This article is a response to a qualitative study that examined how the indigenous African notion of "ubuntu" informs how some school teachers in a Black township in South Africa conceptualize Western-oriented narratives of democracy. While the study acknowledges important differences in how ubuntu is understood and defined, the author…

Erickson and Thompson articulate and defend reasonableness as an important civic educational aim for early childhood education. In this response, I argue that further clarity regarding the nature and scope of "reasonableness" as an educational concept or idea is needed. Is such a concept fundamentally political, or does it capture a…

Is not America the West's very West, from the East Coast across the continent, "Western" even in its latest, pervasive piety--diversity? For diversity-preachment, in spite of all its excesses, is a recognition that this continent hosts--except for a tiny remnant of "Native" Americans--an immigrant population, who themselves, or through their…

In this essay Charlene Tan offers a philosophical analysis of the Singapore state's vision of shared citizenship by examining it from a Confucian perspective. The state's vision, known formally as "Our Shared Values," consists of communitarian values that reflect the official ideology of multiculturalism. This initiative included a White…

The transmission of moral values has been one of public education's oldest endeavors and is currently one of its newest controversies. Today's complex arguments for and against ethical instruction in schools can be divided into three categories of issues: philosophical, political, and pedagogical. Secondary school leaders are in a key position to…

Introduces the five essays appearing in Studies in Philosophy and Education (May 2000) that discuss the role of respect in creating democratic citizens and moral persons. These essays are centered on the thematic problem: how are the values of democracy, education, and the moral life linked to each other and how can we better understand what these…

Addresses the problems of how moral character is developed and what moral character consists of. Emphasizes the development of democratic, ethical dispositions and focuses on two features of an educational environment that are especially important: respect for students as persons and the democratic organization of the groups in which the young…

Examines the concept of school as a "just community" being developed by Scharf, Kohlberg, and others, noting lack of consensus as to whether democratic education should be an end in itself or a means to moral development. Asserts that its viability as an organization model promoting substantive learning needs verification. (SJL)

Ethical instruction is a difficult task in any society, but doubly so in the U.S., because our culture stresses individual development over commitment to the group. Attention to school bonding, special ethics instruction, California's Community of Caring project, and community service opportunities are powerful strategies to aid moral development.…

Answering Richard Paul's critique, the author restates his preference for open dialog in the school about beliefs and issues, rather than excessive concern with techniques of critical thinking. Children learn worthwhile things without being directly taught, while an unintended consequence of teaching critical thinking may be a weakening of…

The paper, presented in four sections, draws a distinction between citizenship education and values education. Section I defines the six major goals of citizenship education: the development of participatory skills and of intellectual skills; growth in knowledge of facts, concepts, and generalizations; personal development; development of dramatic…

In this article, John F. Covaleskie considers a threefold question: (1) what is the nature of the sort of liberty that enables one to live as a free person, but also bound by the requirements of democratic citizenship; (2) what is the nature of the virtues that make this sort of person possible; and (3) what is the nature of the educational…

Colleges and universities can communicate expectations for students' moral, ethical, and character development through both the environment it creates and the formal curriculum, particularly through stated goals. A model of moral development provides insights into the processes needed to foster moral behavior, and the experiences of other…

Describes the present impossibility of receiving a liberal education in the United States, except by chance. Calls upon Catholic institutions of higher education to begin rectifying this problem. Cites the work of Allan Bloom, Richard Neuhaus, Aristotle, and Thomas Jefferson. (CH)

Democratic educators should take Arendt's conservatism seriously. Arendt's conception of authority shares fundamental assumptions with mainstream conservative views, although her political philosophy is heavily influenced by existentialism. This paper argues that Arendt's view of authority in education constitutes an alternative to other…