professor of Philosophy at Duke
University, Durham, North Carolina.
Terence H.McLaughlin is University Lecturer in Education at the University
of Cambridge.
Amélie O.Rorty is Emeritus Professor of Education at Harvard University.
Roger Straughan is Reader in Education at the University of Reading.
Marianne Talbot is College Lecturer in Philosophy at Brasenose College,
Oxford.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1 was originally published as ‘The Many Faces of Morality’ in Midwest
Studies in Philosophy, volume XX, edited by Peter A.French, Theodore E.
Uehling, Jr. and Howard K.Weltstein, © 1996 by the University of Notre Dame
Press. It is used by permission of the publisher. Chapter 4 is an abridged version
of an article entitled ‘Education and Moral Development: The Role of Reason
and Circumstance’, published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education, volume
29, edited by Richard Smith. It is used by permission of The Philosophy of
Education Society of Great Britain and Basil Blackwell. Chapter 7 was originally
published by the Centre for the Study of Cultural Values at the University of
Lancaster, and is reprinted by permission. The other chapters were written
especially for this volume.
INTRODUCTION
Moral education is high on the agenda of most Western societies, but the
contemporary climate of moral confusion and sometimes panic is not necessarily
conducive to considered judgements about what teachers and schools should be
doing in this area, and about which forms of moral education deserve the support
of parents, citizens and governments. There is no shortage of new initiatives and
strategies in many parts of the world, but sometimes these simply add to the
confusion.
This volume offers a collection of philosophical chapters that address various
aspects of moral education and seek to illuminate some of the central issues
arising in this area. Although the collection does not aspire to provide complete
coverage of all the major aspects of the domain of moral education, it covers a
broad range of fundamental questions at the forefront of contemporary
philosophical debate about moral education and contains a range of contrasting
points of view on many of the issues at stake.
The essays in Part I, ‘The nature of morality and moral education’, contain
some reflections on general matters relating to the subject of the collection as a
whole. In Chapter 1, Amélie O.Rorty develops some suggestive observations on
the complex and sometimes hidden ‘ecology’ of the terrain of morality. For her,
morality is regionally and functionally diverse, but is essentially oriented—in a
wide variety of different ways—to practice. Practical morality is, in her view, an
‘educational institution’ ‘designed to produce certain types of persons, with
specific virtues, mentalities, habits and skills directed to affect the world in a
certain way’. The role of moral theory in bringing morality to a ‘well-ordered
place’ must, she considers, be conducted in close relationship to politics,
education and the imperatives of practical decision. David Carr, in reviewing the
area of moral education both historically and philosophically in Chapter 2, draws
attention to the difficulties liberal theories of ethics generate for any programme
of moral education, and insists that any adequate basis for such a programme
requires a commitment to education in virtue derived from certain established
ideals of human growth and flourishing.
Part II, ‘Rationality, society and the morally educated person’, begins with
Chapter 3 in which Brian Crittenden outlines the principles that should govern
moral education in a pluralist liberal democracy, with particular reference to the