‘I'll teach you!’ Primary School Teachers’ Attitudes to and Use of Moral Education in the Curriculum

Abstract

Abstract This paper is the culmination of having worked with training and in‐service primary teachers, the observation of primary teachers in practice, and a review of relevant literature in primary education and child development. When considering moral education a consistent finding has been that the child must be trained to be good and moral. This finding is in contradiction to the developmental psychological basis to many moral education programmes, which relies on the child's sociability and development of relationships with others to foster moral development. Therefore a small‐scale survey of teachers and training teachers was undertaken to verify teachers’ understanding and implementation of moral education. Content and comparative analyses of the survey responses showed the aforementioned training orientation. But a strong concern for others was also found. When attempting to implement classroom moral education teachers took an overwhelmingly intellectual approach to the task when a practical approach would have been closer to the developing needs of pupils. Results are discussed in relation to needs and planning of a moral curriculum.