Educating Competencies for Democracy

446 Pages·2013·5.005 MB·English

by  Ewa Nowak (editor), Dawn Schrader (editor), Boris Zizek (editor)

Educating Competencies for Democracy
Dia-Logos
Schriften zu Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften
Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences
Herausgegeben von/Edited by
Tadeusz Buksiński and Piotr W. Juchacz
Advisory Board
Karl-Otto Apel (Frankfurt am Main)
Manuel Jiménez-Redondo (Valencia)
Peter Kampits (Wien)
Theodore Kisiel (Illinois)
Hennadii Korzhov (Donetsk)
Marek Kwiek (Poznań)
George McLean (Washington)
Evangelos Moutsopoulos (Athènes)
Sergey Nizhnikov (Moscow)
Ewa Nowak (Poznań)
Bd./vol. 16
Ewa Nowak
Dawn E. Schrader
Boris Zizek
(eds.)
Educating
Competencies
for Democracy
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is
available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
This publication was financially supported
by the City of Konstanz and the
Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan´
and the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn.
ISSN 1619-005X
ISBN 978-3-631-62472-2
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2013
All rights reserved.
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Contents
Editorial Preface. Can Democracy Be Taught? ....................................................... VII
Horst Frank (Lord Mayor of Konstanz), Citizens of Konstanz as Beneficients
of the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion ............................................. 1
Part I
The Cognitive Competencies in Research
Kristin Prehn, Moral Judgment Competence. A Re-Evaluation of the Dual As-
pect Theory Based on Recent Neuroscientific Research ................................... 9
Marcia Schillinger, Verifying the Dual-Aspect Theory: A Cross-Cultural Study
on Learning Environment and Moral Judgment Competence ......................... 23
Zhang Jing & Yang Shaogang, The Research and Development of the Moral
Judgment Test in China ................................................................................... 47
Anna Laura Comunian, The Cross-Cultural Construct Validity of the Padua
Moral Judgment Scale ..................................................................................... 59
Patrícia Unger Raphael Bataglia & Marcia Schillinger, Moral Segmentation
in Studies with the Moral Judgment Test in Brazil ......................................... 71
Piotr Leśniewski, Ethics and Metaphysics. On Some Practical Aspects of
Erotetic Rationality ......................................................................................... 83
Klaus Helkama, Change in Moral Judgment in Medical School: The Role of
Hierarchy ......................................................................................................... 97
Anna Izabela Brzezińska, Tomasz Czub, Magdalena Czub, Radosław
Kaczan, Konrad Piotrowski, Małgorzata Rękosiewicz, Postponed or
Delayed Adulthood ? ........................................................................................ 103
Aswati Hamzah & Khadijah Binti-Zon, Identification and Characterization of
Malay Students’ Moral Reasoning Competencies ........................................... 127
Jutta H. Wester de Michelini, Discourse Ethics, Moral Argumentation, and
Education for Civic Responsibility: A Qualitative Approach to Moral
Judgment Test Applied to Young Political Scientists at a Public University
in Argentina .................................................................................................... 147
VI Contents
Part II
Educating Competencies
Matthias Scharlipp, Experiencing Freedom and Democracy at School: Konstanz
Method of Dilemma Discussion ....................................................................... 163
Nadja Groß, Application of the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion in
French Class and Its Impact on Pupil Well-Being ........................................... 173
Anna Malitowska, How Philosophical Dialog with Children Improves the Moral
Judgment and Discourse Competencies ........................................................... 185
Gerald Gilmore Taylor, Dilemmatic Logical Reasoning Competence in Ado-
lescent Moral Reasoning and Development: A Pilot Training Program ...... 203
Boris Zizek, Handling Probation-Seekers – With a New Image of Humanity
Towards a Positive Education ......................................................................... 219
Katherina Mouratidou, Promoting Students’ Moral Development through
Physical Education .......................................................................................... 233
Wolfgang G. Weber & Christine Unterrainer, Democratic Education Potentials
in Business Organizations ............................................................................... 249
Karolina M. Cern, Is a Construction of Life-Worlds Possible? ............................. 265
Anne Ratzki, Can a School System Support or Hinder Education for Democ-
racy? A Comparison Between the German and Swedish School System ......... 279
Kay Hemmerling, Matthias Scharlipp, The Keys of Cognition: Insights into
Moral and Democratic Education in Prison .................................................... 287
Part III
Developing and Living Democracy
Antanas Mockus, Morality Is Not Everything: Bogotà also Listened to the
Voices of Law and Culture .............................................................................. 305
Thomas Wren, Civic Virtue Is Not Enough ......................................................... 331
Bill Puka, Democratizing Democracy Education ................................................... 349
Neil Ferguson, The Universalization of Western Liberal Democracy and the End
of Morality ....................................................................................................... 367
Iuliana Lupu, Moral Competence and Dogmatic Religiosity ................................ 379
Herbert Rätz, What Is the Morality of the Esoteric? Or: What Can You Still
Belive in? .......................................................................................................... 391
Ewa Nowak, Democracy Begins in the Mind. Developing Democratic Personality 399
Contributors .......................................................................................................... 417
Editorial Preface
Can Democracy Be Taught?

