Moral Discoveries and Learning in Preschool

Abstract

Morality is part of children’s lives from the time of their first relationships. Children have access to the cultural values and belief system as soon as they start to communicate and can make inferences about their social interaction. This makes preschool an influential meeting place for children’s moral development. In preschool, children experience and express moral values, and early childhood moral education is a matter of helping children show consideration for the self and for others. In this chapter, issues of importance for children’s moral learning in preschool will be discussed. The relational character of morality, interdependence and the concrete encounters between children and teachers constitute an important basis of insights into moral values. Teachers’ didactics, the behaviour of teachers and their construal of the situation must be included in the moral construction that children are attempting. This raises questions such as: What aspects are essential in children’s moral discoveries and how can teachers encourage children’s moral learning?