The Moral Stake in Education: Contested Premises and Practices

Through the encounters of two hypothetical teachers, Maria the progressive and Hardie the traditionalist, the authors explore foundational concepts of morality and examine how teaching is saturated with moral issues. Because both characters are presented sympathetically, the tension between their earnest viewpoints is maintained. The final section of the text explores the various and occasionally conflicting viewpoints on moral development and moral education. It then suggests how morality should best be taught assuming the outcome desired is an internally driven strong moral sense. A unique feature of the text is that each chapter is divided into "At School," where typical classroom situations are discussed, "At the University" where the beliefs and assumptions behind schools' moral assumptions are probed, and "At the Library" where classical and contemporary writings supporting the chapter's topics are presented.