Malaguzzi, Aristotle and Dewey on the task of early-years moral education

Abstract

Paying homage to one of Dr. Guðrún Alda Harðardóttir’s academic gurus, Loris Malaguzzi, this chapter compares and contrasts the views of Malaguzzi on early-years moral education with those of two of his own academic influencers, Aristotle and John Dewey. Regarding education at the preschool level, all three thinkers turn out to have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to this particular topic and developmental level. It is suggested that the key to drawing serviceable lessons from those disparate authors may lie in aspiring to some sort of synthesis of their views, which retains the strengths but ameliorates the weaknesses. More precisely, Malaguzzi is shown to be strong on two components that Aristotle and Dewey are weak on, respectively: moral-education methodology and moral motivation.