Developing mental skills for participation in democracy has a long
tradition dating back to the works of ancient Greeks. In both Plato’s
Meno as well as in Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, a set of cognitive
skills need to be practiced and strengthened if an individual is to be
a successful and virtuous citizen in the politeia as well as in a specific
profession. Today, democratic pluralism and cultural diversity re-
quire moral discoursive efforts from every person, because by defini-
tion, no one should be excluded from democratic processes and legit-
imate participation in self-governance. To reach this democratic ideal
of full and equal participation, it is imperative to foster moral and
democratic skills in every individual through effective education.
The focus of this book is on the development of moral judgment
competence, discourse, and democratic behavior of the modern sub-
ject confronted with diverse and demanding social, institutional,
and political contexts. Specifically, the book builds upon the work of
Georg Lind, a contemporary German developmental psychologist,
who joins the history of philosophers and psychologists who assert
that education is the single most powerful factor in promoting moral-
democratic behavior and competencies. Drawing from Lawrence
Kohlberg’s Just Community Approach (JCA) to moral education in
USA and Europe in the 1970–80’s, Lind developed what is known as
the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD); a method of
discourse and reasoning that is applied to various types of moral di-
lemmas, encouraging the moral reasoners to reflect upon and discuss
cognitive and affective dimensions of moral problems. The Konstanz
method can be applied to various educational contexts, and does not
VIII Editorial Preface
require the development of a Just Community, but may indeed lead
to one. Lind notes that various methods and approaches have been
tried in the history of moral education, but overall, educating for de-
mocracy involves teaching skills that contribute to understanding and
practicing democratic ideals, such as fairness, due process, and re-
spect for the dignity, rights, and autonomy of others. He developed
his methodology with the end in mind, stating, “The worth of educa-
tional methods are not the methods themselves, but their effective-
ness” (Lind, 2010).
Lind’s fundamental view is that „the key democratic competence
is discourse competence” (Lind, 2009). He states that democracy is a
moral institution that has to essentially include the competence of
confronting other people and other opinions, and such a confronta-
tion must be oriented toward moral principles; “this is what the com-
petence of solving problems and social conflicts in a rational way de-
mands” (Lind, 2009). The KMDD, together with Kohlberg’s Just
Community Approach (JCA), and John Gibbs’ EQUIP--a prevention
program for adolescents, are current predominant socio-moral educa-
tion interventions widely in use that focus specifically on the devel-
opment of cognitive-moral competence, and within that, require dis-
course competencies. Lind’s approach differs from the American
work in that “it explicitly addresses the sociopolitical dimensions
of moral judgment and functioning” (Kohlberg, 1981, p. xv). Other
American approaches to moral education focus on aspects of morality
other than social-cognitive development, such as character education
(Laming, 1993) and caring education (Noddings, 2003). Yet despite
the inherent epistemic differences between all interventions, the areas
such as virtue, character, and care are arguably included in the socio-
moral developmental programs, though from different philosophical
and educational perspectives than the others.
The Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion presents learners
with educative dilemmas (real-life experiences or real problems of ficti-
tious persons) in order to evoke cognitive skills to reason about and
resolve demanding social-moral conflicts in the real world. Four prin-
ciples are crucial for the Konstanz method. The first relates to Dew-
ey’s “learning by doing,” to Kohlberg’s educational principle of moral
education through democratic self-governance, and to Habermas’ ideal
Editorial Preface IX
speech situation, where the strongest force at work is the force of bet-
ter argument (Habermas, 1990, pp. 88–89). Specifically, the first prin-
ciple is that a true democratic experience must be created where eve-
ryone is a fully included, dialogical subject. That is, the autonomous
participants enjoy mutual respect and feel free to express and discuss
all arguments. They share two simple discourse rules -- the so-called
“Ping-Pong“ Rule of true dialogue, and mutual-respect rule where
each person’s voice is equally valued.
Next, to facilitate students’ experience of an ideal democratic dis-
course situation, the KMDD-teacher must create a supportive learning
environment. To be successful in that endeavor, the following are
Lind’s three psychological principles of didactics:
The constructivist principle: A supportive learning environment must
be created through alternating phases of task. That is, moral dilem-
mas should challenge the cognitive structures and affect their growth,
with opposing reasons brought in by discussants. Additionally, there
must be phases of support through eye contact, affirmation, time for
reflection, and other modes of support. This teaching method requires
alternating phases of individual and collective reflection. Following
their own feelings, participants, step by step, construct moral dilem-
mas on their own level of consciousness. Then they confront all per-
ceived dilemmas with others during a collective reflection process,
which calls forth a mutual co-construction of their moral thoughts
and experiences. Participants articulate their moral emotions openly,
deal with emotions and counter-arguments of their interlocutors, and
present their own rationales under open questioning.
The affect-regulation principle: The teacher undertakes the respon-
sibility for affective regulation in participants. Following Lind’s pre-
cisely constructed discussion program, the teacher, through his or her
own behavior, brings participants to the optimal level of emotional
engagement to facilitate the learning processes within a 90 minute
session.
The principle of self-evaluation: Teachers reflect upon their own
participation and didactic methods, and learn to increase their effec-
tiveness by using self-evaluation instruments created by Lind for this
purpose.