Can a Curriculum of Moral Education be Postmodern?

Abstract

Summary What does our analysis mean for moral education? Let's take the first of our four aims mentioned above, the development of moral judgement abilities. With regard to the subject matter, the method, the teacher as person, and the community, we might follow from a postmodern point of view: second, that there is not just one valid method to de-equilibrate children's moral cognitive schemata, but, again, that the chosen method is believed to be effective–knowing that it is just one option; third, that there is a multitude of positions within the same approach. For instance, the just-community approach might go along with different social, political and moral reasons, intentions, and meanings. Nevertheless, teachers can stick to ‘their model’, even if they know that their choice is also a pragmatic one. In concluding, I should probably give an answer to the question of the title of my presentation: Can a curriculum of moral education be postmodern? I think to have shown that it can and that it is a necessity if we think about postmodernism not as an attempt to pour out the baby of moral education with the metaphysical bath water of modern dreams. Moral education will exist as long as education does, and conceptions of moral education have to react reflectively to changes of and critiques of modern belief systems. A ring is still a ring, even if it is a just copy of something we do not believe in anymore.