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An Evaluation of Kohlberg’s and Macintyre’s Approach to Moral
Education
Content outline
I. Introduction
Lawrence Kohlberg’s contribution to the issue of moral development
II. The approach to moral education from the socio philosophical
point of view of Alasdair Macintyre’s
III. Kohlberg’s and Macintyre’s approaches to a scenario about
virtuous behaviour and justice
IV. A critical analysis of Kohlberg’s approach
V. A critical analysis of Macintyre’s approach
VI. Conclusion
I. Introduction
Educators, philosophers, psychologists, religious leaders
and even politicians along with layman have discussed, argued,
debated and exhausted the issue of moral education. I am fully
aware of this dilemma therefore it my intention to investigate
mainly the approaches of Lawrence Kohlberg and Alasdair Macintyre,
to see how each of these philosophers would deal with a complex
scenario pertaining to moral education, that may be faced
by educators at some point. Macintyre in his interpretation
of Aristotle’s term phronesis which is concerned with “reasoning
from moral values to moral prescription” indicates that because
of moral social and cultural differences, “there can be no
value free or neutral resolution to moral dilemmas, controversies
and problems” (Car, 2003, P81). The communitarian interpretation
of Aristotle’s virtue ethics even went as far as indicating
that “there can be no cross-cultural conception of moral education”
therefore children of different cultures should be taught
in different schools according to their beliefs (Carr, 2003,
p 81) this is of course impossible if you live in a small
community where access to school is restricted to very few
choices, making it necessary to attempt to cater to a variety
of needs.
I am going to take the stance that it is impossible to be
in a position of authority and influence in a classroom setting,
and not transmit some values either directly or indirectly.
In modern societies moral education or a class about ethical
values is an automatic turn off for most young people. Many
times a pupil’s reaction to the value being taught is resistive
or negative because of the natural rebellious nature of teenagers,
and the potential inappropriateness of the lesson to them.
Ethical values need not to be taught as a separate class because
the values presented in class may often be perceived as being
detached from reality, thus reducing the effectiveness of
the lesson. It would be more constructive to use a classroom
situation that has occurred naturally, to encourage students
to think critically about their values, therefore enabling
them to approach greater moral enlightenment. In this light
it is necessary to alert teachers about the importance of
non intrusive moral stimulation to enable them to impart the
most constructive guidance that will enable students to search
within themselves to find answers to their moral dilemmas.
Teachers are inevitably involved moral in education on a
daily basis and many of them who are aware of it are very
apprehensive about this prospect. There are also some teachers,
who are unaware of their role n shaping the minds of young
people when they give instructions, “make evaluations of children’s
behaviour and direct children’s relations in the classroom”(Kohlberg,
1981, p6) . the propose this paper is to take a critical look
at what learned writers on this topic have come up with ,
and to evaluate in what manner the ideas can be related to
teachers to reduce unjustified indoctrination. It is thus
my aim to make it clear that teachers can no longer use excuses
to evade the great responsibility that they have in not only
imparting the content of the subject matter, but also in helping
students to become more critically aware of there own moral
values.
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