Neutrality and Commitment in Teaching Moral and Social Issues in a Multicultural Society

Abstract

Much has been written about the value of procedural neutrality in teaching controversial social issues. Although the paper recognises the value of some of the objectives of procedural neutrality, it nevertheless questions the relevance of this procedure in teaching social issues relating to racial or sexual discrimination, which the paper sees as essentially moral issues. These moral issues are seen to be relevant and, therefore, universalisable to everyone. Consequently, a teacher who is committed to educate must also be committed to the fundamental values of justice, fairness and respect for others. The paper concludes by suggesting procedures whereby these values could be taught to pupils. it is a condition of the existence of any human community, that certain expectations of behaviour on the part of its members should be pretty regularly fulfilled: that some duties . . . should be performed, some obligations acknowledged, some rules observed . . . the sphere of morality . . . is the sphere of the observance of rules, such that the existence of some such set of rules is a condition of the existence of a society. (Strawson, 1961, p. 5)