Creating moral winds and nurturing moral growth in a P4C classroom community in Taiwan

Jessica Ching-Sze Wang

doi:10.46707/jps.v7i.107

Abstract

In this paper I provide a theoretical framework for conceptualising the use of moral education in P4C by drawing on Ann Sharp’s work. I use this framework to present my own pedagogical action research in an elementary school in Taiwan. I use both quantitative and qualitative data to document students’ moral growth. The results indicate that moral education takes place in a morally stimulating environment, namely, a thinking and caring community of inquiry, with a morally-infused approach to doing P4C in a Confucian society like Taiwan. In this study I employed a Confucian interpretative lens to develop relevant classroom rituals and strategies for creating moral winds in the classroom. The conception of moral education presented in this study provides a glimpse of what P4C classrooms may look like in a global context.

Highlights

The character of the exemplary person is like the wind, while that of the petty person is like the grass
I combine the findings and discussion sections together and report quantitative and qualitative findings side by side in order to allow for a narrative account later which captures the power of moral growth in P4C
My case study in Taiwan shows that moral education in a P4C community of inquiry arises not so much from the topics raised and discussed in class, as from a mode of interpersonal association and behavioral coordination in the classroom that allows teachers and students to experience a different way of being in the world and a new way of relating to each other in that world

Summary

Introduction

The character (de) of the exemplary person (junzi) is like the wind, while that of the petty person is like the grass. Moral education in P4C is action-prone or practice-oriented This cannot be achieved without converting traditional classrooms into thinking, caring and loving communities of inquiry. As Lipman recalls, When later in the sixties I began to think of possible ways of reconstructing education, the idea of a classroom community of inquiry was beginning to germinate in my mind. In an interview with David Kenney, Lipman acknowledged that Sharp was the major driving force in developing the pedagogy of a classroom community of inquiry (abbreviated as the COI). Her contributions in this regard are worth exploring. It involves a slow process for all to experience and appreciate a way of being in the world without putting oneself in the center of the world

Ensuring equalitarianism and developing loyalty

Participating in ritualised action

Findings and discussion

Conclusion