Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his…

This paper presents evidence collected from an evaluatory study of the Kickstart program conducted by Australian Football League (AFL) Cape York in far North Queensland. The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Kickstart program in meeting its overall objective of enhancing lifeskills of Indigenous Australians through…

Partnerships between schools, families, and communities provide a support net for each student and play a role in promoting academic success (Epstein, 1995; Shapiro, Ginsberg, & Brown, 2002) and moral development. This article is based on a qualitative study of a secondary school with numerous partnerships selected from a southern Ontario…

This study compared the moral development of solo juvenile male sex offenders (n = 20) and juvenile male non-offenders (n = 76), aged 13-19 years, from lower socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. The Moral Orientation Measure (MOM) was used to assess punishment- and victim-based moral orientation in sexual and non-sexual situations. Moral…

Ethical conduct should inspire a quality of behavior that exemplifies honor and dignity for oneself. In a school district, teachers, administrators, staff, and school board members should understand the importance of ethical conduct in the educational arena. An effective educational organization entails the need of individuals maintaining…

This article revisits Kohlberg's cognitive developmental claims that stages of moral judgment, facilitative processes of social perspective-taking, and moral values are commonly identifiable across cultures. Snarey [Snarey, J. (1985). "The cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of Kohlbergian research."…

Whether one calls it G*d-talk, religious discourse, or spiritual musings, conversations speaking to the divine, spirit, mystery, religion, and G*d are increasingly prevalent in educational studies. Whether it is the recurring discussions of church/state distinctions, exploration of the relationship between moral development and religion, or an…

Adolescents who live in urban settings regularly encounter a complex array of people and circumstances that require sophisticated decision-making skills. Using their personal standards, adolescents coordinate moral thoughts and emotions when deciding how to act. After defining what the author refers to as moral engagement, several empirical…

The author of this paper, an ethicist, states that he considers himself fortunate to be in a field undergoing a resurgence; however he also is aware of how academic efforts to promote moral development often lack a deep appreciation of the underlying character of ethics. He argues that, in order to further the moral maturation of today's students,…

Two related studies were conducted in order to investigate whether psychosocial and moral development appeared to have been disrupted and arrested in veterans diagnosed as having posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Study 1 was devoted to developing a measure of late adolescence, early adulthood, and adulthood stages of psychosocial…

Any democratic society must concern itself with the socialization of its citizens. This begins in childhood, and schools are critical to this process. The interrelations and roles of educating for character (character education, moral education) and educating for citizenship (citizenship education, civic education) are explored, largely in a North…

Children's level of moral intentionality was compared with mothers' self reports on anticipated power-assertive discipline in a case of child misdemeanor. Findings indicate that power-assertive discipline is associated with less advanced moral development in children. (GO)

Of the three aspects of moral development--the development of empathy, moral reasoning and related problem-solving strategies--we know least about empathy. Possible reasons for this are explored. (Editor)

Author defined "moral" and "moral education" with the purpose of clarifying our objectives and practices when attempting to teach value education or moral education. (RK)

This article claimed that the discourse of ordinary people concealed at least four significantly divergent conceptions of moral education, and showed how the implications for curriculum which flow from each of these differ seriously. (Editor/RK)